> 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/campaigntextbookOOdemorich 


THE 


Campaign  Test  Book, 


WHY  THE  PEOPLE  WANT  A  CHAME. 


nmi 


iijj 


Its  Sins  of  Commission  and  Omission. 


A    SUMMARY    OF    LEADING    EVENTS    IN    OUR     HISTORY    UNDER 
REPUBLICAN     ADMINISTRATION. 


ISSUED  BY  THE 


NATIONAL   DEMOCRATIC   COMMITTEE. 


I880. 


'^Cm^.  ^  .^  .    c_     ipa-('\y.  Na^^onal    corr«m\\Xc€.  ^ 


THE 


Campaign  Text  Book, 


WHY  THE  PEOPLE  WANT  A  CHANGE. 


The  Republican  Party  Reyiewed: 


ITS  SINS  OF  COMMISSION  AND  OMISSION. 


A   SUMMARY    OF    LEADING   EVENTS   IN    OUR   HISTORY  UNDER 
REPUBLICAN  ADMINISTRATION. 


COPYRIGHTED^  188p. 


ISSUED   BY  THE 

NATIONAL    DEMOCRATIC   COMMITTEE. 


NEW   YORK; 

1880. 


v'^ 


's'^'^.> 


€ 


PRESS  OF 

JOHN    POLHEMUS, 

Ko.     102     NASSAU    STREET, 

NEW  YORK. 


THE  DEMOCRATIC  PLATFORM. 

Adopted  by  the  National  Democratic  Convention  held  at 
Cincinnati,  June  1880. 


The  Democrats  of  the  United  States,  in  Convention  assembled,  declare 

1.  We  pledge  ourselves  anew  to  the  constitutional  doctrines  and  traditions  of 
the  Democratic  party  as  illustrated  by  the  teachings  and  example  of  a  long  line 
of  Democratic  statesmen  and  patriots,  and  embodied  in  the  platform  of  the  last 
National  Convention  of  the  party. 

2.  Opposition  to  centralization  and  to  that  dangerous  spirit  of  encroachment 
which  tends  to  consolidate  the  powers  of  all  the  departments  in  one,  and  thus  to 
create  whatever  be  the  form  of  government,  a  real  despotism.  No  sumptuary 
laws  ;  separation  of  Church  and  State  for  the  good  of  each  ;  common  schools 
fostered  and  protected. 

3.  Home  Rule  ;  honest  money,  consisting  of  gold  and  silver,  and  paper  con- 
vertible into  coin  on  demand  ;  the  strict  maintenance  of  the  public  faith,  State 
and  National,  and  a  tariff  for  revenue  only. 

4.  The  subordination  of  the  military  to  the  civil  power,  and  a  genuine  and 
thorough  reform  of  the  Civil  Service. 

5.  The  right  to  a  free  ballot  is  a  right  preservative  of  all  rights,  and  must  and 
shall  be  maintained  in  every  part  of  the  United  States. 

6.  The  existing  Administration  is  the  representative  of  conspiracy  only,  and  its 
claim  of  right  to  surround  the  ballpt  boxes  with  troops  and  Deputy  Marshals, 
to  intimidate  and  obstruct  the  election,  and  the  unprecedented  use  of  the  veto  to 
maintain  its  corrupt  and  despotic  powers,  insult  the  people  and  imperil  their 
institutions. 

7.  We  execrate  the  course  of  this  Administration  m  making  places  in  the  Civil 
Service  a  reward  for  political  crime,  and  demand  a  reform  by  statute  which  shall 
make  it  forever  impossible  for  a  defeated  candidate  to  bribe  his  way  to  the  seat 
of  a  usurper  by  billeting  villains  upon  the  people. 

8.  The  great  fraud  of  1876-77,  by  which,  upon  a  false  count  of  the  Electoral 
votes  of  two  States,  the  candidate  defeated  at  the  polls  was  declared  to  be  Presi- 
dent, and  for  the  first  time  in  American  history  the  will  of  the  people  was  set 
aside  under  a  threat  of  military  violence,  struck  a  deadly  blow  at  our  system  of 
representative  government.  The  Democratic  party,  to  preserve  the  country  from 
the  horrors  of  a  civil  war,  submitted  for  the  time  in  firm  and  patriotic  faith  that 
the  people  would  punish  this  crime  in  1880.  This  issue  precedes  and  dwarfs 
every  other.  It  imposes  a  more  sacred  duty  upon  the  people  of  the  Union  than 
ever  addressed  the  consciences  of  a  nation  of  freemen. 


250540 


4  GENERAL    HANCOCfc's   LETTER    OF    ACCEPTANCE, 

9.  The  resolution  of  Samuel  J,  Tilden  not  again  to  be  a  candidate  for  the 
exalted  place  to  which  he  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  his  countrymen,  and  from 
which  he  was  excluded  by  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party,  is  received  by  the 
Democrats  of  the  United  States  with  deep  sensibility,  and  they  declare  their  con- 
fidence m  his  wisdom,  patriotism  and  integrity  unshaken  by  the  assaults  of  the 
common  enemy ;  and  they  further  assure  him  that  he  is  followed  into  the  retire- 
ment he  has  chosen  for  himself  by  the  sympathy  and  respect  of  his  fellow  citizens, 
who  regard  him  as  one  who,  by  elevating  the  standard  of  public  morality  and 
adorning  and  purifying  the  public  service,  merits  the  lasting  gratitude  of  his 
country  and  his  party. 

10.  Free  ships  and  a  living  chance  for  American  commerce  on  the  seas,  and  on 
the  land  no  discrimination  m  favor  of  transportation  lines,  corporations,  or 
monopolies. 

11.  Amendment  of  the  Burlingame  treaty;  no  more  Chinese  immigration, 
except  for  travel,  education,  and  foreign  commerce,  and  that  it  even  carefully 
guarded. 

13.  Public  money  and  public  credit  for  public  purposes  solely,  and  public  land 
for  actual  settlers. 

13.  The  Democratic  party  is  the  friend  of  labor  and  the  laboring  man,  and 
pledges  itself  to  protect  him  alike  against  the  cormorants  and  the  Commune. 

14.  We  congratulate  the  country  upon  the  honesty  and  thrift  of  a  Democratic 
Congress  which  has  reduced  the  public  expenditures  $40,000,000  a  year;  upon 
the  continuation  of  prosperity  at  home,  and  the  national  honor  abroad,  and, 
above  all,  upon  the  promise  of  such  a  change  in  the  administration  of  the  Gov- 
ernment as  shall  insure  us  genuine  and  lasting  reform  in  every  department  of  the 
public  service. 


GEN.  HANCOCK'S  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 


General  Hancock  has  written  the  following  letter  accepting  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  : 

Governor's  Island,  ) 

New  York  City,  July  39, 1880.      f 

Gentlemen :  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of 
July  13,  1880,  apprising  me  formally  of  my  nomination  to  the  office  of  President 
of  the  United  States  by  the  National  Democratic  Convention  lately  assembled  in 
Cincinnati.  I  accept  the  nomination  with  grateful  appreciation  of  the  confidence 
reposed  in  me.  The  principles  enunciated  by  the  convention  are  those  I  have 
cherished  in  the  past  and  shall  endeavor  to  maintain  in  the  future. 

The  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  embodying  the  results  of  the  war  for  the  Union,  are  inviolable. 
If  called  to  the  Presidency  I  should  deem  it  my  duty  to  resist  with  all  my  power 
any  attempt  to  impair  or  evade  the  full  force  and  effect  of  the  Constitution,  which 
in  every  article,  section  and  amendment  is  the  supreme  law  of  the  land.  The 
Constitution  forms  the  basis  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States.     The  pow- 


GEN.    HANCOCK'S    LETTER    OF    ACCEPTANCE.  5 

ers  granted  by  it  to  the  legislative,  executive  and  judicial  departments  define  and 
limit  the  authority  of  the  General  Government ;  powers  not  delegated  to  the 
United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,  belong  to 
the  States  respectively  or  to  the  people.  The  General  and  State  governments, 
each  acting  in  its  own  sphere  without  trenching  upon  the  lawful  jurisdiction  of 
the  other,  constitute  the  Union.  This  Union,  comprising  a  General  Government 
with  general  powers,  and  State  governments  with  State  powers  for  purposes  local 
to  the  States,  is  a  polity  the  foundations  of  which  were  laid  in  the  profoundest 
wisdom. 

This  is  the  Union  our  fathers  made,  and  which  has  been  so  respected  abroad 
and  so  beneficent  at  home.  Tried  by  blood  and  fire,  it  stands  to-day  a  model 
form  of  free  popular  government,  a  political  system  which,  rightly  administered, 
has  been  and  will  continue  to  be  the  admiration  of  the  world.  May  we  not  say 
nearly  in  the  words  of  "Washington  :  The  unity  of  government  which  constitutes 
Tis  one  people  is  justly  dear  to  us  ;  it  is  the  main  pillar  in  the  edifice  of  our  real 
independence,  the  support  of  our  peace,  safety  and  prosperity,  and  of  that  liberty 
we  so  highly  prize  and  intend  at  every  hazard  to  preserve  ? 

But  no  form  of  government  however  carefully  devised,  no  principles  how- 
ever sound,  will  protect  the  rights  of  the  people  unless  administration  is  faithful 
and  efficient.  It  is  a  vital  principle  in  our  system  that  neither  fraud  nor  force 
must  be  allowed  to  subvert  the  rights  of  the  people.  When  fraud,  violence 
or  incompetence  controls,  the  noblest  constitutions  and  wisest  laws  are  useless. 
The  bayonet  is  not  a  fit  instrument  for  collecting  the  votes  of  freemen.  It  is 
only  by  a  full  vote,  free  ballot  and  fair  count  that  the  people  can  rule  in  fact  as 
required  by  the  theory  of  our  Government.  Take  this  foundation  away  and  the 
whole  structure  falls.  Public  office  is  a  trust,  not  a  bounty  bestowed  upon  the 
holder;  no  incompetent  or  dishonest  persons  should  ever  be  intrusted  with  it,  or 
if  appointed  they  should  be  promptly  ejected.  The  basis  of  a  substantial,  practi- 
cal, civil  service  reform  must  first  be  established  by  the  people  in  filling  the 
elective  oflSces;  if  they  fix  a  high  standard  of  qualifications  for  office  and  sternly 
reject  the  corrupt  and  incompetent,  the  result  will  be  decisive  in  governing  the 
action  of  the  servants  whom  they  intrust  with  appointing  power. 

The  war  for  the  Union  was  successfully  closed  more  than  fifteen  years  ago. 
All  classes  of  our  people  must  share  alike  in  the  blessings  of  the  Union,  and  are 
equally  concerned  in  its  perpetuity  and  in  the  proper  administration  of  public 
affairs.  We  are  in  a  state  of  profound  peace.  Henceforth  let  it  be  our  purpose 
to  cultivate  sentiments  of  friendship  and  not  of  animosity  among  our  fellow- 
citizens.  Our  material  interests,  varied  and  progressive,  demand  our  constant 
and  united  efforts.  A  sedulous  and  scrupulous  care  of  the  public  credit,  to- 
gether with  a  wise  and  economical  management  of  our  governmental  expendi- 
tures, should  be  maintained,  in  order  that  labor  may  be  lightly  burdened  and 
that  all  persons  may  be  protected  in  their  rights  to  the  fruits  of  their  own 
industry.  The  time  has  come  to  enjoy  the  substantial  benefits  of  reconciliation. 
As  one  people  we  have  common  interests.  Let  us  encourage  the  harmony  and 
generous  rivalry  among  our  own  industries  which  will  revive  our  languishing 
merchant  marine,  extend  our  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  assist  our  mer- 
chants, manufacturers  and  producers  to  develop  our  vast  natural  resources  and 
increase  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  our  people. 

If  elected  I  shall,  with  the  divine  favor,  labor  with  what  ability  I  possess  to 
discharge  my  duties  with  fidelity  according  to  my  convictions,  and  shall  take 
care  to  protect  and  defend  the  Union  and  to  see  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  and 


6  HON.    WK.    H.    ENGLISH'S   LETTER   OF   ACCEPTANCE. 

equally  executed  in  all  parts  of  the  country  alike.  I  will  assume  the  responsi- 
bility, fully  sensible  of  the  fact  that  to  administer  rightly  the  functions  of  govern- 
ment is  to  discharge  the  most  sacred  duty  that  can  devolve  upon  an  American 

citizen. 

I  am  very  respectfully  yours, 

WINFIELD  S.  HANCOCK. 

To  the    Honorable    John  W.  Stevenson,  President    of    the   Convention,  the 

Honorable  John  P.  Stockton,  Chairman,  and  others  of  the  Committee  of  the 

National  Democratic  Convention. 


HON.  WM.  H.  ENGHSffS  LETTER  OF  ACCEPTANCE. 


Indianapolis,  Ind.,  July  30,  1880. 
Gentlemen :  I  have  now  the  honor  to  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  13th  inst. , 
informing  me  that  I  was  unanimously  nominated  for  the  office  of  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States  by  the  late  Democratic  National  Convention  which  assembled 
at  Cincinnati.  As  foreshadowed  in  the  verbal  remarks  made  by  me  at  the  time 
of  the  delivery  of  your  letter,  I  have  now  to  say  that  I  accept  the  high  trust  with 
a  realizing  sense  of  its  responsibility,  and  am  profoundly  grateful  for  the  honor 
conferred.  I  accept  the  nomination  upon  the  platform  of  principles  adopted  by 
the  Convention,  which  I  cordially  approve,  and  I  accept  it  as  much  because  of 
my  faith  in  the  wisdom  and  patriotism  of  the  great  statesman  and  soldier  nomi- 
nated on  the  same  ticket  for  President  of  the  United  States.  His  eminent  services 
to  his  country  ;  his  fidelity  to  the  Constitution,  the  Union  and  the  laws  ;  his  clear 
perception  of  the  correct  principles  of  government  as  taught  by  Jefiferson  ;  his 
scrupulous  care  to  keep  the  military  in  strict  subordination  to  the  civil  author- 
ities, his  high  regard  for  civil  liberty,  personal  rights  and  rights  of  property  ;  his 
acknowledged  ability  in  civil  as  well  as  military  affairs,  and  his  pure  and  blame- 
less life — all  point  to  him  as  a  man  worthy  of  the  confidence  of  the  people.  Not 
only  a  brave  soldier,  a  great  commander,  a  wise  statesman  and  a  pure  patriot,  but 
a  prudent,  painstaking,  practical  man  of  unquestioned  honesty  ;  trusted  often 
with  important  public  duties,  faithful  to  every  trust,  and  in  the  full  meridian  of 
ripe  and  vigorous  manhood,  he  is,  in  my  judgment,  eminently  fitted  for  the  high- 
est office  on  earth — the  Presidency  of  the  United  States.  Not  only  is  he  the  right 
man  for  the  place,  but  the  time  has  come  when  the  best  interests  of  the  country 
require  that  the  party  which  has  monopolized  the  Executive  Department  of  the 
General  Government  for  the  last  twenty  years  should  be  retired.  The  continu- 
ance of  that  party  in  power  four  years  longer  would  not  be  beneficial  to  the  pub- 
lic or  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  our  republican  institutions.  Laws  of  entail 
have  not  been  favored  in  our  system  of  government.  The  perpetuation  of  prop- 
erty or  place  in  one  family  or  set  of  men  has  never  been  encouraged  in  this  coun- 
try, and  the  great  and  good  men  who  formed  our  Republican  government  and  its 
traditions  wisely  limited  the  tenure  of  office,  and  in  many  ways  showed  their  dis- 
approval of  long  leases  of  power.    Twenty  years  of  continuous  power  is  long 


HON.    WM.    H. 

enough,  and  has  already  led  to  irregularities  and  corruption  which  are  not  likely 
to  be  properly  exposed  under  the  same  party  that  perpetuated  them  :  besides,  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  four  last  years  of  power  held  by  that  party  were 
procured  by  disreputable  means  and  held  in  defiance  of  the  wishes  of  a  majority 
of  the  people.  It  was  a  grievous  wrong  to  every  voter  and  to  our  system  of  self- 
government  which  should  never  be  forgotten  nor  forgiven.  Many  of  the  men  now 
in  office  were  put  there  because  of  corrupt  partisan  services  in  thus  defeating  the 
fairly  and  legally  expressed  will  of  the  majority,  and  the  hypocrisy  of  the  profes- 
sions of  that  party  in  favor  of  civil  service  reform  was  shown  by  placing  such 
men  in  office  and  turning  the  whole  brood  of  Federal  office-holders  loose  to  influ- 
ence the  elections.  The  money  of  the  people,  taken  out  of  the  public  treasury  by 
these  men  for  services  often  poorly  performed,  or  not  performed  at  all,  is  being 
used  in  vast  sums,  with  the  knowledge  and  presumed  sanction  of  the  Administra- 
tion, to  control  the  elections,  and  even  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  are  strolling 
about  the  country  making  partisan  speeches,  instead  of  being  in  their  departments 
at  Washington  discharging  the  public  duties  for  which  they  are  paid  by  the 
people.  But  with  all  their  cleverness  and  ability  a  discriminating  public  will  no 
doubt  read  between  the  lines  of  their  speeches  that  their  paramount  hope  and 
aim  is  to  keep  themselves  or  their  satellites  four  years  longer  in  office.  Perpe- 
tuating the  power  of  chronic  Federal  office-holders  four  years  longer  will  not 
benefit  the  millions  of  men  and  women  who  hold  no  office;  but  earning  their  daily 
bread  by  honest  industry,  is  what  the  same  discerning  public  will  no  doubt  fully 
understand,  as  they  will  also  that  it  is  because  of  their  own  industry  and  economy 
and  God's  bountiful  harvests  that  the  country  is  comparatively  prosperous,  and 
not  because  of  anything  done  by  these  Federal  office-holders.  The  country  is 
comparatively  prosperous,  not  because  of  them  but  in  spite  of  them.  This 
contest  is  in  fact  between  the  people  endeavoring  to  regain  the  political  power 
which  rightfully  belongs  to  them,  and  to  restore  the  pure,  simple,  economical, 
constitutional  government  of  our  fathers  on  the  one  side,  and  a  hundred  thousand 
Federal  office-holders  and  their  backers,  pampered  with  place  and  power,  and 
determined  to  retain  them  at  all  hazards,  on  the  other.  Hence  the  constant 
assumption  of  new  and  dangerous  powers  by  the  general  government  under  the 
rule  of  the  Republican  party,  the  effort  to  build  up  what  they  call  a  strong 
government,  the  interference  with  home  rule  and  with  the  administration  of 
justice  in  the  courts  of  the  several  states,  the  interference  with  the  elections 
through  the  medium  of  paid  partisan  federal  office-holders  interested  in  keeping 
their  party  in  power,  and  caring  more  for  that  than  fairness  in  the  elections.  In  ' 
fact,  the  constant  encroachments  which  have  been  made  by  that  party  upon  tlie 
clearly  reserved  rights  of  the  people  and  the  states  will,  if  not  checked,  subvert 
the  liberties  of  the  people  and  the  government  of  limited  powers  created  by  the 
fathers,  and  end  in  a  great  consolidated  central  government — strong,  indeed,  for 
evil — and  the  overthrow  of  republican  institutions.  The  wise  men  who  formed 
our  Constitution  knew  the  evils  of  a  strong  government  and  the  long  continuance 
of  political  power  in  the  same  hands.  They  knew  there  was  a  tendency  in  this 
direction  in  all  governments  and  consequent  danger  to  republican  institutions 
from  that  cause,  and  took  pains  to  guard  against  it.  The  machinery  of  a  strong 
centralized  general  government  can  be  used  to  perpetuate  the  same  set  of  men  in 
power  from  term  to  term  uiitil  it  ceases  to  be  a  republic,  or  is  such  only  in  name, 
and  the  tendency  of  the.party  now  in  power  in  that  direction,  as  shown  in  various 
ways,  besides  the  willingness  recently  manifested  by  a  large  number  of  that  party 
to  elect  a  President  an  unlimited  number  of  terms,  is  quite  apparent,  and  must 


8  HON.    WM.    H.    ENGLISH'S    LETTER    OF    ACCEPTANCE. 

satisfy  thinking  people  that  the  time  has  come  when  it  will  be  safest  and  best  for 
that  party  to  be  retired.  But  in  resisting  the  encroachments  of  the  General 
Government  upon  the  reserved  rights  of  the  people  and  the  states,  I  wish  to  be 
distincily  understood  as  favoring  the  proper  exercise  by  the  General  Government 
of  the  powers  rightfully  belonging  to  it  under  the  Constitution.  Encroachments 
upon  the  Constitutional  rights  of  the  General  Government  or  interference  with 
the  proper  exercise  of  its  powers  must  be  carefully  avoided.  The  union  of  the 
States  under  the  Constitution  must  be  maintained,  and  it  is  well  known  that  this 
has  always  been  the  position  of  both  the  candidates  on  the  Democratic  Presiden- 
tial ticket.  It  is  acquiesced  in  everywhere  now,  and  finally  and  forever  settled 
as  one  of  the  results  of  the  war.  It  is  certain  beyond  all  question  that  the  legiti- 
mate results  of  the  war  for  the  Union  will  not  be  overthrown  or  impaired  should 
the  Democratic  ticket  be  elected.  In  that  event  proper  protection  will  be  given 
in  every  legitimate  way  to  every  citizen,  native  or  adopted,  in  every  section  of 
the  republic,  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution 
and  its  amendments:  a  sound  currency,  of  honest  money,  of  a  value  and  pur- 
chasing power  corresponding  substantially  with  the  standard  recognized  by  the 
commercial  world,  and  consisting  of  gold  and  silver  and  paper  convertible  into 
coin,  will  be  maintained ;  the  labor  and  manufacturing,  commercial  and  business 
interests  of  the  country  will  be  favored  and  encouraged  in  every  legitimate  way. 
The]  toiling  millions  of  our  own  people  will  be  protected  from  the  destructive 
competition  of  the  Chinese,  and  to  that  end  their  immigration  to  our  shores  will 
be  properly  restricted.  The  public  credit  will  be  scrupulously  maintained  and 
strengthened  by  rigid  economy  in  public  expenditure,  and  the  liberties  of  the 
people  and  the  property  of  the  people  will  be  protected  by  a  government  of  law 
and  order,  administered  strictly  in  the  interest  of  all  people,  and  not  of  corpora- 
tions and  privileged  classes.  I  do  not  doubt  the  discriminating  justice  of  the 
people  and  their  capacity  for  intelligent  self-government,  and,  therefore,  do  not 
doubt  the  success  of  the  Democratic  ticket.  Its  success  would  bury  beyond 
resurrection  the  sectional  jealousies  and  hatreds  which  have  so  long  been  the 
chief  stock  in  trade  of  pestiferous  demagogues,  and  in  no  other  way  can  this  be 
so  effectually  accomplished  It  would  restore  harmony  and  good  feeling  be- 
tween all  the  sections,  and  make  us  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  one  people.  The 
only  rivalry  then  would  be  in  the  race  for  the  development  of  material  prosper- 
ity, the  elevation  of  labor,  the  enlargement  of  human  rights,  the  promotion  of 
education,  morality,  religion,  liberty,  order,  and  all  that  would  tend  to  make  us 
the  foremost  nation  of  the  earth  in  the  grand  march  of  human  progress. 
I  am,  with  great  respect,  very  truly  yours, 

WILLIAM  H.  ENGLISH.  . 
To  the  Honorable  John  W.  Stevenson,  President  of  the  Convention,  'the  Hon- 
orable John  P.  Stockton,  Chairman,  and  other  members  of  the  Committee  of 
Notification. 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK, 


LIFE  OF  WINFIELD  S.  HANCOCK. 


It  would  be  difficult  to  compress  into  the  space  allotted  to  this  sketch  even  the 
leading  facts  of  a  life  so  rich  in  incident  and  achievement  as  that  of  General  Han- 
cock. A  reasonably  full  narrative  of  his  great  public  services  would  fill  a  very 
large  volume,  every  line  of  which  would  be  interesting  and  instructive.  It  is 
with  great  reluctance  that  one  undertakes  to  pick  and  cull  from  such  a  mass  of 
inviting  materials,  but  it  is  manifestly  impossible  to  offer  in  this  form  more  than 
a  brief  outline  of  the  brilliant  career  whose  principal  events  are  more  or  less 
familiar  in  every  American  household.  The  deficiency,  however,  will  be  shortly 
supplied  by  complete  biographies  from  competent  hands,  to  which  the  reader  who 
desires  a  closer  study  of  the  noble  character  of  this  remarkable  man  is  respect- 
fully referred. 

EARLY  LIFE. 

Winfield  Scott  Hancock  was  born  near  Norristown,  Montgomery  county, 
Pennsylvania,  on  the  14th  of  February,  1834.  Both  his  grandfathers  served  in 
the  War  of  Independence,  and  his  father  was  out  in  the  War  of  1812.  He  sprang 
from  a  race  of  sturdy  citizen  soldiers,  who  had  through  several  generations  re- 
sponded to  every  call  of  public  dutiy,  and  it  was  only  natural,  considering  the 
traditions  of  the  family,  that  his  own  inclinations  should  be  toward  the  profession 
of  arms.  Accordingly,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  was  appointed  a  cadet  at  West 
Point.  He  had  previously  studied  at  the  Norristown  Academy ,  and,  by  reason 
of  his  steady  habits  and  strong  will,  had  received  all  the  advantages  which  that 
institution  was  capable  of  imparting  to  one  of  his  years.  Among  the  associates 
of  young  Hancock  at  West  Point  were  Generals  Franklin,  Smith,  Grant,  McClel- 
lan ,  Reynolds ,  Reno  and  Burnside,  distinguished  on  the  Union  side  in  the  civil 
war,  and  Longstreet,  Jackson  and  the  two  Hills,  who  faced  their  old  comrades 
at  the  head  of  the  Confederate  columns.  Hancock  graduated  well  up  in  a  large 
class  in  June,  1844,  and  was  immediately  commissioned  brevet  second  lieutenant 
in  the  Sixth  Infantry. 

MEXICAN  WAR. 

Hancock  served  two  years  with  his  regiment  in  the  Indian  Territory,  a  post  as 
disagreeable  at  that  time  as  any  on  our  extended  frontier,  until  the  Mexican  war 
afforded  him  an  opportunity  of  distinction  in  the  field,  as  it  did  to  many  others 
whose  deeds  have  brightened  the  pages  of  later  history.  Here  he  gathered  fresh 
honors  in  every  succeeding  engagement,  from  the  Natural  Bridge  to  the  capture 
of  the  City  of  Mexico.  He  was  brevetted  for  Contreras  and  Cherubusco ;  but  his 
gallantry  was  conspicuous  in  all  the  battles,  and  uniformly  attracted  the  admira- 
tion, and  compelled  the  respectful  mention,  of  his  superiors. 

In  1848  and  1849  he  was  regimental  quartermaster;  from  1849  to  1855 he  served 
as  adjutant.  Meanwhile,  in  1853,  he  was  promoted  to  the  full  rank  of  first  lieu- 
tenant, and  in  1855  to  that  of  captain.     He  served  in  the  Florida  Indian  war  of 


10  LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

1856-7;  he  was  in  Kansas  in  1857,  performing,  in  becoming  silence,  the  duty 
of  a  soldier,  but  looking  upon  the  beginnings  of  the  sectional  war  in  that  far-off 
territory  with  the  deepest  concern  for  the  future  of  the  country.  His  keen  eyes 
penetrated  beneath  the  surface;  he  felt  the  drift  of  things  toward  inevitable 
separation,  and  he  was  not  unprepared  for  the  great  conflict  when  it  opened.  He 
accompanied  Gen.  Johnston's  expedition  to  Utah,  and  thence  marched  overland 
to  California,  where  he  remained  until  the  fall  of  Sumter.  It  will  be  observed 
that  his  service  in  the  army  previous  to  the  civil  war  carried  him  to  many  parts 
of  the  country,  and  was  of  a  character  to  furnish  an  observing  and  thoughtful 
officer  with  a  vast  fund  of  useful  knowledge  respecting  the  wants  and  interests 
of  the  people,  and  especially  of  the  Great  West,  where  he  served  through  so 
many  of  the  best  years  of  his  life. 

COMBATS  SECESSION  IN  CALIFORNIA. 

Captain  Hancock  was  not  merely  ready  and  able  to  serve  the  cause  of  the 
Union  on  the  battlefield  ;  he  was  equally  ready  and  equally  able  to  serve  it  with 
voice  and  pen.  When  news  of  the  struggle  in  Charleston  Harbor  reached  him 
at  Los  Angeles,  where  he  was  then  stationed,  he  first  forwarded  to  Governor 
Curtin  of  Pennsylvania  his  application  for  a  command  among  the  troops  of  his 
native  State,  and  threw  himself  into  the  work  of  saving  California  to  the  Union. 
This  was  no  child's  play.  The  State  trembled  on  the  very  verge  of  secession. 
It  was  largely  settled  by  brave  and  intelligent  Southern  men,  whose  sympathies^ 
with  scarcely  an  exception,  followed  the  new  flag  which  rose  amid  the  smoke  of 
Sumter,  and  was  advancing  rapidly  to  Washington.  But  for  the  heroic  '^conduct 
and  the  wise  measures  adopted  by  Democrats  like  Field  and  Hancock,  sinking 
all  party  differences,  and  forming  a  coalition  composed  of  men  of  all  factions,  ta 
hold  California  to  her  place  in  the  family  of  States,  she  would  have  been  dragged 
out  by  the  tremendous  energy  of  the  secession  leaders,  and  the  whole  character 
of  the  subsequent  struggle  would  have  been  changed.  The  temptation  to  Brit- 
ish intervention  would  have  been  incalculably  strengthened,  and  anybody  can 
estimate  the  additional  strain  upon  our  resources  which  would  have  been  occa- 
sioned by  an  extension  of  the  war  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains.  But  there,  as 
in  every  other  similar  emergency  of  his  life,  Hancock  was  equal  to  the  civil  as 
well  as  to  the  military  duty  of  the  hour.  His  influence,  guided  and  directed  by 
the  rare  political  intelligence  which  has  distinguished  his  conduct  whenever 
called  upon  to  deal  with  civil  affairs,  was  cast  on  the  right  side,  and  in  a  way  to 
be  seriously  felt. 

But  Captain  Hancock  was  needed  elsewhere.  His  character  was  thoroughly 
understood  at  Washington,  and  especially  by  General  Scott,  who  had  not  failed 
to  mark  him  among  the  brilliant  young  officers  whose  behavior  commanded  his 
attention  in  Mexico.  The  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  did  not  immediately 
respond  ;  but  an  application  to  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Army  brought  an 
order  to  report  m  person  at  Washington.  Before  his  arrival ,  however.  General 
McClellan  had  succeeded  General  Scott,  and  upon  his  recommendation  Hancock 
was,  on  the  21st  of  September,  1861,  commissioned  Brigadier-General  of  Volun- 
teers, and  assigned  to  a  command  in  the  division  of  General  William  F.  ("  Baldy") 
Smith,  then  holding  at  the  Chain  Bridge  one  of  the  most  important  approaches 
to  Washington. 

Gen.  Hancock's  brigade  was  composed  of  one  regiment  from  Pennsylvania, 
one  from  New  York,  one  from  Maine,  and  one  from  Wisconsin.  To  say  that  the 
men  of  these  regiments  speedily  learned  to  love  him,  is  to  express  very  mildly 
the  feelings  with  which  good  soldiers  regard  the  captein  who  leads  them  to  honor 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  II 

and  fame,  while  caring  for  them  individually  and  collectively,  with  the  tender- 
ness of  a  comrade  and  a  friend.  Gen.  Hancock  wasted  no  time  in  the  idle  shows 
of  the  camp.  He  set  to  work  to  bring  these  regiments  into  a  state  of  perfect  mili- 
tary discipline,  and  to  make  them  soldiers  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  It  was  no 
holiday  matter  with  him,  and  he  wanted  this  force  to  be  equal  to  any  task  that 
might  be  assigned  to  it.  Long  before  it  was  called  into  action  he  was  able  to 
say,  that  it  could  accomplish  whatever  an  equal  number  of  men  could  do  any- 
where on  the  face  of  the  earth;  and  its  record  of  splendid  achievements  fully 
justifies  his  early  confidence. 

SUMMARY  OF  SERVICES  AGAINST  THE  REBELLION. 

Henceforth  the  history  of  Gen.  Hancock  is  very  nearly  the  history  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  whose  marches  and  battles  form  the  main  features  of  the  greatest 
civil  conflict  that  ever  shook  the  earth.  And  over  all  that  sanguinary  trail  from 
the  defences  of  Washington,  over  the  Peninsula,  up  into  Maryland  and  Pennsyl- 
vania, through  the  Wilderness,  and  round  about  Petersburg,  are  the  evidences 
of  his  military  genius  and  personal  gallantry.  The  following  is  the  barest  sum- 
mary of  his  record  during  those  eventful  years: 

Battle  of  Lee's  Mills,  Va.,  under  McClellan,  April  16th,  1862,  and  subsequent 
operations  before  Yorktown. 

Williamsburg,  May  5th,  1862.  Repulsed  the  enemy  at  Garnett's  Hill,  June 
27th  ;  Golding's  Farm,  June  28th  ;  Savage's  Station,  June  29th,  and  White  Oak 
Swamp,  June  30th.  Led  his  brigade  at  Antietam,  September  17th,  1862,  until 
afternoon,  when  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the  first  division  of  the  Second 
Corps.  Stormed  and  carried  a  portion  of  the  enemy's  line,  capturing  eleven 
stands  of  colors,  a  large  number  of  prisoners,  and  several  thousand  stands  of 
small  arms.  Promoted  to  the  rank  of  Major-General,  November  29th,  1862. 
Fredericksburg,  December  13th.  Chancellorsville,  May  1st,  2d  and  3d,  1863, 
where  he  covered  the  retreat.  Assigned  to  command  of  the  Second  Corps,  June 
10th.  Permanent  assignment  by  the  President,  June  25th.  Gettysburg,  July 
1st,  2d  and  3d,  where  he  fell  severely  wounded.  Wilderness,  May  5th,  6th  and 
7th,  1864.  Battles  of  the  Po  and  Spottsylvania,  May  10th.  Stormed  the  enemy's 
works  and  won  a  decisive  victory  at  Spottsylvania,  May  12th,  and  repulsed 
EwelFs  assault.  May  18th.  North  Anna,  May  23d.  Cold  Harbor,  June  3d.  Before 
Petersburg,  June  15th  to  June  17th.  Deep  Bottom,  July  2d.  Reanes'  Station, 
August  25th.  Boydton's  Plank  Road,  October  27th.  By  order  of  the  President 
assumed  command  of  the  Middle  Military  Division  and  the  Army  of  the  Shen- 
andoah, February  25th,  1865.  He  was  breveted  Major-General  for  Spottsylva- 
nia, and  was  appointed  Major-General,  vice  Sherman,  appointed  Lieutenant-Gen- 
eral  in  1866.  It  is  a  long  and  glorious  record,  of  which  it  would  be  impossible  to 
give  the  details  without  rewriting  the  familiar  history  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac. But  brief  outlines  of  two  or  three  of  his  great  battles  will  illustrate  his. 
method,  and  show  what  manner  of  man  he  was  under  an  enemy's  fire. 

WILLIAMSBURG. 

In  the  last  days  of  March,  1862,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  landed  at  Fort- 
ress Monroe  and  extended  its  lines  across  the  Peninsula.  Smith's  division,  in 
which  was  Hancock's  brigade,  was  sent  to  the  left,  and  took  the  advance  of  that 
wing  toward  Richmond.  For  nearly  a  month  it  was  engaged  in  desultory  but 
bloody  skirmishing  with  the  enemy,  in  which  Hancock's  force  bore  a  conspicuous 
part.  On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  May  it  was  discovered  that  the  Confederates 
had  evacuated  the  works  at  Yorktown,  and  the  pursuit  began.  It  was  effectually 
checked,  however,  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day,  when  the  Union  army  en- 


12  LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

countered  a  second  line  of  works  parallel  with  the  first,  and  extended  from  the 
York  almost  to  the  James.  They  consisted  of  a  series  of  formidable  redoubts, 
with  a  deep  ravine  and  a  stream  in  the  front.  In  the  center  was  a  powerful  re- 
^ueur  work,  mounted  with  heavy  guns.  Before  this  the  weary  army  bivouacked 
that  night  in  mud  and  rain  ;  and  the  next  morning  Hooker  hurled  himself  against 
it,  only  to  receive  a  bloody  repulse.  Meanwhile  Hancock  had  been  ordered  to  re- 
connoitre the  Confederate  left,  with  a  separate  command,  consisting  of  his  own 
"brigade,  two  additional  regiments,  and  two  light  batteries.  He  had  felt  his  way 
very  carefully  for  about  a  mile,  when  he  came  upon  a  fortification,  visible 
through  a  vista  in  the  woods,  protected  by  a  ravine  in  front,  which  was  filled 
with  water  held  by  a  dam.  The  place  was  strong  but  not  sufficiently  guarded. 
Hancock  pushed  over  the  dam,  dragged  his  artillery  up  the  steep  beyond,  carried 
the  redoubt,  formed  again  inside  the  enemy's  line  of  works,  and  moved  rapidly 
toward  the  enemy's  center  at  Fort  Magruder.  By  this  bold  movement  the  Con- 
federate left  was  turned,  and  the  whole  line  must  be  abandoned  or  Hancock  must 
be  dislodged.  He  pressed  forward  to  a  position  within  twelve  hundred  yards  of 
Fort  Magruder,  where  he  planted  his  batteries  and  opened  a  tremendous  fire,  to 
which  the  enemy  responded  with  their  artillery.  There  the  confiict  raged  all'  the 
day.  He  was  in  a  position,  if  reinforced,  to  drive  the  enemy  from  their  works  ; 
or,  if  not  reinforced,  to  be  himself  annihilated.  But,  notwithstanding  urgent 
messages,  no  reinforcements  came,  and  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  Hancock 
reluctantly  withdrew  the  batteries. 

But  all  this  while  the  enemy  had  been  quietly  making  his  dispositions  to 
crush  the  bold  intruder,  who  had  thrust  himself  into  a  position  from  which 
there  was  apparently  no  retreat,  and  at  the  first  retrograde  movement  of  the  ar- 
tillery he  burst  from  the  woods  on  Hancock's  right  in  two  solid  lines  of  battle. 
They  swept  forward  under  a  deadly  fire,  and  enveloped  the  guns,  which  barely 
escaped  through  a  small  gap,  as  yet  unclosed.  Hancock  maintained  a  steady 
front,  and  a  no  less  steady  fire,  but  fell  back  slowly  to  the  crest  of  the  gentle 
ridge  in  his  rear.  The  Confederates  came  on  furiously  with  their  overwhelming 
numbers,  shouting,  "  Bull  Run  !  Bull  Run  !  That  flag  is  ours  !  "  Hancock  halt- 
ed and  steadied  his  command  at  the  crest  for  one  brief  moment.  The  enemy 
were  but  forty  yards  distant;  the  next  instant  would  decide  the  day.  He  dashed 
from  his  place  behind  the  line,  and  riding  bare-headed  along  the  blazing  front, 
shouted,  "  Forward  !  Forward  !  For  God's  sake,  Forward  !  "  No  sooner  did  the 
men  recognize  his  heroic  figure,  than  they  sent  up  a  grand  cheer  above  the  din 
of  the  musketry,  and  advanced  in  perfect  order  to  the  charge.  It  was  a  specta- 
cle seldom  witnessed  in  all  the  history  of  war.  An  inferior  force,  cut  oif  from 
support,  with  the  enemy  between  it  and  its  own  lines,  suddenly  pausing  in  an  al- 
most hopeless  retreat,  and  then  recovering  the  lost  field  by  one  magnificent,  irre- 
sistible charge  !  But  the  feat  was  accomplished,  and  it  was  due  not  less  to  Han- 
cock's previous  discipline  than  to  his  wise  conduct  and  splendid  example  in  the 
engagement  itself.  His  victory  was  complete.  The  Confederates  recoiled  be- 
fore the  unexpected  shock  of  Hancock's  advance,  and  fell  back,  leaving  the  field 
covered  with  their  dead  and  wounded.  After  the  battle  the  long- desired  rein- 
forcements arrived,  when  it  was  too  late  to  follow  up  the  advantage.  But  Han- 
oock  had  gained  a  position  which  rendered  the  Williamsburg  lines  untenable, 
and  during  the  night  the  enemy  evacuated  them  and  resumed  his  retreat. 

GETTYSBURG. 

It  will  hardly  be  disputed  that  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  pre-eminently 
Hancock's,  and  that  to  him  more  than  to  any  other,  under  God,  must  be  ascribed 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  1$ 

that  most  decisive  victory  of  the  war.  On  the  morning  of  July  1st  he  was  in 
camp  with  his  Second  Corps  at  Taneytown,  Gen.  Meade's  headquarters,  when 
news  came  of  the  collision  at  Gettysburg.  General  Meade,  upon  hearing  of  the 
death  of  General  Reynolds,  who  was  at  Gettysburg  in  command  of  the  First,. 
Third  and  Eleventh  Corps,  ordered  General  Hancock  forward  to  take  com- 
mand. He  examined  the  maps  of  the  country  as  he  was  hurried  along  in 
an  ambulance,  and  had  probably  made  up  his  mind  as  to  the  value  of  all 
the  strategic  points  before  he  ever  saw  Gettysburg.  Arriving  there  he  found 
the  Union  troops  m  full  retreat.  Reynolds  was  dead  and  everything  in  con- 
fusion. "At  this  moment,"  says  a  distinguished  participant  in  the  battle, 
"  our  defeat  seemed  complete.  Our  troops  were  flowing  through  the  streets  of 
the  town  m  great  disorder,  closely  pursued  by  the  Confederates,  the  retreat  fast 
becoming  a  rout,  and  in  a  very  few  minutes  the  enemy  would  have  been  in  pos- 
session of  Cemetery  Hill,  the  key  to  the  position,  and  the  battle  of  Gettysburg 
would  have  gone  into  history  as  a  rebel  victory.  But  what  a  change  came  over 
the  scene  in  the  next  half  hour !  The  presence  of  Hancock,  like  that  of  Sheri- 
dan, was  magnetic.  Order  came  out  of  chaos.  The  flying  troops  halt,  and  again 
face  the  enemy.  The  battalions  of  Howard's  corps  that  were  retreating  down 
the  Baltimore  pike  are  called  back,  and  with  a  cheer  go  into  position  on  the  crest 
of  Cemetery  Hill,  where  the  division  of  Steinwehr  had  already  been  stationed. 
Wadsworth's  division  and  a  battery  are  sent  to  hold  Gulp's  Hill,  and  Geary, with 
the  White  Star  division,  goes  on  the  double-quick  to  occupy  the  high  ground  to- 
ward Round  Top.  Confidence  is  restored,  the  enemy  checked,  and  being  de- 
ceived by  these  dispositions,  cease  their  attack. 

Hancock's  previous  conceptions  of  the  ground  were  confirmed  by  actual  ob- 
servation, and  he  not  only  advised  Meade  that  he  should  fight  there,  but  with 
the  promptness  and  decision  which  characterized  all  his  movements,  he  proceed- 
ed, without  orders,  to  make  such  dispositions  as  really  left  Gen.  Meade  very 
little  choice  in  the  matter.  The  latter,  however,  accepted  the  suggestions  of  his 
lieutenant,  and  placed  Gen.  Hancock  in  command  of  the  left  center,  where 
again  on  the  evening  of  the  second  day  he  restored  to  the  Union  army  the  for- 
tunes of  battle  which  were  well-nigh  lost  forever.  But  it  was  on  the  third  day 
that  Gen.  Hancock's  great  opportunity  arrived,  and  he  performed  for  his  country 
a  service  which  alone  would  render  his  name  immortal — a  service  so  grand  in  the 
manner  of  it,  and  so  far-reaching  and  precious  in  its  consequences,  that  no  man 
has  ever  yet  attempted  to  describe  it  or  to  weigh  it,  without  feeling  deeply  the 
inadequacy  of  words  for  the  purpose.  At  all  events,  it  cannot  here  be  more  fitly 
set  forth  than  in  the  following  language  of  his  brave  and  devoted  comrade, 
Major-General  St.  Clair  A.  MulhoUand,  who  affirms  that  which  he  saw: 

"About  noon  we  could  see  considerable  activity  along  Seminary  Ridge.  Battery 
after  battery  appeared  along  the  edge  of  the  woods.  Guns  were  unlimbered,. 
placed  in  position  and  the  horses  taken  to  the  rear.  On  our  side,  officers  sat 
around  in  gi'oups  and,  through  field  glasses,  anxiously  watched  these  movements 
in  our  front  and  wondered  what  it  all  meant.  Shortly  after  1  o'clock,  however, 
we  knew  all  about  it.  The  headquarter  wagons  had  just  come  up  and  General 
Gibbons  had  invited  Hancock  and  staff  to  partake  of  some,  lunch.  The  bread  that 
was  handed  around — if  it  ever  was  eaten — was  consumed  without  butter,  for  as 
the  orderly  was  passing  the  latter  article  to  the  gentlemen,  a  shell  from  Seminary 
Ridge  cut  him  in  two.  Instantly  the  air  was  filled  with  bursting  shells ;  the  bat- 
teries that  we  had  been  watching  for  the  last  two  hours  going  into  position  in  our 
front  did  not  open  singly  or  spasmodically.     The  whole  hundred  and  twenty 


14  LIFE   OF   WINFIELD   S.    HANCOCK. 

guns,  which  now  began  to  play  upon  us,  seemed  to  be  discharged  simultaneously, 
as  though  by  electricity.  And  then  for  nearly  two  hours  the  storm  of  death  went 
on.  I  have  read  many  accounts  of  this  artillery  duel,  but  the  most  graphic  de- 
scription by  the  most  able  writers  falls  far  short  of  the  reality.  No  tongue  or 
pen  can  find  language  strong  enough  to  convey  any  idea  of  its  awf  ulness.  Streams 
of  screaming  projectiles  poured  through  the  hot  air,  falling  and  bursting  every- 
where. Men  and  horses  were  torn  limb  from  limb ;  caissons  exploded  one  after 
another  in  rapid  succession,"  blowing  the  gunners  to  pieces.  No  spot  within  our 
lines  was  free  from  this  frightful  iron  rain.  The  infantry  hugged  close  the  earth 
and  sought  every  slight  shelter  that  our  light  earthworks  afforded.  It  was  liter- 
ally a  storm  of  shot  and  shell  that  the  oldest  soldiers  there — those  who  had 
taken  part  in  almost  every  battle  of  the  war— had  not  yet  witnessed.  That  awful, 
rushing  sound  of  the  flying  missiles,  which  causes  the  firmest  hearts  to  quail,  is 
everywhere. 

"At  this  tumultuous  moment  we  witness  a  deed  of  heroism  such  as  we  are  apt  to 
attribute  only  to  knights  of  the  olden  time.  Hancock,  mounted  and  accom- 
panied by  his  staff,  Major  Mitchell,  Captain  Harry  Bingham,  Captain  Isaac 
Parker  and  Captain  E.  P.  Bronson,  with  the  corps  flag  flying  in  the  hands  of  a 
brave  Irishman,  Private  James  Wells,  of  the  Sixth  New  York  Cavalry,  started 
at  the  right  of  his  line,  where  it  joins  the  Taney  town  road,  and  slowly  rode  along 
the  terrible  crest  to  the  extreme  left  of  his  position,  while  shot  and  shell  roared 
and  crashed  around  him,  and  every  moment  tore  great  gaps  in  the  ranks  at  his 
side, 

"  Storm'd  at  with  shot  and  shell, 
Boldly  they  rode,  and  well." 

It  was  a  gallant  deed,  and  withal  not  a  reckless  exposure  of  life,  for  the  presence 
and  calm  demeanor  of  the  commander  as  he  passed  through  the  lines  of  his  men 
set  them  an  example  which  an  hour  later  bore  good  fruit  and  nerved  their  stout 
hearts  to  win  the  greatest  and  most  decisive  battle  ever  fought  on  this  continent. 
For  an  hour  after  the  firing  began  our  batteries  replied  vigorously  and  then  ceased 
altogether,  but  the  rebel  shells  came  by  as  numerous  as  ever.  Then  for  over  a  Half 
hour,  not  a  soul  was  seen  stirring  on  our  line.  We  might  have  been  an  army  of 
dead  men  for  all  the  evidence  of  life  visible.  Suddenly  the  enemy  stopped  their 
fire,  which  had  been  going  on  for  nearly  two  hours  without  intermission,  and 
then  the  long  lines  of  their  infantry — eighteen  thousand  strong — emerged  from 
the  woods  and  began  their  advance. 

"At  this  moment  silence  reigned  along  our  whole  line.  With  arms  at  a  "right 
shoulder  shift,"  the  division  of  Longstreet's  corps  moved  forward  with  a  preci- 
sion that  was  wonderfully  beautiful.  It  is  now  our  turn,  and  the  lines  that  a  tew 
moments  before  seemed  so  still  now  teemed  with  animation.  Eighty  of  our  guns 
open  their  brazen  mouths ;  solid  shot  and  shell  are  sent  on  their  errand  of  de- 
struction in  quick  succession.  We  see  them  fall  in  countless  numbers  among 
the  advancing  troops.  The  accuracy  of  our  fire  could  not  be  excelled;  the  mis- 
siles strike  right  in  the  ranks,  tearing  and  rending  them  in  every  direction.  The 
ground  over  which  they  have  passed  is  strewn  with  dead  and  wounded.  But 
on  they  come.  The  gaps  m  the  ranks  are  closed  as  soon  as  made.  They  have 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  to  pass  exposed  to  our  fire,  and  half  the  distance  is  nearly 
passed,  Our  gunners  now  load  with  canister,  and  the  effect  is  appalling;  but 
still  they  march  on.  Their  gallantry  is  past  all  praise — it  is  sublime.  Now  they 
are  within  a  hundred  yards.  Our  infantry  rise  up  and  pour  round  after  round 
into  these  heroic  troops. 

"At  Waterloo  the  Old  Guard  recoiled  before  a  less  severe  fire.  But  there  was  no 


LIFE    OF    WINNFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  15 

recoil  in  these  men  of  the  South— they  marched  right, on  as  though  they  courted 
death.  They  concentrate  in  great  numbers  and  strike  on  the  most  advanced 
part  of  our  line.  The  crash  of  the  musketry  and  the  cheers  of  the  men  blend 
together.  The  Philadelphia  brigade  occupy  this  point.  They  are  fighting  on 
their  own  ground  and  for  their  own  state,  and  in  the  bloody  hand-to-hand  engage- 
ment which  ensues,  the  Confederates,  though  fighting  with  desperate  valor,  find 
it  impossible  to  dislodge  them — they  are  rooted  to  the  ground.  Seeing  how  utterly 
hopeless  further  effort  would  be,  and  knowing  the  impossibility  of  reaching  their 
lines  should  they  attempt  a  retreat,  large  numbers  of  the  rebels  lay  down  their 
arms,  and  the  battle  is  won.  To  the  left  of  the  Philadelphia  brigade  we  did 
not  get  to  such  close  quarters.  Seeing  the  utter  annihilation  of  Pickett's  troops 
the  division  of  Wilcox  and  others  on  their  right  went  to  pieces  almost  before 
they  got  within  musket  range.  A  few  here  and  there  ran  away  and  tried  to  regain 
their  lines,  but  many  laid  down  their  arms  and  came  in  as  prisoners.  At  the 
most  critical  moment  Hancock  fell  among  his  men,  on  the  line  of  Stannard's  Ver- 
mont brigade,  desperately  wounded,  but  he  continued  to  direct  the  fight  until 
victory  was  assured,  and  then  he  sent  Major  Mitchell  to  announce  the  glad  tidings 
to  the  commander  of  the  army.  Said  he :  "  Tell  General  Meade  that  the  troops 
under  my  command  have  repulsed  the  assault  of  the  enemy,  who  are  now  flying 
in  all  directions  in  my  front."  "  Say  to  General  Hancock,"  said  Meade,  in  reply, 
' '  I  regret  exceedingly  that  he  is  wounded,  and  I  thank  him  for  the  country  and 
myself  for  the  service  he  has  rendered  this  day. " 

That  charge  was  the  military  culmination  of  the  rebellion,  and  its  defeat  was 
the  turning  point  of  the  war  for  the  Union.  Hancock  was  formally  thanked  by 
Meade,  by  Congress,  by  Pennsylvania,  by  Philadelphia  ;  a  grateful  people  every- 
where. And  he  well  might  be  thanked,  for  it  may  be  said  that  when  he  lay  down 
with  his  shattered  thigh  in  the  ambulance  to  be  carried  from  that  stricken  field,  he 
had  but  then  saved  the  army  from  disaster,  and  the  country  from  dismemberment. 

SPOTTSYLVANIA. 

Having  partially  recovered  from  his  Gettysburg  wound  Gen.  Hancock  was  in 
command  of  his  corps  through  all  the  terrible  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  and  on 
the  12th  of  May,  1864,  he  achieved  the  most  brilliant  as  well  as  the  most  substan- 
tial victory  of  the  campaign.  At  eleven  of  that  morning  he  assaulted  the  enemy's 
works  at  Spottsylvania  with  the  Second  Corps,  and  carried  them  by  storm, 
capturing  a  major-general  and  a  brigadier,  four  thousand  prisoners,  thirty  stands 
of  colors  and  twenty  pieces  of  artillery. 

Williamsburg,  Gettysburg,  Spottsylvania  !  These,  in  the  brief  outline  presented 
here,  must  suffice  to  show  the  character  of  Hancock's  fighting.  A  perfect  narra- 
tive of  his  career,  including  accounts  of  his  personal  daring  on  the  many  fields 
where  he  was  engaged,  would  read  more  like  tales  of  knightly  emprise  than  like 
the  sober  chronicles  of  modern  warfare.  , 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  General  Hancock  might  have  received  the  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  almost  any  time  after  the  removal  of  McClellan. 
In  fact  the  President  and  Cabinet  seriously  contemplated  the  appointment,  not- 
withstanding Hancock's  well-known  democratic  opinions.  But  he  was  a  simple, 
single-hearted  soldier,  having  neither  taste  nor  talent  for  political  intrigue,  or 
indeed  for  intrigue  of  any  description,  and  ever  faithful  to  his  comrades  in  the 
field,  he  personally  urged  the  retention  of  Gen.  Meade.  He  remained  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  participating  conspicuously  in  all  its  engagements,  until  the 
26th  of  Kovember ,  1864,  when  he  was  ordered  to  Washington,  and  directed  by 
the  President  to  enlist  and  organize  a  corps  of  veterans  fifty  thousand  strong.  He 


16  LIFE    OF     WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

was  relieved  from  this  service  before  it  was  completed  and  placed  in  command  of 
the  Middle  Military  Division,  embracing  the  departments  of  "West  Virginia^ 
Pennsylvania  and  Washington,  with  headquarters  at  Winchester.  This  gave 
him  the  army  of  the  Shenandoah,  numbering  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  men, 
and  would  have  proved,  had  the  war  continued,  a  most  important  command,  as  it 
was  intended  to  be.  But  the  sudden  collapse  of  Lee's  lines  and  the  surrender  at 
Appomatox  put  an  end  to  the  struggle,  and  happily  Hancock  was  never  required 
to  lead  his  new  army  into  battle. 

As  commander  of  this  Military  Division  he  was  called  to  Washington  after  the 
assassination  of  the  President,  where  in  obedience  not  only  to  official  orders,  but 
a  universal  public  sentiment,  he  remained  on  duty  until  the  general  apprehension 
arising  from  that  terrible  event  had  been  entirely  allayed.  With  the  execution 
of  the  conspirators,  tried  and  sentenced  by  a  military  commission,  organized  un- 
der orders  directly  from  the  War  Department,  he  had  no  immediate  connection. 
The  President  approved  the  findings,  ordered  the  execution,  and  in  the  case  of 
Mrs.  Surratt  suspended  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  issued  by  the  civil  magistrate. 
Gen.  Hancock  did  all  that  lay  in  his  power  to  save  that  unfortunate  woman  from 
the  sudden  and  ignominious  death  to  which  she  was  hurried  by  his  superiors,  and 
even  placed  a  line  of  mounted  men  between  the  White  House  and  the  Arsenal  to 
convey  the  reprieve  in  case  the  President's  mind  should  undergo  a  change  at  the 
last  moment. 

In  July,  1865,  Gen.  Hancock  was  transferred  to  the  command  of  the  Middle 
Department,  headquarters  at  Baltimore,  and  a  year  afterward,  being  then  a  full 
major-general  in  the  regular  army,  to  the  Department  of  Missouri,  where  he  con- 
ducted various  campaigns  against  hostile  Indians  in  Kansas,  Colorado  and  the 
Indian  Territory. 

LOUISIANA  AND  TEXAS. 

And  now  Gen.  Hancock  entered  upon  a  new  field  of  duty,  and  won  for  himself 
a  still  stronger  title  to  the  lasting  gratitude  of  his  countrymen.  The  states  lately 
in  rebellion  were  at  the  mercy  of  the  government  at  Washington,  and  the  policy 
of  that  government  was  founded  in  partisan  rather  than  patriotic  considerations. 
They  were  treated  as  being  outside  of  the  Union,  to  which  the  war  had  been 
waged  to  restore  them,  and  they  were  subjected  to  the  operation  of  a  system  of 
laws  and  administration  which,  as  Mr.  Stevens,  its  principal  author,  confessed, 
was  "outside  of  the  Constitution."  They  were  cut  up  into  military  districts, 
whose  commanders  were  invested  with  absolute  power,  and  were  expected  by 
those  in  authority  to  exercise  it  with  extreme  vigor.  It  was  a  pure  despotism, 
erected  over  a  large  part  of  the  Union,  utterly  unknown  to  our  previous  history, 
and  utterly  repugnant  to  the  whole  spirit  of  our  institutions.  It  was  itself  an  in- 
stitution imported  from  the  old  world  to  serve  a  party  purpose.  The  people  were 
denied  representation,  state  lines  were  ignored,  state  governments  extinguished, 
local  institutions  were  permitted,to  exist  only  by  grace,  and  the  rights  of  men 
were  held  solely  at  the  will  of  a  single  military  officer,  responsible  not  to  any 
civil  power,  not  even  to  the  President  himself,  but  to  the  General  of  the  Army, 
whom  for  this  purpose  the  radical  Congress  had  invested  with  authority  belong, 
ing  to  the  Chief  Magistrate.  The  avowed  object  of  this  monstrous  system  was  to 
prevent  the  return  of  the  seceded  states  to  the  Union  until  their  political  com. 
plexion  should  be  made  acceptable  to  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party.  To 
this  end  the  whites  were  largely  disfranchised ;  the  blacks  were  enfranchised,  and 
the  whole  order  of  government  and  of  society  completely  subverted.  And  all 
this,  although  there  was  not  an  armed  or  a  declared  enemy  to  the  Federal  govern 
ment  anywhere  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States! 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  l7 

It  was  under  such  circumstances  that  Gen.  Hancock  was  ordered  to  take  com- 
mand  of  the  Fifth  Military  District,  comprising  the  great  states  of  Louisiana  and 
Texas.  He  found  in  them  the  peace  of  the  United  States  as  profound  as  it  had 
ever  been  since  the  defeat  of  the  British  by  his  forerunner  and  prototype, 
Andrew  Jackson.  As  to  the  states  there  was  practically  none  whose  peace  could 
be  disturbed.  There  were  disorders  of  a  very  serious  nature,  but  they  arose 
mainly  from  the  absence  of  civil  government  and  the  overthrow  of  civil  institu- 
tions. There  was  no  authority,  nor  emblem  of  authority,  but  the  naked  sword  of 
the  conqueror,  and  while  it  impended,  promising  only  the  execution  of  the  unsta- 
ble decrees  of  a  distant  and  hostile  faction,  there  might  be  for  this  people  the  or- 
der of  Poland  and  the  peace  of  Ireland,  but  none  other.  It  was  a  situation  to  try 
not  merely  the  moral  character  but  the  genius  of  the  greatest  man  of  affairs 
that  ever  undertook  the  pacification  of  a  troubled  country.  Here  was  a  great  and 
a  proud  people  at  his  feet,  without  government  except  that  furnished  by  the  force 
at  his  command,  and  without  laws  except  those  supplied  by  his  will,  and  behind 
him  an  arrogant  political  directory,  wielding  the  whole  power  of  the  United 
States,  and  demanding  that  he  should  regard  nothing  but  its  partisan  interests. 

When  Gen,  Hancock  took  up  the  so-called  Reconstruction  laws,  and  examined 
them  with  the  remarkable  acumen  which  he  brought  to  bear  to  the  resolution  of 
legal  questions,  he  ascertained  that  while  they  empowered  him  to  displace  the 
civil  authorities  they  did  not  require  him  to  do  so.  Holding  as  he  did  that  no 
officer,  civil  or  military,  had  a  right  to  transcend  the  Constitution,  under  any 
circumstances,  he  yet  saw  that  under  these  laws  there  were  powers  which  might 
properly  be  exercised,  and  he  was  quite  willing  to  assume  such  as  were  not  "out- 
side "  the  Federal  charter.  In  other  words,  he  took  up  that  which  clearly  be- 
longed to  him  and  left  that  which  was  as  clearly  forbidden. 

-  Accordingly,  tlie  first  act  of  the  new  military  ruler — whose  disposition  must 
have  been  a  subject  of  painful  anxiety  to  the  people  he  was  sent  to  govern — was 
to  define  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  powers  he  intended  to  assume.  It  was 
done  as  follows,  in  "General  Orders  No.  40,'-  a  state  paper  now  as  famous  as 
any  in  the  history  of  England  or  America  : 

GENERAL   ORDER  NO.    40. 

1.  In  accordance  with  General  Order  No,  81,  Headquarters  of  the  Army,  Ad- 
jutant-General's Office,  Washington,  D,  C,  August  27,  1867,  Major-General  W.  S. 
Hancock  hereby  assumes  command  of  the  Fifth  Military  District  and  of  the  de- 
partment composed  of  the  States  of  Louisiana  and  Texas. 

2.  The  General  commanding  is  gratified  to  learn  that  peace  and  quiet  reign  in 
this  department.  It  will  be  his  purpose  to  preserve  this  condition  of  things.  As 
a  means  to  this  great  end  he  regards  the  maintenance  of  the  civil  authorities  in 
the  faithful  execution  of  the  laws  as  the  most  efficient  under  existing  circum- 
stances. In  war  it  is  indispensable  to  repel  force  by  force,  and  overthrow  and 
destroy  opposition  to  lawful  authority.  But  when  insurrectionary  force  has  been 
overthrown  and  peace  established,  and  the  civil  authorities  are  ready  and  willing 
to  perform  their  duties,  the  military  power  should  cease  to  lead  and  the  civil  ad- 
ministration resume  its  natural  and  rightful  dominion.  Solemnly  impressed  with 
these  views,  the  General  announces  that  the  great  principles  of  American  liberty 
are  still  the  lawful  inheritance  of  this  people,  and  ever  should  be.  The  right  of 
trial  by  jury,  the  habeas  corpus,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  the  freedom  of  speech, 
the  natural  rights  of  persons  and  the  rights  of  property  must  be  preserved.  Free 
institutions,  while  they  are  essential  to  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  ihe  peo- 
ple, always  furnish  the  strongest  inducements  to  peace  and  order.     Crimes  and 


18  LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

offenses  committed  in  this  district  must  be  referred  to  the  consideration  and  judg- 
ment of  the  regular  civil  tribunals,  and  those  tribunals  will  be  supported  in  their 
lawful  jurisdiction.  While  the  General  thus  indicates  his  purpose  to  respect  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  he  wishes  all  to  understand  that  armed  insurrection  or 
forcible  resistance  to  the  law  will  be  instantly  suppressed  by  arms. 

By  command  of  Major-General  W.  S.  HANCOCK. 

General  Hancock  had  struck  out  the  true,  indeed  the  only  feasible,  policy  of 
reconstruction  in  the  few  bold  and  pregnant  sentences  of  this  Order,  and  the 
country  instantly  recognized  the  fact.  When  the  document  reached  the  Presi- 
dent he  embodied  the  universal  sentiment  of  sober  and  considerate  citizens  in  the 
following  special  message  to  Congress  : 

PRESIDENT  Johnson's  message. 
Oenilemen  of  the  Senate  and  of  tlie  House  of  Representatives : 

An  official  copy  of  the  order  issued  by  Major-General  Winfield  S.  Hancock, 
commander  of  the  fifth  military  district,  dated  headquarters  in  New  Orleans, 
Louisiana,  on  the  29th  day  of  November,  has  reached  me  through  the  regular 
channels  of  the  War  Department,  and  I  herewith  communicate  it  to  Congress  for 
such  action  as  may  seem  to  be  proper  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances. 

It  will  be  perceived  that  General  Hancock  announces  that  he  will  make  the  law 
the  rule  of  his  conduct  ;  that  he  will  uphold  the  courts  and  other  civil  authorities 
in  the  performance  of  their  proper  duties  ;  and  that  he  will  use  his  military 
power  only  to  preserve  the  peace  and  enforce  the  law.  He  declares  very  explicit- 
ly that  the  sacred  right  of  the  trial  by  jury  and  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  shall  not  be  crushed  out  or  trodden  under  foot.  He  goes  further,  and,  in 
one  comprehensive  sentence,  asserts  that  the  principles  of  American  liberty  are 
still  the  inheritance  of  this  people,  and  ever  should  be. 

When  a  great  soldier  with  unrestricted  power  in  his  hands  to  oppress  his  fel- 
low-men voluntarily  foregoes  the  chance  of  gratifying  his  selfish  ambition  and 
devotes  himself  to  the  duty  of  building  up  the  liberties  and  strengthening  the 
laws  of  his  country,  he  presents  an  example  of  the  highest  public  virtue  that 
human  nature  is  capable  of  practicing.  The  strongest  claim  of  Washington  to 
be  "first  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,"  is 
founded  on  the  great  fact  that  in  all  his  illustrious  career  he  scrupulously  ab- 
stained from  violating  the  legal  and  constitutional  rights  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
When  he  surrendered  his  commission  to  Congress,  the  President  of  that  body 
spoke  his  highest  praise  in  saying  that  he  had  "  always  regarded  the  rights  of  the 
civil  authorities  through  all  dangers  and  disasters. "  Whenever  power  above  the 
law  courted  his  acceptance,  he  calmly  put  the  temptation  aside.  By  such  mag- 
nanimous acts  of  forbearance  he  won  the  universal  admiration  of  mankind  and 
left  a  name  which  has  no  rival  in  the  history  of  the  world. 

I  am  far  from  saying  that  General  Hancock  is  the  only  officer  of  the  American 
army  who  is  infiuenced  by  the  example  of  Washington.  Doubtless  thousands 
of  them  are  faithfully  devoted  to  the  principles  for  which  the  men  of  the  Revo- 
lution laid  down  their  lives.  But  the  distinguished  honor  belongs  to  him  of  be- 
ing the  first  officer  in  high  command  south  of  the  Potomac  since  the  close  of  the 
civil  war  who  has  given  utterance  to  these  noble  sentiments  in  the  form  of  a 
military  order. 

I  respectfully  suggest  to  Congress  that  some  public  recognition  of  General 
Hancock's  patriotic  conduct  is  due,  if  not  to  him,  to  the  friends  of  law  and  jus- 
tice throughout  the  country.     Of  such  an  act  as  his,  at  such  a  time,  it  is  but  fit 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  19 

that  the  dignity  should  be  vindicated  and  the  virtue  proclaimed,  so  that  its  value 
as  an  example  ma}^  not  be  lost  to  the  nation. 

ANDREW  JOHNSON. 
Washington,  D.  C.  ,  December  18,  1867. 

In  practice  Gen.  Hancock's  novel  plan  virorked  almost  perfectly.  "  Free  in- 
stitutions,  while  they  are  essential  to  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  people, 
-always  furnish  the  strongest  inducements  to  peace  and  order. "  No  publicist  ever 
stated  this  cardinal  truth  in  clearer  language,  and  no  statesman  ever  applied  it 
more  wisely,  or  with  more  immediate  and  happy  results.  Finding  a  friend  and 
protector  where  they  had  expected  an  enemy  and  a  persecutor,  a  scrupulous  ser- 
vant of  the  law,  where  they  had  looked  for  an  unrestrained  despot,  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Louisiana  and  Texas  heartily  resumed  their  allegiance,  and  went  cheerfully 
about  the  work  of  real  and  substantial  reconstruction.  The  courts  resumed  their 
regular  procedure;  the  civil  authorities  maintained  order;  crimes  of  all  descrip- 
tions and  degrees  became  less  frequent;  elections  were  peaceable  and  honest;  the 
jealousies  of  the  two  races,  now  that  the  neck  of  the  one  was  no  longer  forcibly 
held  under  the  heel  of  the  other,  visibly  declined,  and  the  eve  of  genuine  restora- 
tion seemed  actually  at  hand.  When  we  reflect  upon  the  long  years  of  misrule 
which  this  policy  of  Hancock's  would  have  saved  to  the  South;  upon  the  untold 
millions  of  money  wasted  by  the  licentious  carpet-baggers,  and  upon  the  hideous 
tortures  inflicted  by  the  cloud  of  vultures  invited  by  the  Republican  party  to  flesh 
their  obscene  beaks  upon  this  prostrate  people,  after  it  was  disapproved  and  re- 
versed, we  can  form  some  faint  conception  of  its  real  value.  Had  it  been  pur- 
sued to  its  legitimate  consequences,  the  work  of  a  decade  might  have  been  com- 
pleted in  a  year,  and  history  would  have  had  to  record  none  of  the  oppressions, 
plunderings,  and  stupendous  election  frauds— including  the  great  fraud  of  1876 — 
"which  burden  the  annals  of  carpet-bag  and  bayonet  government.  But  while 
-Gen.  Hancock  was  restoring  the  states  rapidly  enough,  he  was  restoring  them 
without  the  smallest  regard  to  partisan  political  consequences,  and  the  radical 
directory  at  Washington,  through  the  generals  of  the  army,  hampered  and 
humiliated  him  at  every  turn.  The  President,  who  appreciated  his  inestimable 
services  as  they  deserved,  was  unable  to  protect  him  from  these  blows  in  the 
back,  and  Hancock  was  at  length  compelled  to  ask  for  his  own  recall. 

LETTER  TO  GOVERNOR  PEASE. 

Meanwhile  Gen.  Hancock  had  written  his  celebrated  letter  to  Gov.  Pease.  Long 
as  it  is,  it  is  here  given  in  full,  as  illustrating  his  grasp  of  constitutional  and  legal 
principles,  his  fine  judicial  temper,  and  his  masterly  style  of  argumentation: 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  March  9,  1868.  \ 

To  His  Excellency,  E.  M.  Pease,  Governor  of  Texas: 

Sir: — Your  communication  of  the  17th  January  last  was  received  in  due  course 
of  mail  (the  27th  January),  but  not  until  it  had  been  widely  circulated  by  the 
newspaper  press.  To  such  a  letter — written  and  published  for  manifest  purposes 
— it  has  been  my  intention  to  reply  as  soon  as  leisure  from  more  important  busi- 
ness would  permit. 

Your  statement  that  the  act  of  Congress  "  to  provide  for  the  more  efficient  gov- 
ernment of  the  rebel  states,"  declares  that  whatever  government  existed  in  Texas 
was  provisional;  that  peace  and  order  should  be  enforced;  that  Texas  should  be 
part  of  the  Fifth  Military  District,  and  subject  to  military  power;  that  the  Presi- 
dent should  appoint  an  officer  to  command  in  said  district,  and  detail  a  force  to 
protect  the  rights  of  person  and  property,  suppress  insurrection  and  violence,  and 


20  '  LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

punish  offenders,  either  by  military  commission  or  through  the  action  of  local  civil 
tribunals,  as  in  his  judgment  might  seem  best,  will  not  be  disputed.  One  need 
only  read  the  act  to  perceive  it  contains  such  provisions.  But  how  all  this  is  sup- 
posed to  have  made  it  my  duty  to  order  the  military  commission  requested,  you 
have  entirely  failed  to  show.  The  power  to  do  a  thing,  if  shown,  and  the  propri- 
ety of  doing  it,  are  often  very  different  matters.  You  observe  you  are  at  a  loss 
to  understand  how  a  government,  without  representation  in  Congress,  or  a  militia 
force,  and  subject  to  military  power,  can  be  said  to  be  in  the  full  exercise  of  all 
its  proper  powers.  You  do  not  reflect  that  this  government,  created  or  permitted 
by  Congress,  has  all  the  powers  which  the  act  intends,  and  may  fully  exercise 
them  accordingly.  If  you  think  it  ought  to  have  more  powers,  should  be  allowed 
to  send  members  to  Congress,  wield  a  militia  force,  and  possess  yet  other  powers, 
your  complaint  is  not  to  be  preferred  against  me,  but  against  Congress,  who  made 
it  what  it  is. 

As  respects  the  issue  between  us,  any  question  as  to  what  Congress  ought  to 
have  done  has  no  pertinence.  You  admit  the  act  of  Congress  authorizes  me  to 
try  an  offender  by  military  commission,  or  allow  the  local  civil  tribunals  to  try, 
as  I  shall  deem  best;  and  you  cannot  deny  the  act  expressly  recognizes  such  local 
civil  tribunals  as  legal  authorities  for  the  purpose  specified.  When  you  contend 
there  are  no  legal  local  tribunals  for  any  purpose  in  Texas ,  you  must  either  deny 
the  plain  reading  of  the  act  of  Congress  or  the  power  of  Congress  to  pass  the 
act. 

You  next  remark  that  you  dissent  from  my  declaration,  ' '  that  the  country 
(Texas)  is  in  a  state  of  profound  peace,"  and  proceed  to  state  the  grounds  of 
your  dissent.  They  appear  to  me  not  a  little  extraordinary.  I  quote  your  words : 
"  It  is  true  there  no  longer  exists  here  (Texas)  any  organized  resistance  to  the 
authority  of  the  United  States."  "  But  a  large  majority  of  the  white  population 
who  participated  in  the  late  rebellion ,  are  embittered  against  the  government, 
and  yield  to  it  an  unwilling  obedience."  Nevertheless,  you  concede  they  do 
yield  it  obedience.     You  proceed : 

"None  of  this  class  have  any  affection  for  the  government,  and  very  few  any 
respect  for  it.  They  regard  the  legislation  of  Congress  on  the  subject  of  recon- 
struction as  unconstitutional  and  hostile  to  their  interests,  and  consider  the  gov- 
ernment now  existing  here  under  authority  of  the  United  States  as  a  usurpation 
on  their  rights.  They  look  on  the  emancipation  of  their  late  slaves  and  the  dis- 
franchisement of  a  portion  of  their  own  class,  as  an  act  of  insult  and  oppression." 

And  this  is  all  you  have  to  present  for  proof  that  war  and  not  peace  prevails  m 
Texas;  and  hence  it  becomes  my  duty — so  you  suppose — to  set  aside  the  local 
civil  tribunals,  and  enforce  the  penal  code  against  citizens  by  means  of  military 
commissions. 

My  dear  sir,  I  am  not  a  lawyer,  nor  has  it  been  my  business,  as  it  may  have 
been  yours,  to  study  the  philosophy  of  statecraft  and  politics.  But  I  may  lay 
claim,  after  an  experience  of  more  than  half  a  lifetime,  to  some  poor  knowledge 
of  men,  and  some  appreciation  of  what  is  necessary  to  social  order  and  happi- 
ness. And  for  the  future  of  our  common  country,  I  could  devoutly  wish  that  no 
great  number  of  our  people  have  yet  fallen  in  with  the  views  you  appear  to  en- 
tertain. Woe  be  to  us  whenever  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  power  of  the  mag- 
istrate—civil or  military— is  permitted  to  deal  with  the  mere  opinions  or  feelings 
of  the  people. 

I  have  been  accustomed  to  believe  that  sentiments  of  respect  or  disrespect, 
and  feelings  of  affection,  love  or  hatred,  so  long  as  not  developed  into  acts  in 


LIFE    OF   WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  21 

violation  of  law,  were  matters  wholly  beyond  the  punitory  power  of  human 
tribunals. 

I  will  maintain  that  the  entire  freedom  of  thought  and  speech,  however  acri- 
moniously indulged,  is  consistent  with  the  noblest  aspirations  of  man,  and  the 
happiest  condition  of  his  race. 

When  a  boy,  I  remember  to  have  read  a  speech  of  Lord  Chatham,  delivered 
in  Parliament.  It  was  during  our  Revolutionary  War,  and  related  to  the  policy 
of  employing  the  savages  on  the  side  of  Britain.  You  may  be  more  familiar  with 
the  speech  than  I  am.  If  I  am  not  greatly  mistaken,  his  lordship  denounced  the 
British  Government — his  government — in  terms  of  unmeasured  bitterness.  He 
characterized  its  policy  as  revolting  to  every  sentiment  of  humanity  and 
religion  ;  proclaimed  it  covered  with  disgrace,  and  vented  his  eternal 
abhorrence  of  it  and  its  measures.  It  may,  I  think,  be  safely  asserted  that 
a  majority  of  the  British  nation  concurred  in  the  views  of  Lord  Chatham. 
But  who  ever  supposed  that  profound  peace  was  not  existing  in  that  kingdom,  or 
that  the  government  had  any  authority  to  question  the  absolute  right  of  the  op- 
position to  express  their  objections  to  the  propriety  of  the  king's  measures  in  any 
words,  or  to  any  extent  they  pleased  ?  It  would  be  diflacult  to  show  that  the  op- 
ponents of  the  government  in  the  days  of  the  elder  Adams,  or  Jefferson,  or  Jack- 
son, exhibited  for  it  either  "affection"  or  "respect."  You  are  conversant  with 
the  history  of  our  past  parties  and  political  struggles  touching  legislation  on  alien- 
age, sedition,  the  embargo,  national  banks,  our  wars  with  England  and  Mexico, 
and  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact,  that  for  one  party  to  assert  that  a  law  or 
system  of  legislation  is  unconstitutional,  oppressive  and  usurpative,  is  not  a 
new  thing  in  the  United  States.  That  the  people  of  Texas  consider  acts  of  Con- 
gress unconstitutional,  oppressive,  or  insulting  to  them,  is  of  no  consequence  to 
the  matter  in  hand.  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  announced  his  opin- 
ion that  these  acts  of  Congress  are  unconstitutional.  The  Supreme  Court,  as 
you  are  aware,  not  long  ago  decided  unanimously  that  a  certain  military  commis- 
sion was  unconstitutional.  Our  people  everywhere,  in  every  state,  without  refer- 
ence to  the  side  they  took  during  the  rebellion,  differ  as  to  the  constitutionality  of 
these  acts  of  Congress.  How  the  matter  really  is,  neither  you  nor  I  may  dogmati- 
cally affirm. 

If  you  deem  them  constitutional  laws,  and  beneficial  to  the  country,  you  not 
only  have  the  right  to  publish  your  opinions,  but  it  might  be  your  bounden  duty 
as  a  citizen  to  do  so.  Not  less  is  it  the  privilege  and  duty  of  any  and  every  citi- 
zen, wherever  residing,  to  publish  his  opinion  freely  and  fearlessly  on  this  and 
every  question  which  he  thinks  concerns  his  interest.  This  is  merely  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  of  our  free  government  ;  and  neither  you  nor  I  would 
wish  to  live  under  any  other.  It  is  time  now,  at  the  end  of  almost  two  years 
from  the  close  of  the  war,  we  should  begin  to  recollect  what  manner  of  people  we 
are  ;  to  tolerate  again  free,  popular  discussion,  and  extend  some  forbearance  and 
consideration  to  opposing  views.  The  maxims  that  in  all  intellectual  contests 
truth  is  mighty  and  must  prevail,  and  that  error  is  harmless  when  reason  is  left 
free  to  combat  it,  are  not  only  sound,  but  salutary.  It  is  a  poor  compliment  to 
the  merits  of  such  a  cause,  that  its  advocates  would  silence  opposition  by  force  ; 
and  generally  those  only  who  are  in  the  wrong  would  resort  to  this  ungener- 
ous means.  I  am  confident  you  will  not  commit  your  serious  judgment 
to  the  proposition  that  any  amount  of  discussion,  or  any  sort  of  opinions, 
however  unwise  in  your  judgment,  or  any  assertion  or  feeling,  how- 
ever resentful  or  bitter,  not  resulting  in  a  breach  of  law,  can  furnish 
justification    for    your    denial    that    profound  peace   exists    in    Texas.       You 


22  LIFE    OP   WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

might  as  well  deny  that  profound  peace  exists  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania^ 
Maryland,  California,  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  where  a  majority  of  the  people  differ 
with  a  minority  on  these  questions  ;  or  that  profound  peace  exists  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  or  the  Senate  at  Washington,  or  in  the  Supreme  Court, 
where  all  these  questions  have  been  repeatedly  discussed,  and  parties  respectfully 
and  patiently  heard.  You  next  complain  that  in  parts  of  the  state  (Texas)  it  is 
difficult  to  enforce  the  criminal  laws  ;  that  sheriffs  fail  to  arrest ;  that  grand 
jurors  will  not  always  indict ;  that  in  some  cases  the  military  acting  in  aid  of  the 
civil  authorities  have  not  been  able  to  execute  the  process  of  the  courts  ;  that, 
petit  jurors  have  acquitted  persons  adjudged  guilty  by  you  ;  and  that  other  per- 
sons charged  with  offences  have  broke  jail  and  fled  from  persecution.  I  know 
not  how  these  things  are  ;  but  admitting  your  representations  literally  true,  if 
for  such  reasons  I  should  set  aside  the  local  civil  tribunals  and  order  a  military 
commission,  there  is  no  place  in  the  United  States  where  it  might  not  be  done 
with  equal  propriety.  There  is  not  a  state  in  the  Union — North  or  South — where 
the  like  facts  are  not  continually  happening.  Perfection  is  not  to  be  predicted 
of  man  or  his  works.  No  one  can  reasonably  expect  certain  and  absolute 
justice  in  human  transactions  ;  and  if  military  power  is  to  be  set  in  motion,  on 
the  principles  for  which  you  would  seem  to  contend,  I  fear  that  a  civil  govern- 
ment, regulated  by  laws,  could  have  no  abiding  place  beneath  the  circuit  of  the 
sun.  It  is  rather  more  than  hinted  in  your  letter,  that  there  is  no  local  state 
government  in  Texas,  and  no  local  laws  outside  of  the  acts  of  Congress,  which  I 
ought  to  respect ;  and  that  I  should  undertake  to  protect  the  rights  of  persons  and 
property  in  my  own  way  and  in  an  arbitrary  manner.  If  such  be  your  meaning, 
I  am  compelled  to  differ  with  you.  After  the  abolition  of  slavery  (an  event 
which  I  hope  no  one  now  regrets),  the  laws  of  Louisiana  and  Texas  existing  prior 
to  the  rebellion  and  not  in  conflict  with  the  acts  of  Congress,  comprised  a  vast 
system  of  jurisprudence,  both  civil  and  criminal.  It  required  not  volumes  only, 
but  libraries  to  contain  them.  They  laid  down  principles  and  precedents  for 
ascertaining  the  rights  and  adjusting  the  controversies  of  men  in  every  conceiv- 
able case.  They  were  the  creations  of  great  and  good  and  learned  men,  who  had 
labored,  in  their  day,  for  their  kind,  and  gone  down  to  the  grave  long  before  our 
recent  troubles,  leaving  their  works  an  inestimable  legacy  to  the  human  race. 
These  laws,  as  I  am  informed,  connected  the  civilization  of  past  and  present  ages, 
and  testified  of  the  justice,  wisdom,  humanity  and  patriotism  of  more  than  one 
nation,  through  whose  records  they  descended  to  the  present  people  of  the  states. 
I  am  satisfied,!" rom  the  representations  of  persons  competent  to  judge,  they  are  as  per- 
fect a  system  of  laws  as  may  be  found  elsewhere,  and  better  suited  than  any  other  to 
the  condition  of  this  people,  for  by  them  they  have  long  been  governed.  Why  should 
it  be  supposed  Congress  has  abolished  these  laws  ?  Why  should  any  one  wish 
to  abolish  them  ?  They  have  committed  no  treason,  nor  are  hostile  to  the  United 
States,  nor  countenance  crime,  nor  favor  injustice.  On  them,  as  on  a  foundation 
of  rock,  reposes  almost  the  entire  superstructure  of  social  order  in  these  two 
States.  Annul  this  code  of  local  laws,  and  there  would  be  no  longer  any  rights, 
either  of  person  or  property,  here.  Abolish  the  local  civil  tribunals  made  to 
execute  them,  and  you  would  virtually  annul  the  laws,  except  in  reference  to  the 
very  few  cases  cognizable  in  the  Federal  courts.  Let  us  for  a  moment  suppose 
the  whole  local  civil  code  annulled,  and  that  I  am  left,  as  commander  of  the  Fifth 
Military  District,  the  sole  fountain  of  law  and  justice.  This  is  the  position  in 
which  you  would  place  me. 

I  am  now  to  protect  all  rights  and  redress  all  wrongs.     How  is  it  possible  for 
me  to  do  it  ?    Innumerable  questions  arise,  of  which  I  am  not  only  ignorant,, 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  23 

but  to  the  solution  of  which  a  military  court  is  entirely  unfitted.  One  would 
establish  a  will,  another  a.  deed  ;  or  the  question  is  one  of  succession,  or  partner- 
ship, or  descent,  or  trust ;  a  suit  of  ejectment  or  claim  to  chattels  ;  or  the  appli- 
cation may  relate  to  robbery,  theft,  arson,  or  murder.  How  am  I  to  take  the 
first  step  in  any  such  matter  ?  If  I  turn  to  the  acts  of  Congress  I  find  nothing 
on  the  subject.  I  dare  not  open  the  authors  on  the  local  code,  for  it  has  ceased 
to  exist ! 

And  you  tell  me  that  in  this  perplexing  condition  I  am  to  furnish  by  dint  of 
my  own  hasty  and  crude  judgment,  the  legislation  demanded  by  the  vast  and 
manifold  interests  of  the  people  !  I  repeat,  sir,  that  you,  and  not  Congress,  are 
responsible  for  the  monstrous  suggestion  that  there  are  no  local  laws  or  institu- 
tions here  to  be  respected  by  me,  outside  the  acts  of  Congress.  I  say  unhesitat- 
ingly, if  it  were  possible  that  Congress  should  pass  an  act  abolishing  the  local 
codes  for  Louisiana  and  Texas — which  I  do  not  believe — and  it  should  fall  to  my 
lot  to  supply  their  places  with  something  of  my  own,  I  do  not  see  how  I  could  do 
better  than  follow  the  laws  in  force  here  prior  to  the  rebellion,  excepting  what- 
ever therein  shall  relate  to  slavery.  Power  may  destroy  the  forms,  but  not  the 
principles  of  justice  ;  these  will  live  in  spite  even  of  the  sword.  History  tells  us 
that  the  Roman  pandects  were  lost  for  a  long  period  among  the  rubbish  that  war 
and  revolution  had  heaped  upon  them,  but  at  length  were  dug  out  of  the  ruins — 
again  to  be  regarded  as  a  precious  treasure. 

You  are  pleased  to  state  that  "  since  the  publication  of  (my)  General  Orders  No. 
40,  there  has  been  a  perceptible  increase  of  crime  and  manifestations  of  hostile 
feeling  toward  the  government  and  its  supporters,"  and  add  that  it  is  "an  un- 
pleasant duty  to  give  such  a  recital  of  the  condition  of  the  country." 

You  will  permit  me  to  say  that  I  deem  it  impossible  the  first  of  these  state- 
ments can  be  true,  and  that  I  do  very  greatly  doubt  the  correctness  of  the  sec- 
ond. General  Orders  No.  40  was  issued  at  New  Orleans,  November  29, 1867,  and 
your  letter  was  dated  January  17,  1868.  Allowing  time  for  Order  No.  40  to  reach 
Texas  and  become  generally  known,  some  additional  time  must  have  elapsed 
before  its  effect  would  be  manifested,  and  yet  a  further  time  must  transpire  be- 
fore you  would  be  able  to  collect  the  evidence  of  what  you  term  "  the  condition 
of  the  country ;"  and  yet,  after  all  this,  you  would  have  to  make  the  necessary 
in  (^estigations  to  ascertain  if  Order  No.  40  or  something  else  was  the  cause.  The 
time,  therefore,  remaining  to  enable  you,  before  the  17th  of  January,  1868,  to 
reach  a  satisfactory  conclusion  on  so  delicate  and  nice  a  question  must  have  been 
very  short.  How  you  proceeded,  whether  you  investigated  yourself  or  through 
third  persons,  and  if  so,  who  they  were,  what  their  competency  and  fairness,  on 
what  evidence  you  rested  your  conclusion,  or  whether  you  ascertained  any  facts 
at  all,  are  points  upon  which  your  letter  so  discreetly  omits  all  mention,  that  I 
may  well  be  excused  for  not  relying  implicitly  upon  it ;  nor  is  my  difficulty  di- 
minished by  the  fact  that  in  another  part  of  your  letter  you  state  that  ever  since 
the  close  of  the  war  a  very  large  portion  of  the  people  have  had  no  affection  for 
the  government,  but  bitterness  of  feeling  only.  Had  the  duty  of  publishing  and 
circulating  through  the  country  long  before  it  reached  me,  your  statement  that 
the  action  of  the  district  commander  was  increasing  crime  and  hostile  feeling 
against  the  government,  been  less  painful  to  your  sensibilities,  it  might  possibly 
have  occurred  to  you  to  furnish  something  on  the  subject  in  addition  to  your 
bare  assertion. 

But  what  was  Order  No.  40,  and  how  could  it  have  the  effect  you  attribute 
to  it  ?  It  sets  forth  that  "  the  great  principles  of  American  liberty  are  still  the 
inheritance  of  this  people  and  ever  should  be  ;  that  the  right  of  trial  by  jury,  the 


24  LIFE    OF   WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

habeas  corpus,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  the  freedom  of  speech,  and  the  natural 
rights  of  persons  and  property  must  be  preserved. "  Will  you  question  the  truth 
of  these  declarations  ?  Which  one  of  these  great  principles  of  liberty  are  you 
ready  to  deny  and  repudiate?  Whoever  does  so,  avows  himself  the  enemy  of 
human  liberty  and  the  advocate  of  despotism.  Was  there  any  intimation  in  Gen- 
eral Orders  No.  40  that  any  crimes  or  breaches  of  law  would  be  countenanced  ? 
You  know  that  there  was  not.  On  the  contrary,  you  know  perfectly  well  that 
while  "  the  consideration  of  crime  and  offences  committed  in  the  Fifth  Military 
District  was  referred  to  the  judgment  of  the  regular  civil  tribunals,"  a  pledge  was 
given  in  Order  No.  40,  which  all  understood,  that  tribunals  would  be  supported 
in  their  lawful  jurisdiction,  and  that  "forcible  resistance  to  law  would  be  in- 
stantly suppressed  by  arms. "  You  will  not  affirm  that  this  pledge  has  ever  been 
forfeited.  There  has  not  been  a  moment  since  I  have  been  in  command  of  the 
Fifth  District  when  the  whole  military  force  in  my  hands  has  not  been  ready  to 
support  the  civil  authorities  of  Texas  in  the  execution  of  the  laws.  And  I  am 
unwilling  to  believe  they  would  refuse  to  call  for  aid  if  they  needed  it. 

There  are  some  considerations  which,  ^it  seems  to  me,  should  cause  you  to 
hesitate  before  indulging  in  wholesale  censure  against  the  civil  authorities  of 
Texas.  You  are  yourself  the  chief  of  these  authorities,  not  elected  by  the  people, 
but  created  by  the  military.  Not  long  after  you  had  thus  come  into  office,  all 
the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Texas — five  in  number — were  removed  from 
office,  and  new  appointments  made  ;  twelve  of  the  seventeen  district  judges  were 
removed,  and  others  appointed.  County  officers,  more  or  less,  in  iseventy-five 
out  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  eight  counties,  were  removed,  and  others  ap- 
pointed in  their  places.  It  is  fair  to  conclude  that  the  executive  and  judicial 
civil  f  anctionaries  in  Texas  are  the  persons  whom  you  desired  to  fill  the  offices. 
It  is  proper  to  mention,  also,  that  none  but  registered  citizens,  and  only  those 
who  could  take  the  test  oath,  have  been  allowed  to  serve  as  j  urors  during  your 
administration.  Now,  it  is  against  this  local  government  created  by  military 
power  prior  to  my  coming  here,  and  so  composed  of  your  personal  and  political 
friends,  that  you  have  preferred  the  most  grievous  complaints.  It  is  of  them  that 
you  have  asserted  they  will  not  do  their  duty;  they  will  not  maintain  justice; 
will  not  arrest  offenders;  will  not  punish  crimes;  and  that  out  of  one  hundred 
homicides  committed  in  the  last  twelve  months,  not  over  ten  arrests  have  been 
made;  and  by  means  of  such  gross  disregard  of  duty,  you  declare  that  neither 
property  nor  life  is  safe  in  Texas. 

Certainly  you  could  have  said  nothing  more  to  the  discredit  of  the  officials  who 
are  now  in  office.  If  the  facts  be  as  you  allege,  a  mystery  is  presented  for  which 
I  can  imagine  no  explanation.  Why  is  it  that  your  political  friends,  backed  up 
and  sustained  by  the  whole  military  power  of  the  United  States  in  this  district, 
should  be  unwilling  to  enforce  the  laws  against  that  part  of  the  population  lately 
in  rebellion,  and  whom  you  represent  as  the  offenders  ?  In  all  the  history  of 
these  troubles  I  have  never  seen  nor  heard  before  of  such  a  fact.  I  repeat,  if  the 
fact  be  so,  it  is  a  profound  mystery,  utterly  surpassing  my  comprehension.  I  am 
constrained  to  declare  that  I  believe  you  are  in  very  great  error  as  to  facts.  On 
careful  examination  at  the  proper  source,  1  find  that  at  the  date  of  your  letter 
four  cases  only  of  homicides  had  been  reported  to  these  headquarters  as  having 
occurred  since  November  29,  1867,  the  date  of  Order  40,  and  these  cases  were 
ordered  to  be  tried  or  investigated  as  soon  as  the  reports  were  received.  How- 
ever, the  fact  of  the  one  hundred  homicides  may  still  be  correct,  as  stated  by 
you.     The  Freedman's  Bureau  in  Texas  reported  one  hundred  and  sixty  ;  how 


LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  25 

many  of  these  were  by  Indians  and  Mexicans,  and  how  the  remainder  were  clas- 
sified, is  not  known,  nor  is  it  known  whether  these  data  are  accurate. 

The  report  of  the  commanding  oflScer  of  the  District  of  Texas  shows  that  since 
I  assumed  command  no  applications  have  been  made  to  him  by  you  for  the  arrest 
of  criminals  in  the  State  of  Texas. 

To  this  date  eighteen  cases  of  homicides  have  been  reported  to  me  as  having 
occurred  since  November  29,  1867,  although  special  instructions  had  been  given 
to  report  such  cases  as  they  occur.  Of  these,  five  were  committed  by  Indians, 
one  by  a  Mexican,  one  by  an  insane  man,  three  by  colored  men,  two  of  women 
by  their  husbands,  and  of  the  remainder  some  by  parties  unknown— all  of  which 
could  be  scarcely  attributable  to  Order  No.  40.  If  the  reports  received  since  the 
issuing  of  Order  No.  40  are  correct,  they  exhibit  no  increase  of  homicides  in  my 
time,  if  you  are  correct  that  one  hundred  had  occurred  in  the  past  twelve 
months. 

That  there  has  not  been  a  perfect  administration  of  justice  in  Texas  I  am  not 
prepared  to  deny. 

That  there  has  been  no  such  wanton  disregard  of  duty  on  the  part  of  officials  as 
you  allege,  I  am  well  satisfied.  A  very  little  while  ago  you  regarded  the  present 
ofBcials  in  Texas  the  only  ones  who  could  be  safely  trusted  with  power.  Now 
you  pronounce  them  worthless,  and  would  cast  them  aside. 

I  have  found  little  else  in  your  letter  but  indications  of  temper,  lashed  into 
excitement  by  causes  which  I  deem  mostly  imaginary,  a  great  confidence  in  the 
accuracy  of  your  own  opinions,  and  an  intolerance  of  the  opinions  of  others,  a 
desire  to  punish  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  those  who  differ  from  you,  and  an 
impatience  which  magnifies  the  shortcomings  of  officials  who  are  perhaps  as 
earnest  and  conscientious  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  as  yourself,  and  a  most 
unsound  conclusion  that  while  any  persons  are  to  be  found  wanting  in  affection 
or  respect  for  government,  or  yielding  its  obedience  from  motives  which  you  do 
not  approve,  war,  and  not  peace,  is  the  status,  and  all  such  persons  are  the  proper 
subjects  for  military  penal  jurisdiction. 

If  I  have  written  anything  to  disabuse  your  mind  of  so  grave  an  error,  I  shall 
be  gratified. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HANCOCK,  "^ 

Major-General  Commanding. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  about  this  time  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  to  reduce  the  number  of  major-generals  in  the  army, 
the  object  being  to  reach  Gen.  Hancock,  and  wreak  upon  him  a  paltry  ven- 
geance for  his  manly  and  independent  conduct.  It  came  originally  from  the 
hands  of  James  A.  Garfield,  a  member  from  Ohio,  who  had  left  the  army  in  the 
field  to  accept  his  seat,  and  who,  cowering  under  the  party  lash  of  Mr.  Stevens, 
had  been  voting  undistinguished  in  the  crowd  of  reckless  partisans,  for  all  the 
reconstruction  laws  "outside  the  Constitution." 

Gen.  Hancock  retired  from  the  command  of  the  Fifth  Military  District  with 
an  assured  reputation  for  enlightened  statesmanship  of  the  highest  order.  He 
was  never  again  called  upon  to  deal  with  civil  affairs,  nearly  or  remotely,  until 
December,  1875.  During  all  that  year,  it  will  be  remembered,  Mr.  Bristow,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  had  been  endeavoring,  by  methods,  ordinary  and  extra- 
ordinary, to  break  up  the  Whiskey  Ring  which  had  been  robbing  the  govern- 
ment of  vast  sums,  and  to  bring  some  of  its  guilty  members  to  justice.  Among 
others.  Gen.  Babcock,  the  near  personal  friend  and  private  Secretary  of  Presi- 
dent   Grant,  was  accused     of  complicity  in    the    frauds    and    duly    indicted 


26  LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

at  St.  Louis.  Then  began  one  of  the  most  remarkable  contests  ever  seen. 
The  President  seemed  fatally  bent  upon  protecting  Babcock  at  any 
cost.  The  Attorney-General  was  equally  determined.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
District  Attorney  at  St.  Louis  was  thoroughly  convinced  of  his  guilt  and  anx- 
ious to  bring  him  to  trial.  How  could  the  favorite  be  dragged  out  of  the  very 
jaws  of  justice  which  then  stood  open  to  crush  him  ?  He  was  an  officer  in  the 
army,  and  if  the  President  could  be  induced  to  order  a  court  of  inquiry,  the  evi- 
dence might  be  taken  from  the  prosecutor  at  St.  Louis  and  turned  over  to  the 
Judge  Advocate,  then  again  conveniently  superseding  the  civil  law  by  the  mili- 
tary authorities.  Babcock  asked  for  the  court  and  it  was  ordered.  Things 
might  have  gone  very  smoothly  and  reached  a  conclusion  in  accordance  with  the 
original  intention  but  for  the  fact  that  Gen.  Hancock  was  a  member.  It  was  im. 
possible  to  befog  his  clear  understanding  as  to  the  proper  relations  of  the  mili- 
tary either  to  the  crime  or  the  accused,  and  the  following  is  the  brief  record  of 
the  first  and  the  last  meeting  of  the  court: 

SPEECH  AND  MOTION  IN  BABCOCK  CASE. 

Gen.  "W.  8.  Hancock  arose  in  his  place  and  addressing  the  Court,  said: 

Mr.  President:  I  have  a  motion  to  make  to  the  Court  which  will  be  proper 
to  be  made  before  the  Court  is  sworn,  if  it  be  made  at  all.  If  the  Court  are  pre- 
pared to  hear  me,  I  will  proceed  at  once. 

Lieut. -Gen.  Sheridan:  Proceed,  General;  the  Court  will  hear  you. 

Gen.  Hancock  then  read  the  following  motion:  "A  sense  of  duty  to  the  laws,  to 
the  military  service,  and  to  the  accused  impels  me  to  ask  your  concurrence  in  a 
postponement  of  this  inquiry  for  the  present.  We  are  all  bound  to  believe  in  the 
entire  innocence  of  Gen.  Babcock,  and  this  presumption  cannot  be  repelled  with- 
out the  evidence.  It  is  due  to  him  to  suppose  that  the  court  of  inquiry  was  asked 
in  good  fhith  for  the  reasons  given.  What  were  these  reasons?  In  the  course  of 
a  legal  trial  in  St.  Louis,  Col.  Babcock  was  alleged  to  be  guilty  of  a  high  crimi- 
nal offense.  He  asked  for  a  hearing  in  the  same  Court,  but  was  informed  that 
he  could  not  have  it,  because  the  evidence  was  closed.  These  circumstances  had 
led  him  to  demand  a  court  of  inquiry,  as  the  only  means  of  vindication  that  was 
left.  Since  then  he  has  been  formally  indicted,  and  is  now  certain  of  getting 
that  full  and  fair  trial  before  an  impartial  jury  which  the  laws  of  the  country 
guarantee  to  all  its  citizens.  The  supposed  necessity  of  convening  a  military 
court  for  the  determination  of  his  guilt  or  innocence  no  longer  exists.  It  is  not 
believed  that  our  action  as  a  military  tribunal  can  oust  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Court  in  which  the  indictment  is  pending.  The  President  has  said  through  the 
Attorney-General,  that  such  was  not  the  intention.  Then  the  trial  at  St.  Louis 
and  this  inquiry  must  go  on  at  the  same  time,  unless  we  await  the  result  of  the 
inquiry  there. 

"The  difficulties  are  very  formidable.  The  accused  must  be  present  at  the  trial 
of  the  indictment.  Shall  we  proceed  and  hear  the  cause  behind  his  back,  or 
shall  we  vex  him  with  two  trials  at  once?    The  injustice  of  this  is  manifest. 

"I  presume  from  the  nature  of  the  case  that  the  evidence  is  very  voluminous, 
consisting  of  records,  papers  and  oral  testimony.  Can  we  compel  the  production 
of  these  while  they  are  wanted  for  the  purposes  of  the  trial  at  St.  Louis?  Cer- 
tainly not,  if  the  military  be,  as  the  Constitution  declares,  subordinate  to  the 
civil  authorities.  Shall  we  proceed  without  evidence  and  give  an  opinion  in  ig- 
norance of  the  facts?  That  cannot  be  the  wish  of  anybody.  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  trial  at  St.  Louis  will  be  fair  as  well  as  legal,  and  that  the  judgment  will 


LIFE    OF   WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK.  27 

be  according  to  the  very  truth  and  justice  of  the  cause.  It  will,  without  ques- 
tion, be  binding  and  conclusive  upon  us,  upon  the  government,  upon  the  ac- 
cused and  upon  the  world.  If  he  should  be  convicted,  no  decision  of  ours  could 
rescue  him  from  the  hands  of  the  law.  If  he  is  acquitted,  our  belief  in  his  inno- 
cence will  be  of  no  consequence.  If  we  anticipate  the  trial  in  the  civil  court, 
our  judgment,  whether  for  the  accused  or  against  him,  will  have,  and  ought  to 
have,  no  effect  upon  the  jurors.  It  cannot  even  be  made  known  to  them,  and 
any  attempt  to  influence  them  by  it  would  justly  be  regarded  as  an  obstructioa 
of  public  justice.  On  the  other  hand,  his  conviction  there  would  be  conclusive 
evidence  of  his  guilt,  and  his  acquittal  will  relieve  him  of  the  necessity  of 
showing  anything  but  the  record.  I  do  [not  propose  to  postpone  indefi- 
nitely, but  simply  to  adjourn  from  day  to  day  until  the  evidence  upon 
the  subject  of  our  inquiry  shall  receive  that  definite  and  conclu- 
sive shape  which  will  be  impressed  upon  it  by  the  verdict  of  the  jury;^ 
or  until  our  action,  having  been  referred  to  the  War  Department,  with 
our  opinion  that  our  proceedings  should  be  stayed  during  the  proceedings  of  the 
court  of  law,  shall  have  been  confirmed.  In  case  of  acquittal  by  the  civil  court, 
the  functions  of  this  court  will  not  necessarily  have  terminated.  The  accused 
may  be  pronounced  innocent  of  any  crime  against  the  statute,  and  yet  be  guilty 
of  some  act  which  the  military  law  might  punish  by  expulsion  from  the  army. 
In  case  of  acquittal,  he  may  insist  upon  showing  to  us  that  he  has  done  nothing- 
inconsistent  with  "the conduct  of  an  oflicer  and  a  gentleman,"  as  the  article  of 
war  runs  ;  but  the  great  and  important  question  is,  "  Guilty  or  not,  in  manner 
and  form,  as  he  stands  indicted  ?  "  and  this  can  be  legally  answered  only  by  a 
jury  of  his  country." 

ADDRESS  AT   WASHINGTON   OVATION. 

On  September  34,  1867,  while  Gen.  Hancock  was  on  his  way  to  New  Orleans 
to  take  command  there,  a  grand  ovation  was  tendered  him  at  the  Metropolitan 
Hotel  in  Washington  city.  The  National  Intelligencer  of  the  next  da}'-,  speaking 
of  the  ovation,  said:  "When  considered  that  it  was  a  spontaneous  offering  of 
the  citizens  of  the  District,  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  triumphant  recognition  of  the 
noble  character  of  the  citizen  and  soldier  who  was  the  recipient  of  the  honor  paid 
him  on  this  occasion." 

An  immense  audience  was  assembled,  and  Gen.  Hancock  was  introduced  by 
Hon.  Amasa  Cobb,  of  Wisconsin,  then  a  Republican  member  of  Congress,  and 
now  a  Republican  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Nebraska.     Gen.  Cobb  said : 

"  To  me  has  been  intrusted  the  pleasant  duty  of  appearing  before  you  in  the  ca- 
pacity of  an  old  friend  and  comrade  of  the  cistinguished  general  now  before  you, 
to  introduce  him  to  you  on  this  occasion.  Six  years  ago  I  had  the  honor  to  be  in 
command  of  a  volunteer  regiment  in  the  Anny  of  the  Potomac,  and,  with  three 
other  regiments,  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  placed  under  the  command  of  the 
then  newly  appointed  Brig.  Gen.  Hancock.  During  the  long  and  tedious  winler 
of  1861  and  1862,  we  did  duty  in  front  of  this  capital,  devoting  the  days  to  disci, 
pline  and  the  nights  to  watching  and  picket.  We  were  volunteers.  The  general 
was  a  regular  army  officer.  All  of  you  who  passed  through  similar  experience 
will  bear  me  witness  that  the  volunteers  felt  the  rigors  of  discipline  when  placed 
under  such  disciplinarians  as  that  army  was  commanded  by,  and  its  discipline 
and  after  efficiency  was  owing  chiefly,  if  not  wholly,  to  this  fact.  The  winter 
passed  away,  and  the  army  finally  moved,  and  in  the  course  of  the  war  they  were 
brought  in  front  of  the  enemy.  Gen.  Hancock's  first  brigade  succeeded  in  turn, 
ing  the  enemy's  left  at  Williamsbu  -g,  and  afterwards  he  prevented  the  victorious 


28  LIFE    OF    WINFIELD    S.    HANCOCK. 

enemy  from  driving  tlie  lines  of  McClellan  from  the  Chickahominy,  and  later  on 
it  came  up  to  save  the  day  at  Antietam,  and  now  I  esteem  it  a  great  honor  be- 
stowed upon  me  and  my  old  regiment  to  have  the  opportunity  of  standing  here 
by  that  great  general's  side,  bearing  testimony  to  his  kindness  of  heart,  his  gal- 
lantry as  a  soldier  and  his  trueness  as  a  man." 

The  speaker  here  turned  to  Gen.  Hancock  and  said: 

"  Allow  me  to  say  that  to  your  new  field  of  duty  the  hearts  of  your  old  brigade 
go  with  you,  knowing  that  wherever  you  may  go  the  country  will  have  a  brave 
and  efficient  soldier,  and  that  flag  a  gallant  defender." 

Gen.  Hancock  was  received  with  much  applause,  and  replied  as  follows : 

"  Citizens  of  Washington:  I  thank  you  for  this  testimony  of  your  confidence  in 
my  ability  to  perform  my  duty  in  a  new  and  different  sphere.  Educated  as  a  sol- 
dier in  the  military  school  of  our  country,  and  on  the  field  of  the  Mexican  war 
and  American  rebellion,  I  need  not  assure  you  that  my  course  as  a  district  com- 
mander will  be  characterized  by  the  same  strict  obedience  to  the  law  there  taught 
me  as  a  soldier.  1  know  no  other  guide  or  higher  duty.  Misrepresentation  and 
misconstruction  arising  from  the  passions  of  the  hour,  and  spread  by  those  who 
do  not  know  that  devotion  to  duty  has  governed  my  actions  in  every  trying  hour, 
may  meet  me,  but  I  fear  them  not.  My  highest  desire  will  be  to  perform  the 
duties  of  my  new  sphere,  not  in  the  interest  of  parties  or  partisans,  but  for  the 
benefit  of  my  country,  the  honor  of  my  profession,  and  I  trust  also  for  the  welfare 
of  the  people  committed  to  my  care.  I  ask,  then,  citizens,  that  time  may  be  per- 
mitted to  develop  my  actions.  Judge  me  by  the  deeds  I  may  perform,  and  con- 
scious of  my  devotion  to  duty  and  my  country,  I  shall  be  satisfied  with  your  ver- 
dict, and  if  a  generous  country  shall  approve  my  actions  in  the  future,  as  it  has 
in  the  past,  my  highest  ambition  will  have  been  achieved.  As  a  soldier,  I  am  to 
administer  the  laws,  rather  than  discuss  them.  If  I  can  administer  them  to  the 
satisfaction  of  my  country,  I  shall  indeed  be  happy  in  the  consciousness  of  a  duty 
performed.  I  am  about  to  leave  your  city — the  capital  of  our  country — bearing 
the  proud  name  of  Washington.  As  an  American  citizen,  the  rapid  development 
and  increase  of  its  wealth,  beauty  and  prosperity  is  a  matter  in  which  I  am  deeply 
interested i  but  far  beyond  this,  citizens  of  Washington,  I  rejoice  with  you  that, 
in  the  trying  hour  of  the  rebellion,  the  capital  of  the  nation  contributed  as  fully 
in  proportion  to  its  numbers  as  any  state  in  the  Union  to  the  brave  volunteer 
army  which  has  demonstrated  to  the  world  the  strength  and  invincibility  of  a 
republican  form  of  government.  I  shall  carry  with  me  the  recollections  of  this 
occasion,  and  when  I  return,  may  I  not  hope  that  none  who  are  here  will  regret 
their  participation  in  the  honor  you  have  done  me  to-night  ?" 

Since  1868  Gen.  Hancock  has  been  in  command  of  the  Department  of  Dakota 
and  the  Military  Division  of  the  Atlantic  ;  but  his  pre-eminent  qualifications 
for  the  Presidency  have  from  that  time  to  this  been  widely  recognized  by  his 
countrymen  ;  and  although  himself  seeking  no  such  distinction,  and  promoting 
no  steps  in  that  direction,  his  name  has  commanded  a  large  vote  in  every  suc- 
ceeding Democratic  convention,  until,  by  the  last,  he  was  unanimously  nomi- 
nated for  that  great  oflBice. 


HANCOCK   TO    SHERMAN.  29 


HANCOCK  TO  SHERMAN. 


Congress  met  on  December  4th,  1876.  The  results  of  the  returning  board's 
frauds  in  Louisiana,  South  Carolina  and  Florida,  were  then  known  throughout  the 
country.  A  large  number  of  troops  were  concentrated  at  Washington,  and  there 
was  much  apprehension  that  the  army  would  be  called  upon  to  take  part  in  the  set- 
tlement of  the  presidential  contest.  General  Sherman,  commanding  the  army  of 
the  United  States,  consulted  with  his  immediate  subordinates  as  to  their  views  of 
their  duty  under  these  circumstances.  He  wrote  to  General  Hancock  two  letters, 
one  on  the  4th  of  December,  1876,  and  the  other  on  the  17th  of  the  same  month. 
General  Hancock  replied  to  these  letters  on  December  28th,  from  Carondelet, 
near  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

After  Hancock's  nomination  for  the  presidency,  the  Republican  press  circulated 
a  story  that  between  the  presidential  election  of  1876,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  Electoral  Commission,  General  Hancock,  had  written  a  letter  to  General  Sher- 
man, declaring  his  intention  "  to  take  his  orders  from  Mr.  Tilden,"  and  express- 
ing treasonable  sentiments.  The  statements  of  Republican  newspapers  were  not 
refuted  for  some  time  for  the  reason  that  General  Sherman  was  absent  in  the  far 
West,  and  the  letter  could  not  with  propriety  be  published  without  his  consent. 
That  consent  was  given  at  the  end  of  July  last,  and  the  letter  was  first  published 
on  the  1st  of  August.  Its  publication  has  not  only  absolutely  refuted  the  false- 
hoods which  had  been  circulated  in  relation  to  it,  but  has  resulted  in  making 
plain  to  the  world  General  Hancock's  profound  statesmanship  and  his  pre- 
eminent fitness  for  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States. 

GENERAL  HANCOCK  TO  GENERAL  SHERMAN. 

Carondelet  P.  C,  > 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  December  28,  1876.  y 

My  Bear  Oeneral :  Your  favor  of  the  4th  instant  reached  me  in  New  York 
on  the  5th,  the  day  before  I  left  for  the  West.  I  intended  to  reply  to  it  before 
leaving,  but  cares  incident  to  departure  interfered.  Then  again,  since  my  arrival 
here  I  have  been  so  occupied  with  personal  affairs  of  a  business  nature  that  I  have 
deferred  writing  from  day  to  day  until  this  moment,  and  now  I  find  myself  in 
debt  to  you  another  letter  in  acknowledgment  of  your  favor  of  the  17th,  received 
a  few  days  since. 

I  have  concluded  to  leave  here  on  the  29th  (to-morrow)  P.  M.,  so  that  I  may  be 
expected  in  New  York  on  the  31st  instant.  It  has  been  cold  and  dreary  since  my 
arrival  here.  I  have  worked  "  like  a  Turk  "  (I  presume  that  means  hard  work 
in  the  country,  in  making  fences,  cutting  down  trees,  repairing  buildings,  &c., 
&c.,  and  am  at  least  able  to  say  that  St.  Louis  is  the  coldest  place  in  the  winter, 
as  it  is  the  hottest  in  summer,  of  any  that  I  have  encountered  in  a  temperate 
zone.     I  have  known  St.  Louis  in  December  to  have  genial  weather  throughout 


so  HANCOCK    TO    SHERMAN. 

the  month ;  this  December  has  been  frigid,  and  the  river  has  been  frozen  more 
solid  than  I  have  ever  known  it. 

When  I  heard  the  rumor  that  I  was  ordered  to  the  Pacific  coast  I  thought  it 
probably  true,  considering  the  past  discussion  on  that  subject.  The  possibilities 
seemed  to  me  to  point  that  way.  Had  it  been  true  I  should,  of  course,  have  pre- 
sented no  complaint  nor  made  resistance  of  any  kind.  I  would  have  gone  quietly 
if  not  prepared  to  go  promptly.  I  certainly  would  have  been  relieved  from  the 
responsibilities  and  anxieties  concerning  Presidential  matters  which  may  fall  to 
those  near  the  throne  or  in  authority  within  the  next  four  months,  as  well  as  from 
other  incidents  or  matters  which  1  could  not  control,  and  the  action  concerning 
which  I  might  not  approve.  I  was  not  exactly  prepared  to  go  to  the  Pacific, 
iiowever,  and  I  therefore  felt  relieved  when  I  received  your  note  informing  me 
that  there  was  no  truth  in  the  rumors. 

Then,  I  did  not  wish  to  appear  to  be  escaping  from  responsibilities  and  possible 
dangers  which  may  cluster  around  military  commanders  in  the  East,  especially 
in  the  critical  period  fast  approaching.  All's  well  that  ends  well.  The  whole 
matter  of  the  Presidency  seems  to  me  to  be  simple,  and  to  admit  of  a  peaceful 
solution.  The  machinery  for  such  a  contingency  as  threatens  to  present  itself 
has  been  all  carefully  prepared.  It  only  requires  lubrication,  owing  to  dis- 
use. The  army  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  selection  or  inauguration  of 
Presidents.  The  people  elect  the  President.  The  Congress  declares  in  a  joint 
session  who  he  is.  We  of  the  army  have  only  to  obey  his  mandates,  and  are 
protected  in  so  doing  only  so  far  as  they  may  be  lawful.  Our  commissions  ex- 
press that.  I  like  Jefferson's  way  of  inauguration  ;  it  suits  our  system.  He  rode 
alone  on  horseback  to  the  Capitol  (I  fear  it  was  the  "Old  Capitol"),  tied  his 
horse  to  a  rail  fence,  entered  and  was  duly  sworn,  then  rode  to  the  Executive 
Mansion  and  took  possession.  He  inaugurated  himself,  simply  by  taking  the 
oath  of  office.  There  is  no  other  legal  inauguration  in  our  system.  The  people 
or  politicians  may  institute  parades  in  honor  of  the  event,  and  public  officials  may 
add  to  the  pageant  by  assembling  troops  and  banners,  but  all  that  only  comes 
properly  after  the  inauguration — not  before ,  and  it  is  not  a  part  of  it.  Our  system 
does  not  provide  that  one  President  should  inaugurate  another.  There  might  be 
danger  in  that,  and  it  was  studiously  left  out  of  the  charter.  But  you  are  placed 
in  an  exceptionally  important  position  in  connection  with  coming  events.  The 
capital  is  in  my  jurisdictioa  also,  but  I  am  a  subordinate,  and  not  on  the  spot, 
and  if  I  were,  so  also  would  be  my  superior  in  authority,  for  there  is  the  station 
of  the  General-in-Chief. 

On  the  principle  that  a  regularly  elected  President's  term  of  office  expires  with 
the  3d  of  March  (of  which  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt),  and  which  the  laws 
bearing  on  the  subject  uniformly  recognize,  and  in  consideration  of  the  possibility 
that  the  lawfully  elected  President  may  not  appear  until  the  5th  of  March,  a  great 
deal  of  responsibility  may  necessarily  fall  upon  you.  You  hold  over !  You  will 
have  power  and  prestige  to  support  you.  The  Secretary  of  War,  too,  probably, 
holds  over;  but  if  no  President  appears,  he  may  not  be  able  to  exercise  functions 
in  the  name  of  a  President,  for  his  proper  acts  are  those  of  a  known  superior — a 
lawful  President.  You  act  on  your  own  responsibility  and  by  virtue  of  a  com- 
mission, only  restricted  by  the  law.  The  Secretary  of  War  is  the  mouthpiece  of 
a  President.  You  are  not.  If  neither  candidate  has  a  constitutional  majority  of 
the  Electoral  College,  or  the  Senate  and  House  on  the  occasion  of  the  count  do  not 
unite  in  declaring  some  person  legally  elected  by  the  people,  there  is  a  lawful  ma- 
chinery already  proyided  to  meet  that  contingency  and  decide  the  question  peace- 


HAN'COCK    TO    SHERMAN.  31 

fully.  It  has  not  been  recently  used,  no  occasion  presenting  itself,  but  our  fore- 
fathers provided  it.  It  has  been  exercised,  and  has  been  recognized  and  submitted 
to  as  lawful  on  every  hand.  That  machinery  would  probably  elect  Mr.  Tilden 
President  and  Mr.  Wheeler  Vice-President.  That  would  be  right  enough,  for  the 
law  provides  that  in  a  failure  to  elect  duly  by  the  people, the  House  shall  immediately 
elect  the  President  and  the  Senate  the  Vice-President.  Some  tribunal  must  de- 
cide whether  the  people  have  duly  elected  a  President.  I  presume,  of  course, 
that  it  is  in  the  joint  affirmative  action  of  the  Senate  and  House,  or  why  are  they 
present  to  witness  the  count  if  not  to  see  that  it  is  fair  and  just  ?  If  a  failure  to 
agree  arises  between  the  two  bodies,  there  can  be  no  lawful  affirmative  decision 
that  the  people  have  elected  a  President,  and  the  House  must  then  proceed 
to  act,  not  the  Senate.  The  Senate  elects  Vice-Presidents,  not  Presidents. 
Doubtless  in  case  of  a  failure  by  the  House  to  elect  a  President  by  the  4th  of 
March,  the  President  of  the  Senate  (if  there  be  one)  would  be  the  legitimate  per- 
son to  exercise  presidential  authority  for  the  time  being,  or  until  the  appearance 
of  a  lawful  Presid3nt,  or  for  the  time  laid  down  in  the  Constitution.  Such 
courses  would  be  peaceful,  and,  I  have  a  firm  belief,  lawful. 

I  have  no  doubt  Governor  Hayes  would  make  an  excellent  President.  I 
have  met  him  and  know  of  him.  For  a  brief  period  he  served  under  my  com- 
mand, but  as  the  matter  stands  I  can't  see  any  likelihood  of  his  being  duly  de- 
clared elected  by  the  people  unless  the  Senate  and  House  come  to  be  in  accord 
as  to  that  fact,  and  the  House  would  of  course  not  otherwise  elect  him.  What 
the  people  want  is  a  peaceful  determination  of  this  matter,  as  fair  a  determina- 
tion as  possible,  and  a  lawful  one.  No  other  Administration  could  stand  the 
test.  The  country  if  not  plunged  into  revolution  would  become  poorer  day  by 
day,  business  would  languish,  and  our  bonds  would  come  home  to  find  a  depre- 
ciated market. 

I  was  ftot  in  favor  of  the  military  action  in  South  Carolina  recently,  and  if 
General  Ruger  had  telegraphed  to  me  or  asked  for  advice  I  would  have  advised  him 
not  under  any  circumstances  to  allow  himself  or  his  troops  to  determine  who 
were  the  lawful  members  of  a  State  Legislature.  I  could  not  have  given  him  bet- 
ter advice  than  to  refer  him.  to  the  special  message  of  the  President  in  the  case  of 
Louisiana  some  time  before. 

But  in  South  Carolina  he  had  had  the  question  settled  by  a  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  State — the  highest  tribunal  which  had  acted  on  the  question — 
■SO  that  his  line  of  duty  seemed  even  to  be  clearer  than  the  action  in  the  Louisiana 
case.  If  the  Federal  court  had  interfered  and  overruled  the  decision  of  the  State 
court  there  might  have  been  a  doubt  certainly,  but  the  Federal  court  only  inter- 
fered to  complicate — not  to  decide  or  overrule. 

Anyhow  it  is  no  business  of  the  army  to  enter  upon  such  questions,  and  even  if 
it  might  be  so  in  any  event,  if  the  civil  authority  is  supreme,  as  the  Constitution 
declares  it  to  be,  the  South  Carolina  case  was  one  in  which  the  army  had  a  plain 
duty. 

Had  General  Ruger  asked  me  for  advice,  and  if  I  had  given  it,  I  should  of 
course  have  notified  you  of  my  action  immediately,  so  that  it  could  have  been 
promptly  overruled  if  it  should  have  been  deemed  advisable  by  you  or  other  su- 
perior in  authority.  General  Ruger  did  not  ask  for  my  advice,  and  I  inferred 
from  that  and  other  facts  that  he  did  not  desire  it,  or  that,  being  in  direct  com- 
munication with  my  military  superiors  at  the  seat  of  Government,  who  were 
nearer  to  him  in  time  and  distance  than  I  was,  he  deemed  it  unnecessary.  As 
General  Ruger  had  the  ultimate  responsibility  of  action  and  had  really  the  greater 


32  HANCOCK    TO    SHERMAN. 

danger  to  confront  in  the  final  action  in  the  matter,  I  did  not  venture  to  embar- 
rass him  by  suggestions.  He  was  a  department  commander,  and  the  lawful  head 
of  the  military  administration  within  the  limits  of  the  department;  but  besides 
I  knew  that  he  had  been  called  to  Washington  for  consultation  before  taking 
command,  and  was  probably  aware  of  the  views  of  the  administration  as  to  civil 
affairs  in  his  command.  I  knew  that  he  was  in  direct  communication  with  my 
superiors  in  authority  in  reference  to  the  delicate  subjects  presented  for  his  con- 
sideration, or  had  ideas  of  his  own  which  he  believed  to  be  sufficiently  in  accord 
with  the  views  of  our  common  superiors  to  enable  him  to  act  intelligently  accord- 
ing to  his  judgment,  and  without  suggestions  from  those  not  on  the  spot  and  not 
as  fully  acquainted  with  the  facts  as  himself.  He  desired,  too,  to  be  free  to  act, 
as  he  had  the  eventual  greater  responsibility,  and  so  the  matter  was  governed  as 
between  him  and  myself. 

As  I  have  been  writing  thus  freely  to  you,  I  may  still  further  unbosom  myself 
by  stating  that  I  have  not  thought  it  lawful  or  wise  to  use  Federal  troops  in  such 
matters  as  have  transpired  east  of  the  Mississippi  within  the  last  few  months, 
save  so  far  as  they  may  be  brought  into  action  under  the  article  of  the  Constitu- 
tion which  contemplates  meeting  armed  resistance  or  invasion  of  a  state  more 
powerful  than  the  state  authorities  can  subdue  by  the  ordinary  processes,  and 
then  only  when  requested  by  the  legislature,  or,  if  it  could  not  be  convened  in 
season,  by  the  Governor  ;  and  when  the  President  of  the  United  States  intervenes 
in  that  manner  it  is  a  state  of  war,  not  peace. 

The  army  is  laboring  under  disadvantages  and  has  been  used  unlawfully  at 
times  in  the  judgment  of  the  people  (in  mine  certainly),  and  we  have  lost  a  great 
deal  of  the  kindly  feeling  which  the  community  at  large  once  felt  for  us.  "  It  is 
time  to  stop  and  unload." 

Officers  in  command  of  troops  often  find  it  difficult  to  act  wisely  and  safely 
when  superiors  in  authority  have  different  views  of  the  law  from  theirs,  and 
when  legislation  has  sanctioned  action  seemingly  in  conflict  with  the  fundamen- 
tal law,  and  they  generally  defer  to  the  known  judgment  of  their  superiors. 
Yet  the  superior  officers  of  the  army  are  so  regarded  in  such  great  crises  and  are 
held  to  such  responsibility,  especially  those  at  or  near  the  head  of  it,  that  it  is  ne- 
cessary on  such  momentous  occasions  to  dare  to  determine  for  themselves  what  is 
lawful  and  what  is  not  lawful  under  our  system,  if  the  military  authorities  should 
be  invoked,  as  might  possibly  be  the  case  in  such  exceptional  times  when  there 
existed  such  divergent  views  as  to  the  correct  result.  The  army  will  suffer  from 
its  past  action  if  it  has  acted  wrongfully.  Our  regular  army  has  little  hold  upon 
the  affections  of  the  people  of  to-day,  and  its  superior  officers  should  certainly, 
as  far  as  lies  in  their  power,  legally  and  with  righteous  intent  aim  to  defend  the 
right,  which  to  us  is  the  law,  and  the  institution  which  they  represent.  It  is  a 
well-meaning  institution,  and  it  would  be  well  if  it  should  have  an  opportunity 
to  be  recognized  as  a  bulwark  in  support  of  the  rights  of  the  people  and  of  the 
LAW.  I  am  truly  yours, 

WINFIELD  S.  HANCOCK. 
To  General  W.  T.  Sherman,  commanding  Army  of  the  United  States,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH.  33 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  H.  ENGLISH. 


In  the  cemetery  of  the  thriving  but  rather  quiet  town  of  Carrollton,  the  county 
seat  of  Greene  county,  111.,  there  is,  or  was  some  years  ago,  ali  unpretentious 
monument,  standing  by  two  graves,  bearing  the  following  inscriptions  : 

"  In  memory  of  Elisha  English,  born  March  3, 1768,  near  Laurel,  Sussex  county, 
I  el.  Married  Sarah  Wharton,  Dec.  10,  1788.  Removed  to  Kentucky  in  1790, 
and  to  Greene  county,  Illinois,  in  1830.  Died  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  March  7, 
1857.     He  was  a  faithful  husband,  a  kind  father  and  an  honest  man. 

"  In  memory  of  Sarah  Wharton,  wife  of  Elisha  English.  Died  November  27, 
1549,  in  the  eighty-second  year  of  her  age.  She  was  kind  to  her  neighbors,  de- 
voted to  her  family,  and  a  noble  woman  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 

"  My  father  and  my  mother.  They  lived  lovingly  together  as  husband  and  wife 
over  sixty  years,  and,  before  the  tie  was  broken,  could  number  two  hundred  living 
descendants.  Their  fourteen  children  all  married  and  had  children  before  a  death 
occurred  in  the  family.  This  monument  is  erected  to  their  memory  by  Elisha  G. 
English,  of  Indiana." 

These  are  the  grandparents,  on  the  father's  side,  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
the  Hon.  William  H.  English,  and  the  facts  disclosed  by  these  inscriptions  embody 
the  most  that  is  known  of  their  history. 

On  the  mother's  side,  his  grandparents  "  sleep  their  last  sleep"  in  the  Rikers 
Bidge  (or  Hillis)  burying-ground,  a  romantic  spot  near  the  Ohio  river,  a  few  miles 
northeast  of  Madison,  Indiana,  and  again  recourse  is  had  to  a  monument  which 
marks  their  graves  as  containing  an  epitome  of  the  most  that  is  known  of  their 
history : 

• '  In  memory  of  Philip  Eastin,  a  lieutenant  in  the  Fourth  Virginia  regiment  in 
the  war  of  the  American  Revolution,  who  was  buried  in  this  secluded  spot  in  the 
year  1817,  leaving  his  widow  and  a  large  family  of  children  to  mourn  his  loss. 
*He  sleeps  his  last  sleep,  he  has  fought  his  last  battle.'  Honor  his  memory;  he 
was  one  of  the  brave  and  true  men  whose  gallant  deeds  gave  freedom  and  inde- 
pendence to  our  country. 

"  In  memory  of  Sarah  Smith  Eastin,  who  died  near  this  place  and  was  buried 
here  in  the  year  1843.  She  was  married  to  Lieutenant  Philip  Eastin  at  Winches- 
ter, Va.,  in  1782,  near  which  place  she  was  born,  being  a  descendant  of  the  Hite 
family,  who  first  settled  that  valley.  The  prosperity  of  early  life  gave  place  in 
her  old  age  to  poverty  and  the  hardships  of  rearing  a  large  family  in  a  new  coun- 
try; but  she  acted  her  part  well  under  all  circumstances,  and  died  with  the  respect 
and  love  of  all  who  knew  her.  Now  that  the  oys  and  sorrows  of  a  long  and 
eventful  life  are  over,  they  sleep  well.  May  they  rest  in  peace.  This  monument 
is  erected  to  their  memory  by  their  grandson,  William  H.  English." 

Of  the  seventeen  children  born  to  this  pair,  Mahala,  the  mother  of  our  subject, 
first  saw  the  light  in  Fayette  county,  Ky.,  and  now  resides  with  her  distinguished 
son  and  only  surviving  child  at  Indianapolis,  in  the  eighty-second  year  of  her  age, 
retaining  in  a  remarkable  degree  her  health  and  all  her  faculties. 

As  an  element  of  character  and  one  which  all  good  persons  recognize  as  essential 
to  greatness,  not  one  can  be  named  so  well  calculated  to  inspire  respect  as  the  pro- 
found veneration  of  a  son  for  his  parents,  and  especially  when  its  development 
draws  the  child  even  more  to  them  as  the  weight  of  years  increases.     This  trait  of 


34  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

character  was  peculiarly  marked  in  Mr.  English,  His  honors  and  his  prosperity 
only  vitalized  his  affections  for  his  parents,  and  in  his  home  he  demonstrated  the 
goodness  of  his  heart,  the  warmth  of  his  affections  and  the  nobility  of  his  charac- 
ter, and  Indiana,  in  all  of  her  happy  homes,  presents  no  more  beautiful  picture  of 
a  son's  devotion  than  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  English's,  where  his  mother,  now  over 
four-score  years  of  age,  is  enjoying  all  the  fruitions  that  affection  can  bestow. 

Her  husband.  Major  Elisha  G.  English,  who  was  one  of  the  fourteen  children 
referred  to  in  the  first  inscription,  died  at  his  son's  residence  in  Indianapolis,  No- 
vember 14, 1874,  full  of  years  and  full  of  honors.  He  was,  however,  a  citizen  of 
Scott  county,  Indiana,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  as  he  had  been  for  over  a  half 
century,  having  immigrated  to  that  county  in  1818,  from  Kentucky,  in  which 
state  he  was  born.  As  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Indiana,  he  enjoyed  in  the  highest 
degree  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  people,  was  several  times  sheriff  of  his 
county,  for  about  twenty  years  a  member  of  the  Indiana  House  of  Representa- 
tives or  Senate,  and  for  some  time  United  States  Marshal  for  Indiana. 

BIRTH  AND   BOYHOOD. 

Surrounded  by  scenes  of  hardy  adventure  and  of  reckless  daring,  so  familiar  to 
the  pioneers  of  the  West,  William  H,  English  was  born  August  27, 1822,  at  the 
village  of  Lexington,  Scott  county,  Indiana,  and  he  has  literally  grown  with  his 
native  state,  and  strengthened  with  her  strength,  until  he  has  become  thoroughly 
Identified  with  her  interests  and  prosperity.  Both  are  now  in  their  full  meridian, 
and  he  bears  the  reputation  of  being  one  among  the  most  far-seeing  and  energetic 
business  men  of  the  country.  This  is  the  more  strange  when  it  is  considered  that 
he  had  previously  reached  great  distinction  in  public  life,  having  entered  that 
field  in  his  early  career,  but  voluntarily  retired  from  it. 

The  student  of  biography,  especially  the  biographies  of  Americans  who  had 
been  distinguished  in  war,  politics,  literature  and  science,  has  been  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  those  who  in  youth  were  subjected  to  the  severest  struggles, 
have  often  gained  the  proudest  eminence  in  after  life;  and  Indiana  has  furnished 
a  long  list  of  names  demonstrating  the  truth  of  the  proposition,  and  the  early 
Ufe  of  Mr.  English  conspicuously  illustrates  it.  Born  at  a  time  when  school- 
houses  were  few  and  far  between,  h6  mastered  the  rudiments  at  an  early  age,  and 
took  a  position  in  public  affairs  when  others  more  favorably  situated  were  dally- 
ing in  the  problems  he  had  solved.  This  youthful  heroism  furnishes  the  key  to 
his  future  success — the  indomitableness  of  the  boy  foreshadowing  the  man  of  af- 
fairs, who,  learning  the  value  of  persistency  in  youth,  would  carry  it  into  all  the 
enterprises  of  manhood — an  example  worthy  of  profound  study  by  other  youth 
of  the  country. 

EDUCATION  AND   ADMISSION  TO  THE  BAR. 

His  education  was  such  as  could  be  acquired  at  the  common  schools  of  the 
neighborhood,  and  a  course  of  three  years'  study  at  the  South  Hanover  College. 
He  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  circuit  court  at  the  early  age 
of  eighteen  years.  He  was  subsequently  admitted  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  his 
state,  and  in  the  twenty-third  year  of  his  age,  to  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  in 
the  country,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

ENTRANCE  INTO  POLITICS. 

At  an  early  age  Mr.  English's  inclinations  turned  to  a  political  life.  His  youth- 
ful ambition  to  win  success ,  and  opportunities  which  then  presented  themsclvcc, 
combinsd  to  urge  him  in  this  direction  of  effort.  However,  in  the  calm  reflection 
of  later  years,  and  in  tlie  full  realization  of  these  aspirations,  he  laid  down  the 


LIFE    OP    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH,  3& 

honors  and  emoluments  of  oflace  to  seek  in  the  walks  of  business  a  more  con- 
genial vocation.  He  identified  himself  with  the  Democratic  party,  and  took  a 
prominent  part  in  the  political  contest  of  his  county,  even  before  he  arrived  at 
his  majority. 

Several  years  before  he  was  of  age,  he  was  chosen  a  delegate  from  Scott  county 
to  the  Democratic  State  Convention  at  Indianapolis,  which  nominated  General 
Tilghraan  A.  Howard  for  governor.  There  was  no  railroad  connection  with  the 
capital  at  that  time,  and  the  roads  were  in  such  a  deplorable  condition  that  it  took 
him  six  days'  horseback  riding  to  make  the  round  trip.  He  commenced  making 
speeches  in  that  campaign  and  continued  in  active  politics  for  many  years. 

APPOINTED  POSTMASTER. 

Under  the  Tyler  administration,  Mr.  English  was  appointed  postmaster  of  Lex- 
ington, his  native  village,  then  the  county  seat  of  Scott  county. 

ELECTED   PRINCIPAL   CLERK   OP   INDIANA   HOUSE   OP  REPRESENTATIVES. 

In  1843  he  was  chosen  principal  clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  his.. 
state,  over  several  distinguished  and  worthy  competitors. 

James  D.  Williams,  now  the  venerable  and  respected  Governor  of  Indiana,  was 
then,  for  the  first  time,  a  member  of  the  House,  and  he  has  several  times  made 
public  mention  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  English  then  performed  the  same  duties,  and. 
most  satisfactorily,  too,  with  the  aid  of  one  assistant,  that  in  these  later  years  over 
a  half  dozen  are  paid  to  perform. 

APPOINTED   CLERK   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES   TREASURY   DEPARTMENT. 

After  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk  to  the  Presidency,  to  which  Mr.  English  largely 
contributed,  as  an  active  and  eflBcient  politician  in  his  section  of  the  country,  he 
was  tendered  an  appointment  in  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington,  which 
he  accepted,  and  continued  to  discharge  its  duties  during  that  administration.  He 
was  not  the  man  to  disguise  his  principles  or  make  an  effort  to  keep  a  place  under 
an  administration  he  had  opposed.  He  voted  for  the  nomination  of  Cass  in  the 
National  Convention,  and  had  strenuously  opposed  the  election  of  General  Tay- 
lor. He,  therefore,  on  the  day  preceding  the  inauguration,  sent  to  Mr.  Polk  a 
letter  of  resignation,  which  was  extensively  copied  by  the  Democratic  press,  with 
comments  approving  the  independent  spirit  of  its  author. 

FAMILY  ALWAYS  DEMOCRATIC. 

In  the  National  Convention  of  1848,  his  father,  Elisha  G.  English,  and  his 
uncle.  Revel  W.  English,  were  Vice-Presidents,  and  two  other  uncles  delegates. 
It  was  in  that  convention  he  met  the  now  celebrated  Samuel  J,  Tilden,  who  was 
a  delegate  from  the  state  of  New  York. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  English  is  a  Democrat,  not  only  by  the  sober  judg- 
ment of  his  mature  manhood,  but  the  traditions  of  his  family,  and  it  may  be  said 
that  the  commanding  positions  he  has  held,  his  large  experience  and  his  knowl- 
edge of  men  and  measures,  all  combine  to  strengthen  his  convictions  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Democratic  party  must  prevail  if  we  are  to  have  a  united  and  pros- 
perous country.  His  own  idea  of  what  these  principles  are  will  be  best  under- 
stood by  the  following  vigorous  and  forcible  words  uttered  by  him  in  a  late  pub- 
lished interview: 

"  I  am  for  honesty  in  money  as  in  politics  and  morals,  and  think  the  great 
material  and  business  interests  of  this  country  should  be  placed  upon  the  most 
solid  basis,  and  as  far  as  possible  from  the  blighting  influence  of  demagogues. 
At  the  same  time,  I  am  opposed  to  class  legislation,  and  in  favor  of  protecting 


36  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

and  fostering  the  interests  of  tlie  laboring  and  producing  classes  in  every  legiti- 
mate way  possible.  A  pure,  economical,  constitutional  government,  that  will 
protect  the  liberty  of  the  people  and  the  property  of  the  people,  without  destroy- 
mg  the  rights  of  the  states  or  aggrandizing  its  own  powers  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  Constitution,  is  the  kind  of  government  contemplated  by  the  fathers,  and  by 
that  I  think  the  Democracy  propose  to  stand." 

But  Mr.  English  was  not  permitted  to  remain  long  out  of  public  life.  His 
abilities  were  universally  recognized. 

CLERK   UNITED   STATES   SENATE    COMMITTEE   IN   1850. 

He  was  a  clerk  of  the  Claims  Committee  in  the  United  States  Senate  during  the 
memorable  session  of  the  compromise  of  1850,  heard  Calhoun  end  Cass,  Clay  and 
Webster,  Benton,  and  other  great  statesmen  of  the  age,  in  those  able,  forensic 
efforts,  which  obtained  so  much  celebrity  and  led  to  the  results  so  gratifying  to 
every  American  patriot. 

And  the  pure  patriotism  of  such  men,  the  grandeur  of  their  eloquence — the  far- 
jre»ching  benefits  of  the  measure  proposed  and  advocated— left  a  fadeless  impres- 
Bion  on  Mr.  English's  mind  that  inspired  his  ambition,  broadened  his  views,  and 
contributed  largely  in  giving  him  influence  when  he  became  a  member  of  the  Na- 
tional Legislature.  At  the. close  of  the  session  he  resigned  his  position  and 
l"eturned  to  his  home  in  Indiana. 

ELECTED  SECRETARY  OF   THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   CONVENTION. 

The  people  of  that  state  had  just  decided  to  call  a  convention  to  revise  the  state 
Qpnstitution  adopted  in  1816,  and  after  an  existence  of  over  a  third  of  a  century 
Ihe  adoption  of  a  new  constitution,  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  was 
lipproached  with  much  caution.  Every  one  felt  the  necessity  of  confiding  the 
trust  to  the  wisest  and  best  men  in  the  state,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  a  superior 
Jbody  of  men  ever  assembled  for  a  like  purpose  than  that  which  assembled  at  In- 
dianapolis in  October,  1850,  to  prepare  a  constitution  for  tlie  state  of  Indiana. 
Mr.  English  had  the  distinguished  honor  of  being  elected  the  principal  Secretary 
'of  the  convention  and  of  officially  attesting  the  constitution  which  was  prepai*ed 
by  the  convention  after  over  four  months'  deliberation  and  ratified  by  an  over- 
whelming vote  of  the  people. 

As  Secretary  of  the  convention,  he  added  largely  to  his  reputation,  and  the  fact 
was  recognized  that  his  abilities  were  of  a  character  to  command  a  wider  sphere 
of  usefulness  to  the  party  and  to  the  country. 

ELECTED  TO  THE  LEGISLATURE. 

The  adoption  of  the  new  constitution  made  a  necessity  for  a  thorough  revision 
of  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  the  same  high  order  of  talent  was  needed  to  mold  the 
laws  as  had  been  required  to  prepare  the  constitution  itself.  It  was,  therefore,  a 
great  honor  to  Mr.  English,  that  in  1851,  he  was  elected  to  represent  his  native 
county  in  the  state  legislature  against  an  opposition  majority,  and  over  a  com- 
petitor considered  the  strongest  and  most  popular  man  of  his  party  in  the  county. 
This  was  the  first  meeting  of  the  legislature  under  the  provisions  of  the  new  con- 
stitution, and  judgment  and  discretion  were  required  of  the  legislature  to  put 
the  new  state  jpaachinery  into  harmonious  and  successful  operation.  It  was,  there- 
fore, no  small  "compliment  for  so  young  a  man  as  Mr.  English  to  have  been  chosen 
over  so  many  older  and  more  experienced  citizens. 

ELECTED  SPEAKER  OF  THE  HOUSE. 

3ut  a  Still  greater  honor  awaited  him,  for,  notwithstanding  he  was  then  but 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH.  '      37 

twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and  it  was  his  first  session  as  a  member,  and,  also,  that 
there  were  many  old,  experienced  and  distinguished  men  in  that  legislature,  Mr. 
English  was  elected  Speaker  by  twenty-eight  majority,  and  it  may  be  mentioned 
as  an  evidence  of  his  ability  and  popularity  as  a  presiding  oflacer  that,  during  his 
long  term  of  service  (over  three  months),  no  appeal  was  taken  from  any  of  his  de- 
cisions. This  was  the  more  remarkable  as  it  was  the  first  session  under  the  new 
constitution,  when  many  new  points  had  to  be  decided. 

Many  radical  and  highly  beneficial  reforms  in  the  laws  of  the  state  were  made 
at  this  session,  to  the  success  of  which  Mr,  English  largely  contributed,  and  in 
some  instances  originated,  such  as  the  change  in  the  system  of  taxing  railroads, 
and  the  substitution  of  the  present  short  form  of  deeds,  mortgages,  etc. ,  for  the 
long  intricate  forms. 

Mr.  English  has,  in  an  eminent  degree,  that  force  and  energy  of  character 
which  leads  to  siiccessful  action,  and  has  left  his  impress  upon  the  measure  of 
every  deliberative  body,  company,  or  association  to  which  he  has  belonged.  In 
a  word,  he  has  all  the  elements  of  a  bold,  aggressive  and  successful  leadership. 
If  lost  with  a  multitude  in  a  pathless  wilderness,  he  would  not  lag  behind  wait- 
ing for  some  one  else  to  plan  or  open  up  the  pathway  of  escape.  He  would  be 
more  apt  to  promptly  advise  which  was  the  best  way  out,  or  make  the  road  him- 
self and  call  upon  his  comrades  to  follow. 

ELECTED   TO   CONGRESS. 

With  the  close  of  the  long  session  of  the  Legislature  of  1851,  in  which  Mr.  Eng- 
lish had  earned  golden  opinions  from  men  of  all  parties,  he  was  justly  regarded 
as  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  state,  and  the  Democrats  of  his  district  with 
great  unanimity  solicited  him  to  become  their  standard-bearer  in  the  race  for  Con- 
gress. He  was  nominated,  and  in  October,  1853,  was  elected  by  488  majority  over 
his  very  worthy  competitor,  John  D.  Ferguson,  now  deceased,  with  whom  he  was 
always  on  terms  of  the  warmest  personal  friendship. 

Mr.  English  entered  Congress  at  the  commencement  of  Mr.  Pierce's  adminis- 
tration, and  gave  its  political  measures  a  warm  and  hearty  support.  It  was  a 
memorable  period  in  the  history  of  the  country,  a  time  when  questjkms  of  far- 
reaching  consequence  had  their  birth,  and  which,  a  few  years  subseqijD^tly,  test- 
ed to  the  utmost  limit  the  strength  of  the  Republic.  It  was  the  tim^  fcflr  liUe  dis- 
play of  unselfish  patriotism,  lofty  purpose,  moral  courage  and  unwavering  devo- 
tion to  the  Constitution.  Mr.  English  met  the  demand.  He  was  equal  to  the 
responsibility  of  the  occasion.  He  never  disappointed  his  constituents,  his  party 
or  his  country.  He  displayed  his  national  qualities  of  prudence,  sagacity  and 
firmness. 

KANSAS-NEBRASKA  BILL. 

It  was  at  the  opening  of  this  Congress  that  the  famous  Kansas-Nebraska  bill 
was  introduced.  Mr.  English  was  a  member  of  the  House  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories, which  was  charged  with  the  consideration  and  report  of  the  bill.  He  did 
not  concur  with  the  majority  of  the  committee  in  the  propriety  and  expediency 
of  bringing  forward  the  measure  at  that  time,  and  made  a  minority  report  on  the 
31st  of  January,  1854,  proposing  several  important  amendments,  which,  although 
not  directly  adopted,  for  reasons  hereafter  explained,  probably  led  to  modifica- 
tions of  the  bill  of  the  Senate,  which  bill  was  finally  adopted  as  an  amendment 
to  the  House  bill,  and  enacted  into  a  law.  Both  the  House  and  Senate  bill,  at  the 
time  Mr.  English  made  his  minority  report,  contained  a  provision  "that  the  Con- 
stitution and  all  laws  of  the  United  States  which  are  not  locally  inapplicable. 


38  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    EXGLISH. 

shall  have  the  same  force  and  effect  within  the  said  territory  as  elsewhere  in  the 
United  States  ;"  and  then  followed  this  important  reservation  : 

"  Except  the  eighth  section  of  the  act  preparatory  to  the  admission  of  Missouri 
into  the  Union,  approved  March  6th,  1820,  which  was  superseded  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  legislation  of  1850,  commonly  called  the  compromise  measures,  and 
is  hereby  declared  inoperative." 

Mr.  English  proposed  to  strike  out  this  exception  and  insert  the  following : 

"Provided,  that  nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  so  construed  as  to  prevent  the 
people  of  said  territory,  through  the  properly  constituted  legislative  authority^ 
from  passing  such  laws  in  relation  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  not  inconsistent 
with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  they  may  deem  best  adapted  to 
their  locality  and  most  conducive  to  their  happiness  and  welfare ;  and  so  much 
of  any  existing  act  of  Congress  as  may  conflict  with  the  above  right  of  the  people 
to  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  be,  and  the  same  is  here- 
by, repealed," 

In  the  history  of  this  subject,  given  in  the  first  volume  of  Mr.  Horace  Greeley's 
"American  Conflict,"  the  opinion  is  expressed  that  this  proposition  of  Mr.  En- 
glish could  not  have  been  defeated  on  the  call  of  the  yeas  and  nays,  and  the 
author  goes  on  to  explain  and  condemn  the  new  and  ingenious  parliamentary 
maneuver  resorted  to  at  the  time,  which  cut  off  all  amendments,  but  the  substi- 
tution of  the  Senate  Bill  for  the  Bill  of  the  House.  "  Thus,"  says  Mr.  Greeley, 
* '  The  opponents  of  the  measure  in  the  House  were  precluded  from  proposing  any 
amendments  or  modifications  whatever,  when  it  is  morally  certain  that  had  they 
been  permitted  to  do  so,  some  such  amendments  as  Gov.  Chase's  or  Mr.  English's 
would  have  been  carried."  The  parliamentary  maneuver  referred  to  brought  the 
House  to  a  vote  on  the  Senate  Bill,  which,  in  the  meantime,  had  been  offered  as 
a  substitute  for  the  House  Bill,  was  adopted  and  became  the  law. 

POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

Now,  tiiere  is  one  point  in  the  history  of  this  important  measure  not  very  clear- 
ly developed  in  Mr.  Greeley's  account  (in  the  main  fair  and  accurate),  which  it 
will  be  well  to  refer  to.  It  is  true  the  Senate  and  House  Bill  were  substantially 
the  same  on  the  31st  of  January,  when  Mr.  English  offered  his  amendments;  but 
before  the  8th  of  May,  when  the  House  substituted  the  Senate  Bill  for  its  own, 
and  passed  it,  material  modifications  had  been  made  in  the  Senate  Bill.  It  was 
the  modified  bill  and  not  the  bill  of  the  31st  of  January,  that  became  the  law. 
For  example,  on  the  15th  of  February,  two  weeks  after  Mr.  English  submitted 
his  amendments  (the  Senate  and  House  Bills  being  up  at  that  time  in  substan- 
tially the  same  shape),  the  Senate  adopted  an  amendment  which  had  been  sub- 
mitted by  Senator  Douglas  on  the  7th  of  February,  striking  out  a  portion  of  the 
same  clause  Mr.  English  had  proposed  to  strike  out,  and  substituting  the  follow- 
ing : 

"Which  being  inconsistent  with  the  principle  of  non-intervention  by  Congress 
with  slavery  in  states  and  territories,  as  recognized  by  the  legislation  of  1850, 
commonly  called  the  compromise  measures,  is  hereby  declared  inoperative  and 
void  ;  it  being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to  legislate  slavery  in- 
to any  territory  or  ^tate,  nor  to  exclude  it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people 
perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way, 
subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 

This  amendment  satisfied  some  of  those  members  who  at  first  regarded  the 
measure  with  disfavor,  and  a  comparison  will  show  to  what  extent  it  embodied 
or  harmonized  with  the  amendment  Mr.  English  had  previously  offered. 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH.  39 

It  !s  undoubtedly  true,  as  the  Congressional  records  will  show,  that  Mt-  En- 
glish brought  forward  the  "  popular  sovereignty  "  idea  in  the  minority  report  n^ade 
by  him  to  the  House  of  Representatives  in  January ;  that  the  same  idea  was 
submitted  to  the  Senate  in  February  and  adopted  by  that  body  ;  that  the  Hous^ 
then  adopted  the  amended  Bill  of  the  Senate  as  a  substitute  for  the  House  Bill, 
and  it  thus  became  a  law.  Hence  the  debate  and  public  attention  was  directed 
almost  exclusively  to  tlie  Senate  Bill. 

The  objections  made  in  Mr.  English's  minority  report  to  the  proposed  boun- 
•daries  of  the  territory  were  also  obviated  by  amendments.  No  doubt,  these  modi- 
fications and  a  desire  to  act  in  harmony  with  the  Democratic  administration,  in- 
:fluenced  some  of  the  Democratic  members  from  the  free  states  to  support  %he 
bill,  who,  like  Mr.  English,  thought  its  introduction  unfortunate  and  ill-timed. 

Senator  Douglas  was  justly  regarded  as  the  great  leader  and  champion  of  the 
■"  popular  sovereignty  "  idea-  So  far  as  the  advocacy  of  that  principle  was  con- 
cerned, Mr,  English  was  with  him,  and  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  state  here 
that  although  some  slight  political  differences  ultimately  sprang  up  between 
them  in  relation  to  the  "  English  Bill "  hereafter  mentioned,  they  were  always 
personal  friends,  and  for  many  years  the  relations  between  them  were  of  the 
most  intimate  character.  As  far  back  as  1845,  Mr.  Douglas  wrote  President  Polk 
urging  that  Mr.  English  be  appointed  Recorder  of  the  General  Land  Office,  and 
Mr.  English  has  many  letters  from  Mr.  Douglas  expressing  the  most  cordial  friend- 
ship. 

SLAVERY    AGITATION— POSITION    ON  SLAVERY    QUESTION. 

The  controversy  about  the  institution  of  slavery,  which  had  been  going  on, 
with  but  little  intermission,  ever  since  the  formation  of  the  government,  raged 
with  greatly  increased  bitterness  during  the  eight  years  immediately  preceding 
the  war.  During  all  this  period  Mr.  English  was  in  Congress,  and  more  or  less 
identified  with  the  measures  involving  the  question  of  slavery.  It  is  therefore, 
perhaps,  proper  to  briefly  define  the  position  he  occupied  upon  this  great  question 
of  the  age,  as  gleaned  from  his  speeches  and  the  Congressional  history  of  the 
period.  "  I  am,"  said  he  in  one  of  his  speeches,  "a  native  of  a  free  state  and 
have  no  love  for  the  institution  of  slavery.  Aside  from  the  moral  question  in- 
volved, I  regard  it  as  an  injury  to  the  state  where  it  exists,  and  if  it  were  pro- 
posed to  introduce  it  where  I  reside,  would  resist  it  to  the  last  extremity." 

He  believed  in  faithfully  maintaining  all  the  rights  of  the  states  as  guaranteed 
by  the  Constitution,  and  that  it  would  be  wisest  to  refer  the  question  of  slavery 
to  that  best  and  safest  of  all  tribunals — the  people  to  be  governed.  "  They  are  the 
best  judges  of  the  soil  and  climate  and  wants  of  the  country  they  inhabit ;  they 
are  the  true  judges  of  what  will  best  suit  their  own  condition  and  promote  their 
welfare  and  happiness." 

Speaking  for  himself  and  his  constituents  he  said  upon  another  occasion:  "We 
do  not  like  this  institution  of  slavery,  neither  in  its  moral,  social  nor  political 
bearings,  but  consider  that  it  is  a  matter  which,  like  all  other  domestic  affairs, 
each  organized  community  ought  to  be  allowed  to  decide  for  itself." 

The  idea  of  "  leaving  the  people  of  every  state  and  territory  perfectly  free  to 
form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to 
the  Constitution  ol  the  United  States,"  seemed  to  be  in  accordance  with  the 
genius  of  our  American  institutions,  but  the  storm  raised  by  the  passage  of  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  nearly  all  the  members  from  the- 
free  states  who  voted  for  it.  In  fact,  Mr.  English  was  one  of  tLe  only  three  in 
the  United  States  who  commanded  strength  enough  to  survive  the  storm. 


40  LIFE    OP    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

&ECOND  ELECTION    TO   CONGRESS — GREAT    CANVASS     AGAINST    KNOW-NOTHINGISlT 
AND  "  SEARCH,  SEIZURE  AND  CONFISCATION." 

He  was  unanimously  nominated  for  re-election  to  Congress  and  elected,  in  Oc' 
tober,  1854,  by  588  majority — an  increase  of  100— over  his  Whig  and  Know- 
Nothing  opponent,  Judge  Thomas  C.  Slaughter,  now  deceased,  a  bitter  partisan, 
but  a  warm  personal  friend  of  Mr.  English  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

During  Mr.  English's  Congressional  career,  the  country,  in  addition  to  other 
causes  of  agitation,  was  visited  with  a  fanatical  cyclone  known  as  Know-Nothing 
ism,  that  for  a  time  threatened  to  overwhelm  and  obliterate  the  traditions  and  laws 
of  the  country,  and  to  create  the  most  odious  distinctions  of  citizenship  based 
upon  religion  and  nationality.  Never  did  the  war  of  prejudice  and  ignorance 
beat  with  greater  force  upon  the  most  sacred  guarantees  of  the  Constitution  ;  never 
was  a  public  mind  more  thoroughly  permeated  with  hostility  toward  men  of  for- 
eign birth,  nor  was  there  ever  a  period  in  the  history  of  the  Republic  when 
religious  animosities  assumed  such  a  repulsive  and  defiant  aspect.  Foreign-born 
citizens  were  to  be  ostracised  and  men's  freedom  to  worship  God  according  to 
the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences  was  to  be  restricted.  The  virus  spread  in 
every  direction.  It  laid  hold  upon  young  and  old — Know-Nothing  lodges  sprung 
up  everywhere — hates  engendered  in  every  home,  lurked  in  every  hiding  place, 
and  found  expression  in  every  meeting  of  the  mysterious  order.  To  expose  the 
evil  designs  of  the  order,  to  break  its  power  and  arrest  its  progress  was  no  easy 
task.  The  work  required  courage  of  the  highest  order,  and  into  it  Mr.  English 
threw  himself  in  a  spirt  of  self-abnegation,  which  commanded  the  applause  of  all 
right-thinking  men.  In  Mr.  English  the  foreign-born  citizen  had  a  friend,  indeed. 
The  force  of  his  logic  and  the  fearlessness  of  his  denunciations  battered  down  the 
sophisms,  prejudices  and  the  spirit  of  exclusiveness  wherever  they  offered  resist- 
ance— reason  regained  supremacy,  and  after  a  brief  period  Know-Nothingism 
disappeared  to  take  its  place  in  history,  besides  witchcraft  and  other  monstrous 
delusions  that  have  from  time  to  time  cursed  the  world.  It  was  a  Democratic 
victory  to  which  no  man  in  the  nation  contributed  more  than  did  William  H. 
English  in  his  gallant  canvass  against  the  Know-Nothings  in  the  second  Congres- 
sional district  of  Indiana  in  1854. 

It  would  be  difficult  for  persons  now  to  comprehend  the  gre^i  excitement  in  the 
country  at  this  time,  and  particularly  in  Mr.  English's  district,  separated  from 
Louisville  only  by  the  Ohio  river,  at  which  place  many  foreigners  had  recently  been 
killed  by  a  mob,  growing  out  of  the  Know-Nothing  agitation.  The  same  spirit 
existed  on  the  Indiana  side,  but  Mr.  English,  with  that  boldness  which  has  ever 
characterized  him,  fought  the  doctrines  of  the  Know-Nothing  party,  and  the 
"  search,  seizure  and  confiscation  temperance  law"  party  upon  every  stump, 
and  came  out  victorious  ;  but  he  was  the  only  Democrat  hut  one  elected  to  Congress  at 
that  time  from  Indiana.  In  consequence  of  this  gallant  fight,  as  well  as  from  his 
broad,  liberal  and  conservative  views,  Mr.  English  has  always  been  popular  with 
our  foreign  population. 

He  continued  to  support  the  policy  of  the  aidministration  of  President  Pierce 
during  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress. 

REGENT   OF  THE   SMITHSONIAN    INSTITUTION. 

He  was  a  Regent  of  the  Smithsonian  institution  for  eight  years,  and,  during 
this  Congress,  made  a  speech  in  defense  of  the  management  of  the  institution 
which  was  highly  commended  by  Prof.  Henry,  Charles ,  Henry  Davis  and  other 
eminent  scientific  gentlemen.     Mr.  Davis  went  so  far  as  to  write  a  letter,  in  which 


LIFE    OP   WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH.  41 

he  said  Mr.  English  was  entitled  to  "  the  gratitude  and  friendly  regard  of  every 
scientific  man  in  the  country  whose  opinions  are  thought  worth  repeating. 

In  this  speech  Mr.  English  evinced  higher  qualities  of  statesmanship  than  ar6 
developed  in  caucus  and  the  usual  combats  of  partisans — a  statesmanship  that 
enters  within  the  domain  of  science  and  art,  and  that  seeks  through  the  agencies 
which  enlightened  governments  can  command  to  elevate  and  reform  the  people, 
and  to  place  within  their  reach  facilities  for  the  highest  culture. 

THIRD   ELECTION   TO   CONGRESS. 

At  the  end  of  Mr.  English's  second  term  he  avowed  his  intention  of  not  being 
a  candidate  for  Congress  again,  and  requested  his  constituents  to  select  some 
other  person.  The  convention  which  met  to  nominate  his  successor,  however, 
after  balloting  forty-two  times  without  making  a  choice,  finally  determined, 
unanimously,  to  insist  upon  Mr.  English  taking  the  field  for  the  third  time,  which 
he  reluctantly  consented  to  do,  and  was  elected  by  a  larger  majority  than  ever 
before,  in  October,  1856. 

ADMISSION   OF    KANSAS. 

In  the  course  of  a  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the 
«,dmission  of  Kansas,  Mr.  English  said  : 

"  I  think  before  Kansas  is  admitted,  her  people  ought  to  ratify,  or  at  least, 
have  a  fair  opportunity  to  vote  upon  the  constitution  under  which  it  is  proposed 
to  admit  >^  er  ;  at  the  same  time,  1  am  not  so  wedded  to  any  particular  plan  that  I 
may  not,  for  the  sake  of  harmony  and  as  a  choice  of  evils,  make  reasonable  con- 
cessions, provided  the  substance  would  be  secured,  which  is  the  making  of  the 
constitution,  at  an  early  day,  conform  to  the  public  will,  or,  at  least,  that  the 
privilege  and  opportunity  of  so  making  it  be  secured  to  the  people  beyond  all 
question.  Less  than  this  would  not  satisfy  the  expectations  of  my  constituents, 
^nd  I  would  not  betray  their  wishes  for  any  earthly  considerations." 

When  the  whole  country  had  about  abandoned  the  hope  of  a  settlement  of  the 
■disagreement  between  the  two  houses,  and  the  angry  contest  was  likely  to  be  ad- 
journed for  further  and  protracted  agitation  before  the  people,  already  inflamed 
with  sectional  animosities,  Mr.  English  took  the  responsibility  of  moving  to  con- 
cur in  the  proposition  of  the  Senate  asking  for  a  committee  of  free  conference. 
The  excitement  upon  the  occasion  had  scarcely  ever  beeu  equaled  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Upon  adopting  this  motion  the  vote  was  a  tie  (108  to  108) ;  but 
the  Speaker  voted  in  the  afl3irmative,  and  the  motion  prevailed.  The  committee 
on  the  part  of  the  House  was  composed  of  W.  H.  English,  of  Indiana  ;  A.  H. 
Stephens,  of  Georgia,  and  W.  A.  Howard,  of  Michigan.  On  the  part  of  the  Sen- 
ate, J.  S.  Greene,  of  Missouri ;  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  and  W.  H.  Seward, 
of  New  York. 

This  is  the  history  of  the  origin  of  the  great  Kansas  compromise  measure,  com- 
monly called  the  "  English  bill,"  which  finally  passed  both  branches'  of  Congress 
and  became  the  law. 

This  law  was,  in  effect,  to  place  it  in  the  power  of  the  people  of  Kansas 
to  come  into  the  Union  under  the  Lecompton  Constitution,  or  not,  as  they  might 
themselves  determine  at  a  fair  election.  It  was  not  a  submission  as  direct  as  Mr. 
English  himself  preferred,  as  hereinafter  explained,  but  was  the  best  he  could 
get  under  the  complications  then  existing,  and  was  a  substantial  vindication  of 
the  doctrine  of  "  popular  sovereignty"  advocated  in  his  minority  report  on  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  in  the  Thirty-third  Congress. 

It  is  impossible  for  persons  now  to  realize  the  agitation  and  excitement  in  the 


42  IIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

country  at  that  time  over  the  "English  bill."    Its  passage  was  hailed  with  firing 
of  cannons,  illuminations  and  public  rejoicing  in  many  places. 

CONGRATULATIONS  AND  REJOICINGS. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Buchanan,  was  highly  gratified,  and 
wrote  Mr.  English  a  letter  of  congratulation  (which  Mr.  English  has  preserved),, 
in  which  he  said : 

*' I  consider  the  present  occasion  the  most  fortunate  of  your  life.  It  will  be 
your  fate  to  end  the  dangerous  agitation,  to  confer  lasting  benefits  on  your  coun- 
try, and  to  render  your  character  historical.     I  shall  remain  always  your  friend." 

On  the  night  after  the  passage  of  the  bill  there  was  a  great  mass  meeting  in 
Washington  city  which  serenaded  Mr.  English. 

In  the  course  of  his  remarks  he  said : 

"Let  us  all  stand  together  in  this  great  confederacy  as  equals,  each  state  hav- 
ing the  right  to  regulate  its  own  domestic  institutions  in  its  own  way;  and  let  us 
apply  this  doctrine  not  only  to  Kansas,  but  to  all  the  territories  that  may  come 
into  this  Union  for  all  time  to  come.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Democratic 
party,  and  when  that  party  is  struck  down,  the  best  interests  of  the  country  will 
be  struck  down.  Stop  this  agitation  and  let  us  act,  not  like  visionary  fanatics, 
but  practical  men.  Let  well  enough  alone  and  leave  the  solution  of  this  matter 
to  time  and  Providence.  If  we  can  not  stand  upon  the  doctrine  of  non-interven- 
tion, where  can  we  stand  in  safety? 

"  I  know  that  it  is  the  feeling  of  the  people  of  Indiana  that  the  interests  and 
rights  of  the  South  should  never  be  trodden  under  foot.  We  do  not  intend  ta 
surrender  any  of  our  rights,  and  we  do  not  believe  that  the  people  of  the  South 
desire  to  trespass  upon  our  rights ;  if  they  did,  we  should  rise  up  as  one  man  ta 
resist  it,  and  we  would  resist  it  to  the  last.  While  we  shall  be  careful  to  protect 
our  own  rights,  we  shall  be  equally  careful  not  to  trespass  upon  the  rights  of  our 
brethren  in  other  states.  Upon  such  broad  national  grounds  as  this  we  can  all 
stand ;  and  if  we  do,  this  confederacy  will  continue  increasing  in  prosperity  and 
glory.  We  must  discard  all  these  sectional  ideas.  We  must  cultivate  a  greater 
feeling  of  respect  and  sympathy  for  each  other,  and  for  those  of  different  sections;: 
and  I  tinist  and  hope  this  is  the  dawn  of  a  new  era.  I  trust  and  hope  we  shall 
hear  no  more  of  these  sectional  agitations.  Every  good  man  and  lover  of  his 
country  ought  to  set  his  face  against  them.  I  speak  the  sentiment  of  the  entire 
Democracy  of  my  state  when  I  say  that  we  will  do  battle  faithfully  to  protect  the 
rights  of  the  people  of  every  portion  of  the  confederacy,  and  that  we  shall  stand 
by  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  to  the  last." 

MR.    ENGLISH  EXPLAINS  THE    "ENGLISH  BILL." 

Mr.  English  claimed  that  the  "English  bill  "  was  entirely  as  he  wished  it.  In 
a  short  speech'made  long  after  its  passage,  he  said : 

*'It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  a  bill  upon  a  subject  of  so  much  magnitude, 
preceded  by  such  intense  excitement,  long  and  heated  debates,  close  votes,  and 
conflicts  between  co-ordinate  branches  of  the  government,  could  be  enacted  into 
a  law  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to  all,  or  without  violent  opposition.  Nothing  in 
man's  nature,  or  the  history  of  the  past,  warranted  such  expectation.  Thirty 
millions  of  excited  people  are  not  easily  quieted,  and  a  question  which  could 
agitate  a  whole  nation  was  not  likely  to  be  removed  without  a  struggle  and  some, 
sacrifice  of  opinion. 

"Perfection  in  every  respect  was  not  claimed  for  the  Conference  Bill.  Its 
friends  set  up  no  unreasonable  or  extravagant  pretensions  in  its  behalf,  and  they 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH.  -43 

now  have  the  proud  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  it  has  realized  all  they  ever 
claimed  for  it.  It  was  enough  that  it  contained  the  substance,  and  was  the  very 
best  that  could  be  secured  at  the  time  and  under  the  circumstances  which  then 
existed. 

"In  that  spirit  it  was  agreed  to  in  committee;  in  that  spirit  enacted  into  a  law. 
It  sprang  from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  and  was  supported  in  the  hope  of  recon- 
ciUation  and  peace.  If  those  who  gave  it  their  support  erred,  it  was  in  yielding 
too  much  in  the  praiseworthy  effort  of  removing  a  dangerous  question  from  the 
national  councils  and  restoring  harmony  to  a  highly-excited  people. " 

Under  this  law  the  question  of  admission  under  the  Lecompton  constitution 
was,  m  effect,  referred  back  to  the  people  of  Kansas,  and  they  voted  against  it, 
just  as  Mr.  English  and  almost  every  one  else  expected  they  would  do.  Even  so 
bitter  a  partisan  as  Mr.  Greeley  then  was,  admitted  in  his  history  that  the  vote  cast 
on  the  proposition  submitted  by  the  English  bill  "was,  in  fact,  to  reject  the  Le- 
compton constitution. " 

Thus  the  result  was  accomplished  which  Mr.  English  had  contended  for  from 
the  beginning,  and  there  is  no  inconsistency  in  his  record  upon  this  subject.  On 
the  final  vote  which  admitted  Kansas  as  a  state,  he  was  still  a  member,  and  voted 
for  her  admission. 

FOUBTH  ELECTION  TO  CONGRESS. 

The  popular  current  in  the  North  was  still  strongly  against  the  Democratic  ad- 
ministration, and  the  "English  bill'  entered  into  the  ensuing  political  campaign, 
-and  came  in  for  the  usual  amount  of  misrepresentation  and  abuse. 

Mr.  English  had  again  been  brought  forward  for  re-election,  and  the  contest  in 
Ms  district  assumed  a  national  importance.  His  political  opponents  made  extra- 
ordinary efforts  to  defeat  him,  and  there  was  at  one  time  some  dissatisfaction  with 
a  portion  of  his  political  friends,  who  thought  he  ought  to  have  voted  for  the  ad- 
mission of  Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  constitution. 

After  the  passage  of  the  English  bill,  the  President  offered  to  confer  the  highest 
political  honors  upon  Mr.  English,  but  he  declined  receiving  any  executive  appoint- 
ment. The  same  offer  of  executive  favors  occurred  under  the  administration  of 
President  Johnson,  with  whom  Mr.  English  had  been  on  terms  of  the  most  inti- 
mate friendship  ever  since  the  winter  and  spring  of  1844-45,  at  which  time  they 
boarded  at  the  same  house,  and  Mr.  Johnson,  then  a  member  of  Congress  from 
Tennessee,  aided  in  procuring  an  office  for  Mr.  English  under  President  Polk. 

CONGRESSIONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

Mr.  English  entered  Congress  with  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  Elihu  B.  Wash- 
l)urn  and  John  C.  Breckinridge,  and,  at  subsequent  sessions,  John  Sherman,  W. 
S  Groesbeck  and  George  H.  Pendleton,  of  Ohio;  Roscoe  Conkling,  of  New  York, 
and  Schuyler  Colfax,  of  Indiana,  became  members,  so  that  it  may  be  said  of  Mr. 
English's  colleagues  that  two  of  them  became  Vice-Presidents  of  the  United 
States,  and  six  have  been  prominently  mentioned  for  the  high  office  of  President. 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  upon  the  short  duration  of  human  life,  and  the  transi- 
tory nature  of  all  earthly  honors,  that  of  the  two  Senators  and  eleven  members 
of  the  House,  constituting  the  Indiana  delegation  in  the  Thirty-third  Congress, 
which  ended  in  1854,  all  are  now  dead  but  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  and  William  H. 
English. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  John  Sherman,  now  Mr.  Hayes' 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  nominated  by  the  Republicans  for  Speaker ;  but 
«fter  two  months  of  great  excitement,  and  a  multitude  of   ballots,   in  which. 


44  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

various  persons  were  voted  for,  Gov.  Pennington,  of  New  Jersey,  was  finally 
elected. 

In  the  course  of  this  struggle  Mr.  English  made  a  speech,  from  which  we 
make  a  short  extract,  as  it  refers  pointedly  to  his  previous  political  history.  He 
said: 

"  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  my  personal  and  political  history  know  that  I 
have  never  belonged  to  or  sympathized  with  any  other  than  the  Democratic  party.  I 
have  stood  with  that  party  against  all  the  political  organizations  that  have  from 
time  to  time  been  arrayed  against  it.  When  the  old  Whig  party  existed,  I  op- 
posed it  upon  those  issues  which  have  become  obsolete  and  are  no  longer  before 
the  country.  Upon  the  great  question  of  slavery,  which  is  the  vital  question  of 
this  day,  I  stand  where  the  Damocracy  stood,  and  the  Whig  party  stood,  as  long 
as  the  Whig  party  had  an  existence. 

"  Upon  the  advent  of  the  Know-Nothing  or  American  party,  I  opposed  it  per- 
sistently, and  particularly  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  that  party  in  relation  to 
naturalization  and  religion.  My  views  upon  these  subjects  have  undergone  no 
change,  I  am  for  our  naturalization  laws  as  they  stand,  and  for  the  entire  free- 
dom of  religious  belief,  and  would  resist  to  the  last  any  infringement  upon  the 
one  or  the  other." 

EXCELSIOR. 

The  election  of  1858  resulted  in  the  return  of  Mr.  English  to  Congress  by  a 
larger  majority  than  ever.  There  had  bsen  no  change  in  the  boundaries  of  liis 
district,  but  his  career  in  this,  as  in  everything  else,  had  been  upward  and  on- 
ward, his  majority  gradually  incredfting  at  each  election  from  488  in  1852  to  1,812  in 
1858,  and  this  at  a  time  when  Democratic  Congressmen  were  almost  swept  out  of 
existence  in  the  Nortliern  States. 

THE   SHADOW   OF   THE   GREAT    CIVIL   WAR. 

In  the  meantime  the  split  in  his  political  party  continued  to  widen,  and  the 
shadows  of  the  great  civil  war  began  to  be  visible  to  his  keen  and  experienced 
vision. 

Mr.  English  was  then  a  member  of  the  National  Campaign  Committee. 

The  approaching  Democratic  National  Convention  at  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, was  a  great  event,  pregnant  with  mighty  consequences  both  to  that  party  and 
to  the  country.  Mr.  English  was  not  a  delegate,  but  he  went  to  Charleston  to  do 
what  he  could  as  a  peacemaker,  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  division  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party.  If  the  judgment  of  such  prudent  and  practical  men  as  Mr.  English 
had  been  followed,  there  would  have  been  but  one  Democratic  Presidential 
ticket,  and  such  a  conservative  Democratic  platform  as  probably  would  have  com- 
manded success.  And  if  it  had  been  successful,  bow  different  might  have  been 
the  history  of  this  country !  But  those  who  labored  for  harmony  labored  in  vain, 
and  Mr.  English  returned  to  Washington  before  the  convention  adjourned  greatly 
discouraged  at  heart,  but  still  hoping  all  would  end  well. 

AGAINST  RECESSION. 

Then  came  the  movement  in  the  South  in  favor  of  dissolution.  Mr.  English 
was  for  pacification,  if  possible,  and  favored  every  measure  tending  to  that  re- 
sult. On  the  subject  of  secession  he  was  as  firm  and  bold  in  opposing  the  views 
of  his  former  political  associates  from  the  South  as  he  liad  been  in  opposing  the 
admission  of  Kansas  as  a  state  under  the  Lecompton  constitution.  He  denounced 
it  from  the  beginning,  and  made  every  effort  to  induce  Southern  members  to 
abandon  it.  In  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  he  plainly  told  the 
South  that  "  the  great  Democratic  party,  that  has  so  long  and  so  justly  boasted  of 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH.  45 

its  nationality,  must  not  degenerate  into  a  mere  sectional  party,  or  a  party  that 
tolerates  the  sentiment  of  disunion;  if  it  does,  its  days  are  numbered  and  its 
mission  ended." 

Alluding  to  the  folly  of  the  Soutli,  threatening  to  break  up  the  Union  because 
of  the  election  of  a  sectional  man  to  the  President's  chair,  he  told  them  that  a 
corporal's  guard  of  Northern  men  would  not  go  with  them  out  of  the  Union  for 
such  a  cause,  and  that  his  constituents  would  only  "  march  under  the  flag  and 
keep  step  to  the  music  of  the  Union."  Addressing  tbe  Southern  members,  he 
said  : 

"Looking  at  this  matter  from  the  particular  standpoint  you  occupy,  it  is  4»  lie 
feared  you  have  not  always  properly  appreciated  the  position  of  the  Free-State 
Democracy,  or  the  perils  which  would  environ  them  in  the  event  of  a  resort  to 
the  extreme  measures  to  which  I  refer.  Would  you  expect  us  in  such  an  event 
to  go  with  you  out  of  the  Union?  If  so,  let  me  tell  you  frankly,  your  expectar 
tions  will  never  be  realized.  Collectively,  as  states,  it  would  be  impossible,  and 
as  individuals,  inadmissible;  because  it  would  involve  innumerable  sacrifices,  and 
a  severance  of  those  sacred  ties  which  bind  every  man  to  his  own  immediate 
country,  and  which,  as  patriots,  we  never  would  surrender. " 

But  his  appeals  were  in  vain.  The  crisis  of  the  great  American  conflict  was  at 
hand.  It  was  now  inevitable  that  the  angry  controversy  would  be  transferred 
from  the  halls  of  Congress  to  be  decided  by  a  bloody  and  relentless  war;  an  event 
he  had  hoped  would  never  come,  and  zealously  labored  to  avert. 

RETIRES   FROM   CONGRESS  WITH   THE   PLAUDITS   OP   HIS   CONSTITUENTS. 

He  now  determined  at  all  hazards  to  retire  from  Congress  and  active  political 
life,  having  served  continuously  through  four  terms.  That  he  retired  with  the 
full  and  unqualified  indorsement  of  his  constituents,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  convention  which  nominated  his  successor  adopted  unanimously  the  follow- 
ing resolution: 

"Resolved,  That  in  selecting  a  candidate  to  represent  this  district  in  the  Thirty- 
seventh  Congress,  we  deem  it  a  proper  occasion  to  expresi  the  respect  and  esteem 
we  entertain  for  our  present  member,  Hon.  W.  H.  English,  and  our  confidence  in 
him  as  a  public  officer.  In  his  retirement,  in  accordance  with  his  well-known 
wishes,  from  the  position  of  representative,  which  he  has  so  long  filled  with  credit 
to  himself  and  benefit  to  the  country,  we  heartily  greet  him  with  the  plaudit, 
'  Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant.'  " 

Thus  did  he  retire  from  active  participation  in  political  affairs,  as  an  office- 
holder, without  ever  having  sustained  a  defeat  before  the  people,  in  the  full  meri- 
dian of  success  and  with  strong  prospect  of  being  advanced  (had  he  made  the 
effort)  to  still  higher  political  honors. 

SPEAKS  FOR   THE   UNION. 

Mr.  English  was  a  firm  and  consistent  supporter  of  the  Union  cause. 

The  following  account  of  a  speech  made  by  him  about  the  time  of  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war  is  taken  from  the  Madison  Courier,  a  paper  not  of  Mr. 
English's  politics: 

' '  Mr.  English  spoke  for  over  an  hour.  He  said  that  he  was  opposed  to  the 
Republican  doctrines,  and  should  boldly  assail  Mr.  Lincoln's  policy  whenever  he 
thought  it  wrong,  but  as  a  native  of  Indiana,  thoroughly  identified  with  free 
state  interests,  he  felt  that  his  allegiance  was  exclusively  due  to  the  state  of 
Indiana  and  government  of  the  United  States,  and  he  should  accordingly  abide 
in  good  faith  by  their  laws,  and  stand  under  the  old  time-honored  flag. 


46  UFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

"  He  trusted  that  the  bitter  cup  of  civil  war  might  be  passed  from  our  lips,  and 
he  would  exhaust  every  possible  means  of  maintaining  the  peace  ;  but  if  nothing 
will  do  but  war,  then  we  must  all  stand  or  fall  together." 

TRYING  PERIOD   OP  HIS  LIFE. 

This  was  an  eventful  and  trying  period  in  his  life.  He  had  abandoned  the  field 
of  politics  and  declined  employment  as  an  officer  in  the  army.  He  had  grown 
rusty  in  the  law.  After  many  years  of  intense  activity,  and  at  his  age,  he  could 
not  be  satisfied  to  sit  down  in  his  little  native  village  and  do  nothing.  He  tried 
it,  but  before  the  end  of  a  year  worried  himself  on  account  of  his  inactivity  into 
a  long  spell  of  sickness,  and  gave  up  tlie  "retired  and  quiet  life"  idea  in 
despair. 

MR.    ENGLISH   AS  A  BANKER. 

He  always  had  an  aptitude  for  finance,  and  was  encouraged  to  go  into  banking 
by  his  friends  Hugh  McCullough  (then  about  entering  upon  the  duties  of  Con- 
troller of  the  Currency)  and  the  great  bankers,  J.  F.  D.  Lanier,  of  New  York, 
and  George  W.  Riggs,  of  Washington  City.  The  two  latter  became  stockholders 
with  him  in  the  First  National  Bank  of  Indianapolis,  which  was  founded  by  Mr. 
English  in  the  spring  of  1863.  Of  course,  this  required  Mr.  English  to  move  to 
Indianapolis,  where  he  has  since  resided.  This  bank  was  among  the  first  organ- 
ized in  the  United  States  under  the  national  system,  and  the  very  first  to  get  out 
its  circulation. 

In  this,  as  in  all  other  undertakings,  Mr.  English  steadily  persevered  until  he 
achieved  a  splendid  success.  He  was  soon  recognized  as  a  first-class  business  man, 
and  gradually  grew  in  favor  with  his  colleagues  and  the  public  until  he  was  the 
president  of  the  Indianapolis  Clearing-house  Association  and  president  of  the 
Indiana  Banking  Association — the  recognized  head  of  the  profession  in  his  city 
and  state. 

The  bank  of  which  he  was  so  long  president  commenced  with  a  capital  of 
$150,000,  but  he  had  the  sagacity  to  secure  as  stockholders  such  men  as  J.  F.  D. 
Lanier,  George  W.  Riggs,  Gov.  O.  P.  Morton,  Gov.  T.  A.  Hendricks,  Hon.  Frank- 
lin Landers  and  Hon.  J.  A.  Cravens,  and  other  gentlemen  of  the  very  highest 
financial  and  political  standing,  and  under  his  admirable  management  very  large 
dividends  were  paid  to  stockholders,  and  the  capital  increased  to  a  million  dol- 
lars, with  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  surplus.  For  over  fourteen  years 
Mr.  English  presided  over  the  bank  with  remarkable  ability  and  unquestioned 
fidelity,  until  it  was  recognized  as  the  first  financial  institution  in  the  state,  and 
among  the  first  in  the  United  States. 

RESIGNS  THE   PRESIDENCY   OF    THE   BANK   AND   RETIRES   FROM   ACTIVE  BUSINESS. 

In  the  meantime,  Mr.  English  had  acquired  the  controlling  interest  in  the  various 
Street-railway  lines  of  the  city,  and  was  largely  interested  in  real  estate  and  other 
business  enterprises,  which  so  severely  taxed  his  energies  that  his  health  became 
somewhat  impaired,  and  as  his  wife  had  long  been  in  such  feeble  health  as  to 
make  removal  for  a  time  to  a  warmer  climate  desirable,  he  determined  to  retire 
from  active  business.  Accordingly,  on  the  25th  of  July,  1877,  he  resigned  the 
presidency  of  the  bank. 

The  stockholders  and  directors  accepted  this  resignation  with  deep  regret,  and 
in  doing  so,  unanimously  adopted  the  following  resolution : 

Resolved,  That  the  directors  and  stockholders  of  this  bank  sincerely  regret  the 
causes  which  impel  the  resignation  of  the  Hon.  Wm.  H.  English,  so  long  presi- 
dent of  this  institution,  and  that  in  accepting  the  same  they  desire  to  express 


LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.     ENGLISH.  4*1 

their  thanks  to  him  for  the  very  great  financial  ability,  constant  watchfulness 
and  perfect  fidelity  with  which  he  has  managed  it  from  its  organization  to  the 
present  time. 

Resolved,  That  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  be  directed  to  have  pre- 
pared and  present  to  him  a  suitable  testimonial  as  a  memento  of  our  personal  re- 
g:ird  and  esteem,  and  that  he  carry  with  him  our  most  sincere  wishes  for  a  long 
life  of  u  efulness  and  happiness." 

Soon  after  retiring  from  the  bank  Mr.  English  sold  out  all  his  stock  in  the 
street  railway  and  other  companies,  and  now  does  not  own  a  dollar  of  stock  ia 
any  corporation  whatever— which  is  very  remarkable  for  a  man  of  his  large 
wealth. 

POSITION    ON  FINANCIAIi  QUESTIONS. 

Tie  clear-headed  comprehension  of  the  situation  during  the  great  financial 
panic  <  f  1873,  and  his  cool  and  judicious  management  upon  that  trying  occasion, 
did  very  much  to  prevent  disaster  to  the  Indianapolis  banks,  and  to  elevate  him 
in  public  estimation  as  a  good  leader  in  great  emergencies.  One  of  the  leading 
newspapers  (TAe  P<3(?pfe),  referring  to  this,  said:  "His  conduct  throughout  the 
panic  proved  that  his  heart  was  in  the  right  place — that  the  best  interests  of  the 
city  were  in  his  thoughts — that  he  had  the  nerve  and  the  will  to  sink  self  and 
proffer  ad  to  those  needing  it." 

!&Ir.  English  has  always  been  the  bold  and  fearless  advocate  of  honest  money 
and  sound  and  conservative  financial  principles.  Upon  this  important  question 
his  record  is  faultless,  and  so  uniformly  consistent  that  his  position  is  never 
questioned.  In  a  late  interview  he  said:  "For  myself,  I  want  our  money  to 
rank  with  the  same  standard  recognized  by  all  the  great  commercial  nations  of 
the  world.  I  want  no  depreciated  or  unredeemable  paper  forced  upon  our 
people.  I  want  the  laboring  man  when  pay-day  comes  to  be  paid  in  real  dollars 
that  will  purchase  just  as  much  of  the  necessaries  of  life  as  the  dollars  paid  tc. 
the  bondholders  or  officeholders,  and  with  as  great  purchasing  power  as  the  best 
money  in  the  best  markets  of  the  world.  Honesty,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  best 
policy  in  finance  and  politics,  as  well  as  in  morals  generally,  and  if  politicians 
would  take  half  as  much  trouble  to  instruct  and  enlighten  the  masses  that  they  do 
to  take  advantage  of  their  supposed  prejudices  it  would  be  far  better." 

Of  this  bold  and  patriotic  declaration  of  Mr.  English  the  Boston  Post  no  doubt 
echoed  the  general  sentiment  when  it  said;  "  If  we  could  have  the  ear  of  every 
Democrat  in  the  country  we  should  be  glad  to  know  if  anything  better  than 
this  has  been  uttered,  and  who  can  honestly  dissent  from  it  ?" 

On  the  evening  of  October  25,  1873,  a  large  meeting  of  the  members  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  business  men  of  Indianapolis  took  place,  which  the  papers  ot 
the  next  morning  designated  as  "the  most  noted  assemblage  of  the  sort  held  in 
the  city  for  years."  There  was  much  excitement,  and  strong  and  general  feeling 
tiint  a  further  inflation  of  the  currency  was  the  best  remedy  for  existing  and 
threatened  financial  evils.  Almost  solitary  and  alone  Mr.  English  combatted  the 
correctness  of  this  position,  and  in  a  forcible  speech  did  much  to  change  the  cur- 
rent of  thought  upon  the  subject. 

NO   OFFICE-SEEKER,  BUT  HIS  INTEREST   IN  POLITICS  CONTINUES. 

It  should  not  be  understood  that  because  Mr.  English  retired  from  Congress  m 
1860,  ard  declined  longer  to  hold  office,  that  he  ceased  to  take  an  interest  in  pub- 
lic affairs.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  state  convention  in  1861,  and  in  1862  he 
was  again  spoken  of  for  Congress,  but  declined  the  use  of  his  name  in  a  published 


48  LlFK    OF    AVJLLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

letter,  in  which  lie  advised  his  old  Democratic  constituents  to  keep  up  their  organ- 
ization and  stand  by  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.     He  said  : 

*'It  is  perhaps  superfluous  for  me  to  add  that,  as  a  private  citizen,  neither 
seeking  nor  desiring  office,  I  shall  exert  whatever  influence  I  possess  to  maintain 
the  Constitution  and  the  Union,  and  speedily  suppress  the  rebellion.  We  must 
not  allow  ourselves  to  be  driven  from  correct  principles  by  any  amount  of  mis- 
representation or  even  p^-secution. 

"I  would  say,  let  us  stand  together  under  the  old  flag  and  in  the  old  organiza- 
tion, fighting  secessionism  to  the  bitter  end,  assailing  the  administration  where 
ever  we  conscientiously  believe  it  to  be  in  error,  but  upholding  the  Constitution 
and  laws,  and  never  losing  sight  of  that  great  historical  fact,  which  can  never  be 
overcome  by  misrepresentation  and  abuse,  and  that  is,  that  under  the  rule  of  the 
Democracy  the  country  grew  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  nations  of  the  earth,  and  as 
long  as  they  had  power  the  people  of  the  states  were  prosperous  and  happy." 

MICHAEL  C.  KERR  AND  RESOLUTIONS  IN  FAVOR  OF  MCCLELLAN  AND  THE  UNION. 

In  1864  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  congressional  convention  which  nominated  that 
sterling  patriot,  Michael  C.  Kerr,  to  Congress,  and  who  died  while  Speaker  of  the 
House.  Mr.  Kerr  aoid  Mr.  English  were  life-long  friends,  and  Mr.  Kerr  said  often 
that  he  owed  his  seat  in  Congress  to  Mr.  English. 

Mr.  English  was  an  advocate  of  Gen.  McClellan  for  President,  and  introduced 
the  resolution  in  the  convention  of  the  Second  Congressional  district  declaring  for 
McClellan  as  first  choice.  Also  a  resolution  declaring,  "that  we  are  now,  as  we 
ever  have  been,  unqualifiedly  in  favor  of  the  union  of  the  States,  under  the  Con- 
stitution, and  stand  ready,  as  we  have  ever  stood  heretofore,  to  do  everything  that 
loyal  and  true  citizens  should  do  to  maintain  that  Union  under  the  Constitution, 
and  to  bandit  down  to  our  children  unimpaired  as  we  receive'd  it  from  our  fathers." 

BUSINESS   INCREASES — SEYMOUR   AND   TILDEN. 

Mr.  English's  business  continued  to  increase  until  it  reached  such  immense  pro- 
portions that  it  absorbed  all  his  time,  and  he  could  give  but  little  attention  to  po- 
litical affairs  ;  but  he  was  a  firm  friend  and  supporter  of  Gov.  Seymour  and  Gov. 
Tildcn,  and  presided  at  the  meeting  held  at  the  capital  of  the  state,  ratifying  the 
nomination  of  Tilden  and  Hendricks,     Upon  that  occasion  he  said  : 

'  It  is  known  to  you,  fellow-citizens,  that  I  have  not  of  late  years  been  an  active 
participant  in  political  affairs.  Preferring  the  quiet  pursuits  of  private  life  and 
intending  not  to  be  drawn  into  the  turmoils  of  active  politics,  I  nevertheless  am 
not  an  indifferent  spectator  in  this  contest,  and  certainly  do  not  forget  the  past,  I 
do  not  forget  that  I  was  born  a  Democrat ;  was  long  an  earnest,  hard-working 
member  of  the  party,  always  a  firm  believer  in  its  great  cardinal  principles,  and 
frequently  a  recipient  of  its  favor  at  a  time  when  such  favors  were  to  me  of  ines- 
timable value.  With  such  antecedents,  and  a  heart  which  I  know  is  not  incapable 
of  gratitude,  I  could  not  be  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  this  grand  old  party,  and 
although  m  bad  health  and  shrinking  from  appearing  as  a  participant  in  a  pub- 
lic political  meeting,  I  could  not  forego  the  pressing  call  that  was  made  upon  me 
to  preside  upon  this  occasion,  because  I  sincerely  believe  that  the  time  has  arrived 
when  the  welfare  of  the  people  demands  thorough  reform  in  the  affairs  of  the 
general  government,  and  that  such  reform  can  now  only  be  certainly  and  effect- 
ively secured  by  the  election  of  Tilden  and  Hendricks." 

RESIDENCE,    MARRIAGE  AND   CHILDREN. 

Mr.  English  has  a  residence  in  Indianapolis,  fronting  upon  a  beautiful  circular 
park  Itnown  as  the  "  Governor's  Circle,"  so  called  because  originally  designed  as 
the  site  for  the  residence  of  the  governor  of  the  state. 


LIFE    OF    WILLI AT^C    H.    ENGLISH.  49 

He  was  married  to  Miss  Emma  Mardulia  Jackson,  of  Virginia,  on  the  17tli  day 
of  November,  1847,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  the  Rev.  Henry  Slicer,  chap- 
lain of  the  United  States  Senate,  performing  the  ceremony,  and  no  union  could 
have  been  more  felicitous  and  happy  than  this  was  during  its  long  continuance. 
This  estimable  lady  died  at  Indianapolis,  November  14, 1876,  universally  loved  and 
respected  by  all  who  knew  her. 

Two  children  were  the  issue  of  this  marriage,  a  son  and  a  daughter.  The  son 
is  the  Hon.  W.  E.  English,  a  young  man  of  fine  promise,  now  a  member  of  the 
Indiana  House  of  Representatives,  being  the. third  of  the  family  in  lineal  descent 
who  has  occupied  that  position— father,  son  and  grandson.  The  daughter,  Rosa- 
lind, is  the  wife  of  Dr.  Willoughby  Walling,  an  eminent  physician  of  Louisville, 
Ky.,  and  is  the  mother  of  two  fine  boy  babies,  William  English  Walling  and  Wil- 
loughby George  Walling. 

AFTER  RETIRING    FROM    ACTIVE   BUSINESS   IN   1877. 

The  foregoing  incidents  of  an  exceptionally  active  and  successful  life  bring  its 
history  down  to  the  year  1877,  when  Mr.  English,  crowned  with  success  in  every 
undertaking,  with  a  political  and  business  record  without  a  blemish,  and  at  the 
very  meridian  of  his  powers,  sought  the  retirement  of  private  life  to  enjoy  in 
quiet  society  the  well-earned  trophies  of  former  years.  But  in  this  retirement 
Ml-.  English  was  not  unmindful  of  his  country  nor  neglectful  of  the  interests  of 
the  Democratic  party,  whose  principles  he  had  espoused  in  his  youth,  and  whose 
standard-bearer  he  had  been  in  many  a  hotly-contested  conflict.  Always  a  close 
observer  of  passing  events,  he  continued  to  manifest  his  deep  solicitude  for  the 
success  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  with  his  ripe  experience  was  ever  ready  to 
aid  it  by  his  counsel. 

STANDING  BEFORE   THE  PUBLIC. 

His  splendid  triumph  in  every  enterprise  with  which  he  had  been  identified  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century  made  his  name  a  synonym  of  success.  His  services  in  the 
Indiana  legislature,  the  national  fame  he  had  acquired  in  Congress  and  the  su- 
perior abilities  he  had  displayed  as  a  financier,  and  his  fidelity  to  every  trust,  all 
combined  to  give  him  a  prominence  which  was  continually  attracting  the  attention, 
not  only  of  his  fellow-citizens  of  his  native  state,  but  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  the  country ;  and  to  these  circumstances  alone  must  be  credited  his  pres- 
ent enviable  position  before  the  American  people  and  the  unsolicited  association 
of  his  name  with  high  official  trusts.  It  should  be  understood  that  Mr.  English 
seeks  retirement.  He  has  voluntarily  surrendered  advanced  positions  in  public 
life  for  the  enjoyments  to  be  garnered  only  in  the  walls  of  a  private  citizen.  The 
distinction  and  emoluments  of  the  office  had  lost  their  attractions,  and  having 
earned  honor  and  wealth,  he  was  willing  to  surrender  his  place  in  the  shining 
pathway  of  fame  to  others,  content  to  see  them  crowned,  as  he  had  been,  with  the 
approbation  of  their  countrymen.  But  Mr.  English  could  not  control  the  logic 
of  circumstances.  As  a  result,  and  independent  of  his  volition,  there  is,  at  this  time, 
what  seems  to  be  a  very  general  wish  to  call  him  from  retirement  and  promi- 
nently identify  him  with  passing  political  events. 

SOME   TRAITS    OF   CHARACTER. 

Mr.  English  is  logical  rather  than  ornate.  His  mind  is  a  crucible  in  which 
error  is  eliminated  from  truth,  and  the  tests  of  his  analysis  being  satisfactory,  he 
is  proof  against  sophisms  or  the  blandishments  of  flattery.  With  a  mind  trained 
from  early  manhood  in  a  school  of  logic  which  dignified  facts,  the  brilliancy  of 
fi^ction  never  beguiles  him  from  the  luminous  pathway  mapped  out  by  reason  ;  and 

4 


50  LIFE    OF    WILLIAM    H.    ENGLISH. 

hence,  as  a  result,  his  public  and  private  life  is  singularly  free  from  the  mistakes 
that  have  embarrassed  other  public  men,  and  his  past  good  fortune  in  this  regard 
points  to  him  with  special  distinctness  as  eminently  qualified  for  public  trusts, 
no  matter  what  the  gravity  of  their  responsibilities  may  be.  At  school,  a  student 
of  law,  an  attorney,  principal  clerk  of  the  Indiana  legislature,  secretary  of  the 
constitutional  convention,  member  of  the  legislature  and  Speaker  of  the  House, 
member  of  Congress,  banker  and  private  citizen,  at  all  times  clear,  concise  and 
self-poised,  William  H.  English  has  demonstrated,  as  few  men  have  done,  capaci- 
ties of  the  first  order,  and  which  command  universal  respect.  In  such  a  life,  so 
varied  in  its  responsibilities,  developing  always  and  continually  in  the  same  di- 
rection, of  pure  character,  high  resolves  and  noble  ambitions,  there  must  be  of 
necessity  certain  forces  and  factors  ^of  integrity  of  purpose,  and  of  fidelity  to  the 
public  walfare,  as  are  certain  to  attract  public  attention  and  demand  an  enlarge- 
ment of  their  domain  and  usefulness. 

AS  A  FINANCIER   AND   STATESMAN. 

It  touches  every  interest  and  commands  universal  consideration.  "Where  is  the 
man  whose  views  will  best  harmonize  the  East  and  the  West,  the  North  and  the 
South,  upon  this  question  ?  This  much  may  be  said  of  Mr.  English,  that  his 
financial  experience,  his  comprehension  of  financial  theories  and  results,  his  pro- 
nounced conservatism,  and  his  acknowledged  ability  as  a  financier,  designate  him 
as  the  peer  of  the  most  advanced  student  of  finance  in  all  of  its  varied  applications 
to  the  demands  of  the  country.  To  the  South  always  just ;  to  the  North  an  in- 
flexible friend,  comprehending  the  wants  and  interests  of  the  East,  with  an  ex- 
tended knowledge  of  the  West  and  its  expanding  and  enfolding  growth  and 
resources — Mr.  English  includes  in  his  thought  and  experience  all  the  essentials 
of  an  admistration  of  affairs  in  which  the  harmonies  of  interests  and  the  logic  of 
development  are  most  admirably  blended.  The  logic  of  events  points  to  him  as 
a  distinguished  native  Indianian,  who,  should  circumstances  create  an  inevitable 
necessity,  would  exhibit  to  the  country  those  exalted  traits  of  character  which  in 
these  times  are  sought  for  with  profound  solicitude. 

AS  A  MAN   OF  ACTION  AND  BUSINESS. 

Mr.  English  is  a  man  of  action  rather  than  of  words.  His  efforts  as  a  debator 
are  more  remarkable  for  practical  common  sense  than  for  brilliancy  of  oratory  or 
the  flowers  of  rhetoric  ;  his  mind,  strictly  practical  in  all  its  scope  and  bearings, 
is  eminently  utilitarian.  Energy  of  character,  firmness  of  purpose  and  an  un- 
swerving integrity  are  his  chief  characteristics.  In  personal  intercourse  he  is  in- 
clined to  be  retiring  and  reserved,  which  might  be  attributed  to  haughtiness  or 
pride  by  a  stranger,  but  to  an  acquaintance  or  friend  he  is  open,  candid  and 
affable.  In  the  private  and  social  relations  of  life  he  stands  "  without  blemish 
and  above  reproach." 

As  a  business  man  he  has  most  valuable  qualities.  Without  being  too  cautious, 
he  is  prudent  and  conservative.  He  looks  searchingly  and  comprehensively  into 
the  nature  and  probable  results  oi  all  schemes,  and  when  he  once  puts  his  shoulder 
to  the  wheel  it  is  with  a  strength  that  carries  all  before  it.  He  is  not  demonstra- 
tive in  anything  that  he  does,  but  there  is  a  quiet,  determined  and  unceasing  appli- 
cation of  his  whole  resources  of  mind  and  energy  to  the  end  in  view. 


51 


THE  RECORD 


OF 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 


The  Credit  Mobilier  Fraud.     The  District  of  Columbia  Ring  and  the  De  Golyer 
Bribe.    The  Sanborn  Frauds.    The  Back  Pay  Grab  and  the  Salary  Steal.    The 
Indian  Ring — Garfield's  Services  in  its  Behalf.    Encouraging  and  Defending 
Petit  Larceny.     Garfield  the  Champion  of  O.  O.  Howard.     The  Black 
Friday  Scandal — Garfield's  Effort  to  Suppress  the  Truth.     Garfield  the 
Friend  of  Robeson.     Garfield  Champions  Geo.  F.  Seward.     The 
Electoral  Commission.      Three  Monstrous  Grievances.     The 
Pacific  Steal.    The  Moth  Swindle.    Garfield  and  the  Labor- 
ing Men.     Some  of  Garfield's  Votes.      Garfield  and 
General  Shields.     Garfield  against  Free  Salt.    The 
Judgment  of  his  Republican  Constituents.    Gar- 
field and  the  National  Bouquet  Shop.  Garfield 
against  the  Shipbuilders  of  New  England. 
Garfield    and    Chinese    Immigration. 
Garfield's  Insult  to  the  Mexican  Vet- 
erans.    Garfield  and  Profligate 
Expenditures.  Garfield  on  tax- 
ing Printing  Paper.  Garfield 
against  the  Distillers  of 
his  Own  State. 


A  PYRAMID  OB  CORRUPTION!    A  MONUMENT  OP  FRAUD! 


THE    KECORD    OF    JAMES    A.    GARFIELD.  53 


THE  RECORD  OF  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 


James  A.  Garfield  entered  the  Union  Army  in  1861,  as  Colonel  of  the  Forty- 
second  Ohio  Volunteers.  He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier -general, 
January  10,  1862,  and  was  brevetted  a  major-general,  September  20,  1863,  after 
he  had  been  elected  a  member  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  from  the  19th  Dis- 
trict of  Ohio.  He  was  sworn  in  on  the  7th  of  December,  1863.  His  active  Con- 
gressional life  began  at  that  time  with  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Con- 
gress. He  has  served  continuously  since,  and  his  ninth  term  will  expire  March 
4, 1881 .  General  Garfield  has  more  than  average  ability.  Like  many  other  of  our 
public  men  he  has  risen  from  the  humblest  walks  of  life,  but  more  than  one-half 
of  his  life  has  been  spent  in  the  public  service.  His  opportunities  for  improve- 
ment have  been  exceptionably  good.  He  is  an  industrious  and  methodical  student. 
After  completing  his  collegiate  course  he  became  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  and 
the  early  years  of  his  manhood  were  devoted  to  that  high  and  honorable  calling. 
Earnest  conviction,  decision  of  character  and  stern  morality  are  the  characteris- 
tics which  we  would  naturally  expect  to  see  illustrated  by  his  public  career.  Has 
this  been  the  case  ?  Let  his  record  answer.  He  began  his  Congressional  career 
at  an  era  when  profligacy  and  corruption  were  rampant  in  the  public  service. 
At  the  very  outset  he  had  the  opportunity  to  enroll  himself  as  an  honest  and 
fearless  champion  of  public  economy  in  his  own  party.  The  Act  of  1864,  known 
as  the  amendment  to  the  Charter  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  was  passed  by  the 
Thirty  eighth  Congress.  It  was  opposed  at  every  step  of  its  progress  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  by  Mr.  Elihu  B.  Washburne,  of  Illinois.  Its  true  character  was 
demonstrated  by  him.  The  record  shows  that  General  Garfield  supported  the 
iniquitous  measure.  At  a  later  period  when  these  monster  corporations  demanded 
additional  legislation.  General  Garfield,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  flagrant 
corruption  by  which  they  had  succeeded  in  and  out  of  Congress,  was  always, 
their  zealous  and  influential  champion. 

HE  DOES  NOT   DESERVE  WELL.   OF   HIS  COUNTRY  ? 

Always  serving  on  the  important  committees,  no  man  in  public  life,  during  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century,  has  had  better  opportunities  to  serve  the  cause  of  good 
government  than  General  Garfield.  No  one  has  more  signally  failed.  Can  any  one 
point  to  a  single  instance  during  his  eighteen  years  service  in  Congress  where  he 
has  appeared  as  the  champion  of  retrenchment  and  reform  ?  We  assert  that  he  has 
been  the  supporter  of  every  job,  the  defender  of  every  steal,  which  by  hook  or  by 
crook  got  through  Congress  from  1863  to  1875,  and  challenge  his  defenders  to 
prove  the  contrary  by  his  record  ! 

The  inconsistencies  of  General  Garfield's  public  life  show  that  he  is  utterly  with- 
out conviction.  He  is  one  of  the  few  Americans  who  was  enrolled  as  a  member 
of  the  Cobden  Free  Trade  Club,  of  London,  England.  In  private  life  he  has 
been  the  friend  and  associate  of  David  A.  Wells,  Horace  White  and  other  dis- 
tinguished free  traders.     As  a  political  economist  lie  has  never  hesitated  to  say 


64  THE  RECORD  OF  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 

that  he  believed  in  revenue  reform,  and  yet,  in  his  letter  of  acceptance  of  July  12, 

1880,  he  says  : 

"  In  reference  to  our  customs  laws  a  policy  should  be  pursued  which  will  bring  revenues  to  the 
"Treasury',  and  will  enabl (3  the  labor  aud  capital  employed  in  our  g^reat  industries  to  compete 
"  fairly  in  our  own  markets  with  the  labor  and  capital  of  foreign  producers.  We  legislate  for  the 
"  people  of  the  United  States,  not  for  the  whole  world," 

"A  CIVIL   SERVICE   REFORMER   IN   1877." 

General  Garfield  has  again  and  again  declared  that  he  was  in  favor  of  civil 

service  reform.     Upon  more  than  one  occasion  he  has  posed  in  Congress,  and  out 

of  it,  as  a  civil  service  reformer.     In  an  article  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly 

for  July,  1877,  entitled,    "J.  Century  of  Congress,''  he  discussed  the  question  of 

appointment  to  office  as  follows  : 

To  sum  up  in  a  word :  the  present  system  invades  the  independence  of  the  executive,  and 
makes  him  less  responsible  for  the  character  of  his  appointments;  it  impairs  the  efficiency  of  the 
legislator  by  diverting  him  from  his  proper  sphere  of  duty,  and  involving  him  in  the  intrigues  of 
aspirants  for  office;  it  degrades  the  civil  service  itself  by  destroying  the  personal  independence 
of  those  who  are  appointed;  it  repels  from  the  service  those  high  and  manly  qualities  which  are  so 
necessary  to  a  pure  and  efficient  administration  ;  and,  finally,  it  debauches  the  public  mind  by 
holding  up  public  office  as  tiie  reward  of  mere  party  zeal.  To  reform  this  eervice  is  one  of  the 
highest  and  most  imperative  duties  of  statesmanship.  This  reform  cannot  be  accomplished  with- 
out a  complete  divorce  between  Congress  and  the  executive  in  the  matter  of  appointments.  It  will 
be  a  proud  day  when  an  administration  Senator  or  Representative,  who  is  in  good  standing  in  his 
part/,  can  say  as  Thomas  Hughes  said,  during  his  recent  vi-it  to  this  country,  that  though  he  was 
on  the  most  intimate  terras  with  the  members  of  his  own  administration,  yet  it  was  not  in  his  power 
to  secure  the  removal  of  the  humblest  clerk  in  the  civil  service  of  his  government.  (See  page  61, 
vol.  xl.,  Atlantic  MorUldy.) 

A  MACHINE  POLITICIAN  IN   1880. 

In  his  letter  of  acceptance  Gen.  Garfield  goes  square  back  on  himself  and  all 
the  pretensions  of  his  party  iu  regard  to  civil  service  reform,  as  follows: 

To  select  wisely  from  our  vast  population  those  who  are  best  fitted  for  the  many  offices  to  be 
filled  requires  an  acquaintance  far  beyond  the  range  of  any  one  man,  Tie  executive  should, 
therefore,  seek  and  receive  the  information  and  assistance  of  those  whose  knowledge  of  the 
communities  in  which  the  duties  are  to  be  performed  best  qualifies  them  to  aid  in  making  the 
wisest  choice. 

The  Record  of  Gen.  Garfield  is  voluminous.  To  properly  present  it  for  the  candid 
judgment  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  involves  the  history  of  ail  the  princi- 
pal scandals  which  have  vexed  the  public  mind  for  many  years,  and  brought  our 
character  and  institutions  into  reproach  the  world  over.  This  disgraceful  record 
would  have  rendered  Gen.  Garfield's  nomination,  even  by  ihe  Republican  party, 
for  the  Presidency  impossible,  had  such  a  misfortune  been  supposed  possible. 
His  nomination  was  an  accident.  Every  argument  used  by  so  called  reform  Re- 
publicans against  Blaine,  applies  with  even  more  force  to  Garfield. 

We  have  arranged  his  record  in  the  following  order  : 
I.  The  Credit  Mobilier  Fraud. 
II.  The  District  of  Columbia  Ring  and  the  De  Golyer  Bribe. 

III.  The  Sanborn  Frauds. 

IV.  The  Back  Pay  Grab  and  the  Salary  Steal. 

V.  The  Indian  Ring— Garfield's  Services  in  its  Behalf. 
VI.  Encouraging  and  Defending  Petit  Larceny. 
VII.  Garfield  the  Champion  of  O.  O.  Howard. 

VIII.  The  Black  Friday  Scandal— Garfield's  Effort  to  Suppress  the  Truth,    y 
IX.  Garfield  the  Friend  of  Robeson. 
X.  Garfield  Champions  Geo.  F.  Seward. 
XI.  The  Electoral  Commission. 
XII.  Three  Monstrous  Grievances. 

XIII.  The  Pacific  Mail  Steal. 

XIV.  The  Moth  Swindle. 

XV.  Garfield  and  the  Laboring  Men. 
XVI.  Some  of  Garfield's  Votes. 
XVII.  Garfield  and  Gen.  Shields. 
XVItl.  Garfield  against  Free  Salt. 
XIX.  The  Judgment  of  his  Republican  Constituents. 


THE    ORKDIT    MOBILIKR    FRAUD.  65 


THE  CREDIT  MOBILIER  FRAUD. 


In  our  exposition  of  General  Garfield's  connection  with  the  Credit  Mobilier,  the 

monster  fraud  of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  desire  to  do  him  no  injustice.     The 

following  is  his  defence  in  his  own  language,  furnished  by  him  for  a  campaign 

biography,  written  by  Colonel  Russell  H.  Conwell,  of  Massachusetts  : 

In  reference  to  myself,  the  loUowing  points  are  clearly  established  by  the  evidence  : 
1.  That  I  neither  purchased  nor  agreed  to  purchase  the  Credit  Mobilier  stock  which  Mr,  Ames 
offered  to  sell  me,  nor  did  I  receive  8uy  dividend  arising  from  it.  This  appears  from  my  own  testi- 
mony, and  ffom  the  first  testimony  given  by  Mr.  Ames,  which  is  not  overthrown  by  his  subsequent 
statements ;  and  it  is  strongly  confirmed  by  the  fact  that,  in  the  case  of  each  of  those  who  did 
purchase  the  stock  there  was  product-d  as  evidence  of  the  sale  either  a  certificate  of  stock,  receipt 
of  i)ayment.  a  check  drawn  on  the  name  of  payee,  or  entries  in  Mr.  Ames'  diary  of  a  stock  account 
marked,  adjusted  and  closed,  but  that  no  one  of  these  evidences  exist  in  reference  to  me.  This 
position  is  further  confirmed  by  the  sub-iequent  testimony  of  Mr,  Ames,  who,  although  he  claims 
that  I  did  receive  $329  from  him  on  account  of  the  stock,  yet  repeatedly  testifies  that,  beyond 
that  amount,  I  never  received  or  demanded  any  dividend  ;  tliat  he  did  not  ofter  me  any,  nor  was 
the  sabject  alluded  to  iu  conversatiim  between  us. 

Mr,  Ames  admits,  on  page  40  of  the  testimony,  th.it  after  December,  1867,  the  various  stock  and 
bond  dividends  on  the  stock  he  had  sold  amounted  to  an  aggregate  of  more  than  eio;ht  hundred 
perce  t,  and  that  between  January,  186S,  and  May,  1871,  all  these  dividends  were  paid  to  several 
of  those  who  purchased  tlie  stock.  My  conduct  was  wholly  inconsistent  with  the  supposition  of 
such  ownership,  for  during  the  j  •  ar  1HQ9  I  was  borrowing  money  to  build  a  house  in  Washington, 
and  was  securing  my  creditors  by  givinsf  mortgages  on  my  property  ;  and  all  this  time  it  is  admit- 
ted tiiatl  received  no  div  dends  and  claimed  none.  The  attempt  to  prove  a  sale  of  the  stock  to  me 
is  wholly  inconclusive,  for  it  rests,  first,  on  a  check  payable  to  Mr,  Ames  himself,  concerning 
which  he  several  times  says  he  does  not  know  to  whom  it  was  paid  ;  and,  second,  upon  loose  un- 
dated entries  in  his  d  ary  which  neither  prove  a  sale  of  stock  nor  any  payment  on  account  of  it. 
The  only  fact  from  wliich  it  is  i)ossible  for  Mr.  Ames  to  have  inferred  an  agreement  to  bny  the 
stock  was  tlie  loan  to  m  ;  of  $300,  But  that  loan  was  made  months  before  the  check  of  June  22, 
1868,  and  was  r<  paid  in  the  winter  of  1869;  and  after  that  date  there  were  no  transactions  of  any 
sort  between  us.  And,  finally,  before  the  inve8ti":atioa  was  ended,  Mr,  Ames  admitted  that,  oa 
the  chief  poinc  of  difference  between  us,  he  might  be  mistaken. 

The  initial  exposure  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  was  made  by  the  New  York  Sun, 
September  12,  1872,  when  the  testimony  of  Henry  S.  McComb  and  the  letters  of 
Ookes  Ames  were  first  printed.  General  Garfield's  first  statement  of  his  connec- 
tion with  the  swindle  was  made  from  his  dictation  by  the  Washington  corres- 
pondent of  the  Cincinnati  Gazette  and  will  be  found  in  that  paper  of  September 
16,  1872,  as  follows  : 

GENERAL  GARFIELD'S  STATEMENT  IN  1872. 
General  Garfield,  who  has  just  arrived  here  from  the  Indian  country,  has  to-day  bad  the  first 
opportunity  of  seeingthe  charfjes  connecting  his  name  with  receiving  shares  of  the  Credit  Mobilier 
from  Oakes  Ames.  He  authorizes  the  statement  that  he  never  subscribed  for  a  single  share  of  that 
stock,  and  that  he  never  n-ceived  or  saw  a  share  of  it.  When  the  company  was  first  formed,  George 
Francis  Train,  then  active  in  it,  came  to  Washington  and  exhibited  a  list  of  suoscribers  of  leading 
capita  ists  and  some  members  of  Congress  to  the  stock  of  the  company.  The  subscription  was 
depcrihed  as  a  popular  one  of  one  thousand  dollars  cash.  Train  urged  the  General  to  subscribe  on 
two  occasions  and  each  time  he  declined.  Subsequently  he  was  again  informed  that  the  list  was 
nearly  completed,  but  that  a  chance  remained  for  him  to  subscribe,  when  he  again  declined,  and  to 
this  day  he  has  not  subscribed  or  received  any  share  of  stock  or  bond  of  the  company.  It  is  well 
known  here  that  under  the  Durant  regime  it  was  claimed  by  Durant  arid  George  Francis  Train 
that  some  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  the  company's  money  was  used  in  Washington;  but 
when  t!ie  company  attempted  to  obtain  the  vouchers  and  names  of  the  parties  to  whom  payments 
had  been  made,  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  anytliing  but  vague  and  unsatisfactory  statements. 
The  list  which  the  liberal  papers  are  now  circulating  bear  a  very  close  resemblance  to  many  others 
originating  with  George  Francis  1  rain, 

WHAT  THE  CINCINNATI  GAZETTE   SAID   LATER. 

After  Oakes  Ames  produced  his  famous  memorandum  book  before  the  Poland 
Committee,  and  the  whole  truth  about  General  Garfield's  connection  with  the 
Credit  Mobilier  fraud  was  made  plain,  Gen.  Boynton  telegraphed  to  the  Cincin- 
nati Gazette  as  follows : 

From  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  Jan.  23, 1873. 

Ames'  testimony  to-day,  fortified  as  it  was  by  transcripts  from  his  books,  has  created  more  sen- 
sation than  any  incident  of  a  congressional  investigation  for  many  years.  It  left  Mr.  Colfax  in  the 
same  p  osition  as  Senator  Patterson,  except  that  there  was  no  final  settlement. 


56  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER   FRAITD. 

Both  Garfield  and  Kelley  took  ten  shares  and  Ames  carried  them  and  let  the  dividends  pay 
for  the  Investment.  Both  received  the  flrst  dividends  in  bonds,  which  Ames  sold  and  applied  on 
their  purchase,  and  both  received  the  balance  due  from  the  second  cash  dividend,  $329,  in  stock 
from  the  Sereeant-at-Arms. 

He  never  had  any  talk  with  either  about  the  transaction  being  one  of  borrowed  money,  until 
since  the  investij^ation  began.    Garfield  called  on  him  to  consider  that  it  was  borrowed. 

The  Gazette,  commenting  editorially  on  Ames'  testimony,  said : 

After  a  full  belief,  founded  upon  such  information  as  could  be  obtained  here,  that  the  denials 
(Garfield  and  others),  were  all  true  in  the  unqualified  sense  in  which  the  public  received  them,  it  was 
very  far  from  pleasant  to  know  that  the  committee  of  investigation  had  scarcely  touched  the  mat- 
ter in  hand  before  the  whole  fabric  of  denial  fell,  and  evkkt  one  whose  name  appeared  on  the 
Oakes  Ames''  list,  was  found  to  be  a  greater  or  less  degree  involved." 

The  New  York  Tribune,  commenting  on  the  above,  said:  "  This  is  the  o/nnion  of7nore  than  half 
the  commimity.'" 

GEN.    GARFIELD'S   SWORN   STATEMENT. 

On  January  14,  1S73,  Gen.  Garfield  testified  as  follows  (See  Poland  Report, 
Oredit  MoUlier,  pages  128-9)  : 

The  first  I  ever  heard  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  was  some  time  in  1866  or  1867—1  cannot  fix  the 
•date— when  George  Francis  Train  called  on  me  and  said  he  was  organizing  a  company  to  be  known 
as  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America  ;  to  be  formed  on  the  model  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  France  ; 
that  the  object  of  the  company  was  to  purchase  lands  and  build  houses  along  the  line  of  the  Pacific 
Railroad  at  points  where  cities  and  villages  were  likely  to  spring  up  ;  that  he  had  no  doubt  money 
thus  invested  would  double  or  treble  itself  each  year;  that  subscriptions  \vere  limited  to  $J,000 
«ach,  and  he  wished  me  to  subscribe.  He  showed  me  a  long  list  of  subscribers,  among  them  Mr. 
Oakes  Ames,  to  whom  he  referred  me  for  further  information  concerning  the  enterprise.  I  an- 
swered that  I  had  not  the  money  to  spare,  and  if  I  had  I  would  not  subscribe  without  knowing 
more  about  the  proposed  organization.  Mr.  Train  left  me,  saying  he  would  hold  a  place  open  for 
me,  and  hoped  I  would  yet  conclude  to  subscribe.  The  same  day  I  asked  Mr.  Ames  what  he 
thought  of  the  enterprise.  He  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  investment  would  be  safe  and  profit- 
able. 

I  heard  nothing  further  on  the  subject  for  a  year  or  more,  and  it  was  almost  forgotten,  when 
sometime,  •  should  say,  during  the  long  session  of  1868,  Mr.  Ames  spoke  of  it  again  ;  said  the 
company  had  organized,  was  doing  well,  and  he  thought  would  soon  pay  large  dividends.  He  said 
that  some  of  the  stock  had  been  left  or  was  to  be  left  in  his  hands  to  sell,  and  I  could  take  the 
amount  which  Mr.  Train  had  offered  me,  by  paying  the  $1,000,  and  the  accrued  interest.  He  said 
if  I  was  not  able  to  pay  for  it  then,  he  would  hold  it  for  me  till  I  could  pay,  or  until  some  of  the 
dividends  were  payable.  I  told  him  I  would  consider  the  matter  ;  but  would  not  agree  to  take  any 
stock  until  I  knew,  from  an  examination  of  the  charter  and  the  conditions  of  the  subscription,  the 
extent  to  which  I  should  become  pecuniarily  liable.  He  said  he  was  not  sure,  but  thought  a  stock- 
holder would  be  liable  only  for  the  par  value  of  his  stock  ;  that  he  had  not  the  stock  and  papers 
with  him,  but  would  have  them  after  a  while. 

From  the  case,  as  presented,  I  probably  should  have  taken  the  stock  if  I  had  been  satisfied 
in  regard  to  the  extent  of  pecuniary  liability.  Thus  the  matter  rested  for  some  time,  I  think  until 
the  following  year.  During  that  interval  I  understood  that  there  were  dividends  due  amounting 
to  nearly  three  times  the  par  value  of  the  stock.  But  in  the  meantime  I  had  heard  that  the  com- 
pany was  involved  in  some  controversy  with  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  that  Mr.  Ames's  right  to 
sell  the  stock  was  denied.  When  I  next  saw  Mr.  Ames  I  told  him  I  had  concluded  not  to 
take  the  stock.  There  the  matter  ended,  so  far  as  I  was  concerned,  and  I  had  no  further  knowl- 
■edge  of  the  company's  operations  until  the  subject  began  to  be  discussed  in  the  newspapers 
last  fall. 

Nothing  was  ever  said  to  me  by  Mr.  Train  or  Mr.  Ames  to  indicate  or  imply  that  the  Credit 
Mobilier  was  or  could  be  in  any  way  connected  with  the  legislation  of  Congress  for  the  Pacific 
Railroad  or  for  any  other  purpose.  Mr.  Ames  never  gave,  nor  offered  to  give,  me  any  stock  or 
other  valuable  thing  as  a  gift.  I  once  asked  and  obtained  from  him,  and  afterward  repaid  to  him, 
a  loan  of  $300  ;  that  amount  is  the  only  valuable  thing  I  ever  received  from  or  delivered  to  him. 

I  never  owned,  received,  or  agreed  to  receive  any  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  or  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad,  nor  any  dividend  or  profits  arising  from  either  of  them. 

OAKES  AMES  DESIRED   TO   SCREEN   GARFIELD. 

Oakes  Ames'  first- impressions  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  were  remarkably  similar 
to  those  of  Gen.  Garfield.  Gen.  Garfield,  in  his  sworn  statements,  says  that  he 
obtained  his  first  information,  in  1866  and  1867,  from  George  Francis  Train. 
Oakes  Ames  testified  as  follows  {see  page  38,  Poland  Report,  Credit  Mobilier) : 

Q.  Can  yon  tell  us  when  the  Credit  Mobilier  was  chartered  by  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature  ? 
A.  No,  sir,  I  cannot.    I  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Credit  Mobilier  until  1865,  I  think. 

Q.  It  was  prior  to  186.5,  then  ?  A.  My  impression  is  that  it  was  an  old  charter  that  George 
Francis  Train  had  control  of.  Mr.  Durant  bought  it  of  him.  Mr.  Durant  was  one  of  the  first 
stockholders  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 

Q,.  When  did  this  corporation,  known  as  the  Credit  Mobilier,  become  interested  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  ?  A.  I  think  ir  had  something  to  do  with  some  of  the  early 
contracts  which  are  set  forth  in  this  paper  printed  here.  There  was  the  Hoxie  contract,  which,  if 
I  am  not  mistaken,  was  run  by  the  Credit  Mobilier.  It  was  used  in  this  way,  in  some  shape,  for  a 
year  or  two  before  I  had  anything  to  do  with  it.  I  think  the  first  contract  for  the  Credit  Mobilier 
was  the  Hoxie  contract,  and  the  dates  of  it,  ad  given  here,  were  August  8,  1864:  May  12,  1864;  and 
October  1,  1864. 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD.  57 

When  Mr.  Oakes  Ames  first  testified  before  the  Poland  Committee  he  was 
desirous  of  shielding  all  the  members  of  Congress  to  whom  he  had  given  Credit 
Mobilier  stock.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  committee  first  sat  with  closed 
doors;  that  its  proceedings  Avere  secret;  that  after  Ames  had  testified  each  one 
of  the  implicated  Congressmen  came  before  the  committee  and  made  their 
written  statements.  It  is  a  fact  generally  known,  often  stated  and  never  denied^ 
that  after  the  committee  to  investigate  had  been  raised  all  of  the  implicated 
Congressmen  met  with  Mr.  Ames  in  the  Committee-room  on  Pacific  Railroads  of 
the  House,  and  there  agreed  among  themselves  :  First,  as  to  what  Ames  was  to 
testify  to;  and,  Second^  how  each  one  implicated  by  him  was  to  answer  before 
the  committee.  In  pursuance  of  this  agreement  Oakes  Ames,  December  18, 
1872,  appeared  before  the  committee,  when  Mr.  McMurtric,  his  counsel,  read  a 
paper  which  he  had  prepared.  It  was  a  general  statement  of  Mr.  Ames'  connec- 
tion with  the  Credit  Mobilier.  In  this  paper  he  speaks  of  the  transactions  he  had 
with  the  various  members  of  Congress.  To  show  how  anxious  he  was  to  screen 
them  we  quote  what  he  said  of  Mr.  Colfax  {see  ijage  20,  Poland  Meport,  Credit 
Mobilier) : 

Mr.  Colfax  is  one  mentioned.  I  cannot  remember  which  of  us  first  mentioned  the  subject,  but  I 
know  he  wanted  to  get  some  stock.  1  am  pretty  confident  he  has  paid  me  for  it,  though  it  was 
never  transferred  to  him,  nor  can  I  remember  having  paid  over  to  him  any  dividends.  At  the 
next  session  he  said  something  about  that  thing  being  off. 

He  dismissed  Gen.  Garfield  as  follows: 

I  agreed  to  get  ten  shares  of  stock  for  him,  and  hold  it  until  he  could  pay  for  it.  He  never 
did  pay  for  it  or  receive  it. 

"When  examined  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  in  regard  to  Gen.  Garfield^ 

Mr.  Ames  testified  as  follows  {see  page  28,  ibid) : 

BUT  AMES  SWORE  HE  HAD  THE  STOCK. 

Q.— In  reference  to  Mr.  Garfield  you  say  that  you  agreed  to  get  ten  shares  for  liim,  and  so  hold 
them  until  he  could  pay  for  them,  and  that  he  never  did  pay  for  them,  nor  receive  them  ?  A. 
Yes,  sir. 

Q.  He  never  paid  any  money  on  that  stock,  nor  receive  any  money  from  it  ?  A.  Not  on  ac- 
count of  it. 

Q.  He  received  no  dividend  ?  A.  No,  sir,  I  think  not.  He  says  he  did  not.  My  own  recollec- 
tion is  not  very  clear. 

Q.  So  that,  as  j'ou  understand,  Mr.  Garfield  never  parted  with  any  money  nor  received  any 
money  on  that  transaction  ?  A.  No,  sir.  He  had  some  money  from  me  once— some  three  or  four 
hundred  dollars— and  called  it  a  lioaii.  He  says  that  is  all  he  ever  received  from  me,  and  that  he 
considered  it  a  loan.    He  never  took  his  stock,  and  never  paid  for  it. 

Q.  Did  you  understand  it  so  ?    A.  Yes;  I  am  willing  to  so  understand  it.    I  don't  recollect  pay- 
ing him  any  dividend,  and  have  forgotten  that  I  paid  him  any  money.    {See  page  3.^,  Jbid.) 
*  ***** 

Q,.  Did  you  solicit  all  these  members  of  Congress  to  take  stock  ?  A  No;  I  think  most  of  them 
Bolicited  me. 

Q.  Was  not  stock  promised  to  any  members  of  Congress  prior  to  the  summer  or  fall  of  1867,  by 
you,  or  to  your  knowledge  ?  A.  Some  members  of  Congress  owned  it  before  this,  aud  I  think 
some  members  of  Congress  had  spoken  to  me  about  it.  I  told  them  I  would  try  to  get  some,  but 
we  had  none  to  give  them  until  the  stock  held  by  Mr.  Durant,  not  being  paid  for,  was  transferred 
to  the  company.    I  had  sold  some  of  my  own  stock  to  parties.  . 

Q.  When  was  the  act  passed  which  subordinated  the  Government  loan  to  that  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  ?    A.  In  1864.  ^    i. .  , 

Q.  Did  any  members  of  Congress  hold  any  of  this  stock  prior  to  that  time  ?  A.  I  think  not. 
I  do  not  know  of  any.    I  had  nothing  to  do  with  it  until  long  after  that  time. 

TIIEY  DID  NOT   WANT  IT  WHEN  IT  WAS  DANGEROUS. 

Q.  When  you  received  money  from  these  gentlemen  for  stock  was  it  assigned  to  them,  or  did 
it  still  remain  in  your  name  ?    A.  It  still  remained  in  my  name  ;  most  of  it. 

Q.  Why  was  it  not  assigne-'  ?  A.  I  don't  know  of  any  reason,  except  that  when  a  man  buy& 
stocK  and  keeps  it  there  is  no  use  of  transferring  it ;  when  the  suit  of  Mr.  McComb  was  brought^ 
they  did  not,  any  one  of  them,  want  to  own  the  stock. 

"'**  *  *  *  * 

Q.  Who  received  ihe  dividends  ?  A.  Mr.  Patterson,  Mr.  Bingham.  James  F.  Wilson  did,  and 
I  think  Mr.  Colfax  received  a  part  of  them.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  received  them  all  or  not. 
I  think  Mr.  Scofield  received  a  part  of  them.  Messrs.  Kelley  and  Garfield  never  paid  for  their 
stock,  and  never  received  their  dividends  (see  page  41,  ibid). 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

Q.  Had  not  a  Congressional  investigation  into  the  affairs  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Com' 


58  THE    CREDIT   MOBILIER    FRAUD. 

pany  and  the  Credit  -Mobilier,  one  or  both  of  them,  been  thmatoncd  prior  to  Jannary  30,  1S08  ? 
A.  I  do  not  know  wheiher  there  had  or  not.  It  used  to  be  talked  about  bometimed  up  there  in  New 
York.    I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  heai  d  anything  of  it  htre. 

Q.  Wag  there  or  not  an  investigation  by  Congress  referred  to  in  yonr  letter  to  Mr.  McComb  of 
January  30,  18G8,  in  wluchyou  say,  "  I  do  noc  fear  any  invesnigution  here."  A.  Yed,  probably  ;  I 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  an  investigation. 

Q.  ThenaCoiigresKionalinvestigatiouhad  been  suggested  prior  to  that  time?  A.  Up  there  in 
New  York  ;  not  here,  that  I  know  of. 

Q.  You  say  in  the  same  letter  that,  in  view  of  King's  letter  and  Washburn's  move,  you  ro  in 
for  making  the  bond  dividend  in  full.  What  did  you  refer  to  by  "  Washburn's  move  "  h.!te  ?  A. 
Washburn  made  an  attack  upou  the  Union  Paciiic  Railroad,  t!iat  we  were  cliarii;ing  loo  mucli  f  tc  ; 
that  our  lands  were  enormously  valuable,  worth  five  to  ten  duilars  an  acre  for  the  alkali  r-giuns 
on  the  plains;  that  they  were  not  going  to  build  the  ro.id  to  as  to  be  good  for  anyihing  ;  that  tao 
object  was  to  get  the  Government  bonds,  and  then  abandon  the  roa  I  to  the  G :)vernment. 

Q.  Had  Washburn  said  anything  about  an  investigation?  A.  I  do  not  reoollect  tU  t  he  had. 
He  wanted  to  fix  a  rate  of  fare  by  Taw,  beyond  v  hich  we  could  not  char^'o.  He  wanted  v.  no  ba 
restricted  to  a  certain  amount.  That  was  one  of  the  things  Lo  ciamied.  1  do  not  remember  fully 
all  he  did  claim. 

Q.  In  your  letter  to  Mr.  McComb  of  Jannary  25,  1868,  you  pay  yon  think  that  the  dividends  hav- 
ing been  paid  you  ought  to  make  the  Credit  Mobilier  (  ipital  four  mi  lions,  and  distribute  the  ne.v 
stock  whtre  it  will  protect  you,  &c.  What  do  you  merm  by  liaving  sock  placed  where  ic  will  i)ro- 
tect  you  ?  A.  Placed  with  men  of  character,  property  and  standing.  I  wanted  that  sui  h  men 
should  own  it  and  have  interest  with  us  (see  pages  46  and  47,  ibid). 

*  *  *  ^fr  '  *  > 

THE  TALK   IN   THE   SENATE    IN    1869. 

Q,.  Are  you  not  aware  that  in  1869  there  was  a  discussion  on  thi'^  subject  in  the  Senate,  and  that 
opinions  were  expressed  inconsiste  t  with  those  you  now  express  ?  A.  I  do  not  know.  Therj 
have  been  all  kinds  of  opinions  expressed,  in  tlie  Senate  a!\d  House  both,  on  all  subjects. 

Q.  Were  j^ou  not  present  in  a  debate  in  the  Senate  in  April,  186!),  in  which  Mr.  Stewart,  of  Ne- 
vada, and  many  other  persons  participated,  in  whi -h  tln-y  thought  the  whol-s  transaction  a  g'os? 
and  stupendous  fraud  ?  A.  I  think  it  very  likely  that  such  things  were  said  in  the  Senate  in  1309, 
and  I  do  not  know  but  Mr.  Stewart  may  have  said  tlu-m. 

Q.  Were  you  not  present  when  th.it  discussion  occurred  ?  A.  I  di  not  know.  I  heard  debates 
probably  about  that  time  in  the  Senate.  That  was  about  the  ti  no,  it  I  remember  rigut,  when  wc 
were  trying  to  fix  the  terminal  point  of  the  two  roads,  and  I  thiu'c  it  was  i.i  r.-lation  to  tint. 

Q.  Was  it  rot  in  regard  to  tiie  other  matter  on  which  you  sta'ed  t'nut  legislation  was  a'ked, 
namely,  the  removal  of  tlie  place  of  business  froMi  New  York  to  B  'oton  ?    A.  I  cinnot  te  I  yo.i. 

Q.  And  you  do  not  recollect  that  you  were  present  at  the  debate  referred  to  ?  A.  I  have  been 
present  when  debates  in  the  Senate  hiive  occurred  on  questions  of  that  kind. 

Q.  You  do  not  recollect  a  d  bate  on  this  subject  in  which  Mr.  Ste»vart  participated  ?  A.  I  re- 
member something  of  such  a  debate.    I  cannot  recollect  what  Mr.  Stewart  said. 

JOHN  B.    ALLEY  CORROBORATES    AMES. 

John  B.  Alley,  then  a  member  of  Congress  from  Massachusetts,  a  stockholder 
in  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  Crodlt  Mobilier,  Ia  his  testimony  before  the 
Poland  Committee,  explained  how  the  suit  of  Henry  S.  McComb,  which  re- 
sulted in  the  exposure  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  fraud,  came  to  ^be  brought  (see 
pages  91  and  92). 

His  counsel.  Judge  Black,  called  upon  mo,  and  had  several  conversations  upon  the  subject,  in 
which  he  urtred  with  great  force  the  necessity  of  Mr.  Ames  compromising  this  suit,  and  said  that 
I,  as  the  friend  of  Mr.  Ames,  ought  to  do  everythin,' in  my  power  to  save  hi ui  from  buch  toiTible 
disgrace  as  the  publication  of  these  letters  would  occasion. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

Judge  Black  still  insisted  that  McComb  had  thess  letters,  and  the  names  of  the  parti  s  ho  said 
were  inserted  by  Ames  in  the  letters,  and  h  !  understood  that  the  names  of  Colfax,  Bontwe  1  and 
Wilson  were  among  them,  also  Mr.  Garfield.  He  shoul  I  be  very  sorry,  he  said,  to  expose  Mr. 
Garfield,  who  was  a  particular  friend  of  his.  Ho  said  it  would  ba  found  that  these  gentlemen  and 
several  others  were  stockholders  who  were  also  members  of  Coagreos. 

THE  TRUTH  CAME  OUT  BY  DEGREES. 

The  attempt  to  smother  the  investigation  and  suppress  the  facts  in  regard  to 

the  bribery  of  members  of  Congress  was  too  patent  to  deceive  the  public.     The 

committee  sitting  with  closed  doors  suHercd  no  fact  in  regard  to  the  testimony 

taken  by  it  to  reach  the  press.     Public  sentiment  made  itself  felt  during  the 

holiday  recess,  and  when  Congress  reassembled  on  January  6,  1873,  a  resolution 

was  introduced  in  the  House  and  passed  directing  the  committee  to  sit  with  open 

doors.     Gen,  Boynton,  the  Washington  correspondent  of  the  Cincinnati  Gazette, 

in  Ills  dispatch  to  that  paper  speaks  of  this  as  follows  : 

The  session  of  the  House  to-dav  was  thi  liveliest  of  the  season.  The  whole  session  after  the 
morning  hour  was  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  in  one  form  or  other.  There 
was  a  quiet  attempt  from  several  quarters  to  defeat  the  attempt  to  open  the  doors  of  the  Commit- 
tee room,  but  the  rentiment  of  the  House  was  too  decided  v.wd  the  i-e:>olntion  pa«*sed. 


THE    CBEDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD.  59 

From  that  day  forward  the  proof  came  out  by  degrees.  Mr.  Colfax,  Vice-Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States  and  Mr.  Patterson,  Senator  from  New  Hampshire,  had 
raised  a  question  of  veracity  between  themselves  and  Oakes  Ames.  This  forced 
Mr.  Ames  to  tell  the  whole  truth.  In  the  course  of  his  different  examinations  by 
the  Poland  Committee  he  produced  his  famous  memorandum  book,  in  which  he 
had  set  down  in  detail  his  transactions  with  all  the  implicated  Congressmen,  On 
January  22,  1873,  Mr.  Ames  was  recalled.  In  the  course  of  that  day's  examina- 
tion, after  disposing  of  Mr.  Colfax  and  Mr.  Allison,  he  came  to  Gen.  Garfield. 
(See  page  295,  ibid). 

Q.  In  regard  to  Mr.  Garfield,  state  to  the  Committee  the  details  of  the  transaction  between  you 
anrt  him  iu  r  ference  to  Credit  Mobilier  stock  ?  A.  I  got  for  Mr,  Garfield  ten  shares  of  the  Credit 
Mobilier  stock  for  which  he  paid  par  and  interest. 

Q.  When  did  you  agree  with  him  for  that  ?  A.  That  agreement  was  in  December,  1867,  or  Janu- 
ar}%  1868  ;  about  that  time  ;  about  the  time  I  had  these  conversations  with  all  of  them.  It  was  all 
about  the  same  time. 

Q.  State  what  grew  out  of  it  ?  A.  Mr.  Garfield  did  not  pay  me  any  money.  I  sold  the  bonds 
belonging  to  his  $1,000  of  stock  at  $97  making  $776.  In  Juue  I  received  a  dividend  in  cash  on  his 
stock  of  $f>00,  which  left  a  balance  due  him  of  $329,  which  I  paid  him.  That  is  all  the  transaction 
between  us.  I  did  not  deliver  him  any  stock  before  or  since.  That  is  the  only  transaction  and  the 
only  thing. 

THAT    $329   WHICH   GARFIELD   GOT. 

By  Mr.  Merrick :  Q.  The  $329  which  you  paid  him  was  the  surplus  of  earnings  on  the  stock  above 
the  amount  to  be  paid  for  it  par  value  ?  A.  Yes,  sir  ;  he  never  had  either  his  Credit  Mobilier  stock 
or  Union  Pacific  Railroad  stock.    The  only  thing  he  realized  on  the  transaction  was  the  $329. 

Q.  I  see  in  this  statement  of  the  account  with  General  Garfield,  there  is  a  charge  $47;  that  is 
interest  from  the  July  previous,  is  it  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  the  g776,  on  the  credit  side  of  the  account  is  the  80  per  cent,  bond  dividend  sold  at  97  ? 
A.  Y'es,  sir. 

Q.  And  the  $600  on  the  credit  side  is  the  money  dividend  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  after  you  had  received  these  two  sums,  they  in  the  aggregate  overpaid  the  price  of  stock 
and  interest  $3:29,  which  you  paid  to  him  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q,  IIow  was  that  paid  ?    A.  Paid  in  money  I  believe. 

Q.  Did  you  make  a  statement  of  this  to  Mr.  Garfield  ?  A.  I  presume  so  ;  I  think  I  did  with  all 
of  them ;  tliat  is  my  impresssion. 

(^.  When  }ou  paid  him  this  $329,  did  you  understand  it  was  the  balance  of  his  dividend  after 
paying  for  his  stock  ?    A.  I  supposed  so;  I  do  not  know  what  else  he  could  suppose. 

Q.  You  did  not  deliver  the  certificate  of  stock  to  him  ?    A.  No,  sir ;  he  said  nothing  about  that. 

Q.  Why  did  he  not  receive  his  certificate  ?    A.  I  do  not  know. 

Q.  Do  you  remember  any  conversation  between  you  and  him  in  the  adjustment  of  these  ac- 
counts ?    A.  I  do  not. 

Q.  Yon  understood  that  you  were  a  holder  of  his  ten  shares  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Did  he  so  understand  It  ?    A.  I  presume  so.    It  seems  to  have  gone  from  his  mind,  however. 

Q.  Was  this  the  only  dealing  you  had  with  him  in  reference  to  any  stock  ?    A.  I  think  so. 

Q.  Was  it  the  only  transaction  of  any  kind  ?    A.  The  only  transaction. 

Q.  Has  that  $329  evtsr  been  paid  to  you  ?    A.  I  have  no  recollection  of  it. 

(^.  Have  you  any  belief  that  it  ever  has  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Did  you  ever  loan  General  Garfield  $300  ?  A.  Not  to  my  knowledge;  except  that  he  calls 
this  a  loan. 

Q,.  Ydu  do  not  call  it  a  loan  ?    A.  I  did  not  at  the  time.    I  am  willing  it  should  go  to  suit  him. 

Q.  What  we  want  to  get  at  i:4  the  exact  truth.    A.  I  have  told  the  truth  in  my  statemerft. 

Q.  When  you  paid  him.  $329,  did  he  understand  that  he  borrowed  that  money  from  you  ?  A.  I 
do  not  suppose  so. 

Q.  Have  you  any  belief  now  that  he  supposed  so  ?  A.  No;  only  from  what  he  said  the  other 
day.    I  do  not  di:<pute  anybody. 

Q.  We  want  your  judgment  of  the  transaction.  A.  My  judgment  of  the  transaction  is  just  as  I 
told  you.     There  was  but  one  thing  about  it. 

Q.  That  amount  has  never  been  repaid  to  you  ?  You  did  not  suppose  that  you  had  any  right  to 
it,  or  any  claim  to  it  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  You  regarded  that  as  money  belonging  to  him  after  the  stock  was  paid  for  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Tliere  were  dividends  of  Union  Pacific  liailroad  stock  on  these  ten  shares  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Did  General  Garfield  ever  receive  these  ?    A.  No,  sir;  never  has  received  but  $329. 

IT   WAS  NOT  A  LOAN. 

Q.  And  that  he  has  received  as  his  own  money  ?  A.  I  suppose  so;  it  did  not  belong  to  me.  I 
should  not  have  given  it  to  him  if  it  had  not  belonged  to  him. 

i^.  You  did  not  understand  it  to  belong  to  you  as  a  loan;  you  never  called  for  it,  and  have  never 
received  it  back  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Has  there  been  any  conversation  between  you  and  him  in  reference  to  the  Pacific  stock  he 
was  entitled  to  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Has  he  ever  called  for  it  ?    A.  No,  sir, 

Q.  Have  you  ever  offered  it  to  him  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  lias  there  been  any  conversation  in  relation  to  it  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Q.  Has  there  ever  been  anything  said  between  you  and  him  about  rescinding  the  purchase  of 
the  ten  shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock  ?  Has  there  anything  been  said  to  you  of  its  being  thrown 
up,  or  abandoned,  or  surrendered  ?    A.  No,  sir;  not  until  recently. 


60  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD. 

Q,.  How  recently  ?    A.  Since  this  matter  came  up. 

Q.  Since  this  investiijation  commenced  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

By  Mr.  Merrick:  Q,  Did  you  consider  at  tho  commencement  of  this  investigation  that  you  held 
these  other  dividends,  which  you  hay  you  did  not  pay  to  him,  in  Ills  behalf  ?  Did  you  regard  your- 
self as  custodian  of  these  dividends  for  him  ?  A.  Yes,  sir;  ho  paid  for  his  stock  and  is  entitled  to 
hid  dividends. 

Q.  Will  the  dividends  come  to  hlra  at  any  time  on  his  demand  ?  A,  Yes,  sir,  as  soon  as  this  suit 
is  settled. 

Q.  You  say  that  $^29  was  p'xid  to  him;  how  was  It  paid  ?  A.  I  presume  by  a  check  on  the  Ser- 
geant-at-Arm:?.  I  find  there  are  some  checks  filed  without  any  letters  or  inltlald  Indicating  who 
they  were  for. 

Q.  Have  you  had  any  correspondence  since  this  dividend  was  paid,  with  him  in  regard  to  this 
matter  ?    A.  I  do  not  know  what  matter  you  refer  to. 

Q.  If  you  had  auy  correspondence  between  you  I  would  like  to  sec  It,    A.  I  have  no  copy  of  it. 

Q.  Have  you  the  original  ?  A,  No,  sir.  Mr.  Garfield  showed  me  a  letter  which  he  said  ho  in- 
tended to  inclose  with  souie  money  sunt  me;  I  did  not  know  who  the  money  came  from  •  he  showed 
me  a  letter  which  he  sal<l  he  intended  to  have  put  in;  I  indorsed  on  the  back  of  that  letter  my  re- 
ply ;  I  just  turned  over  the  letter  and  wrote  what  I  wrote  on  the  back  of  it,  and  let  him  have  it. 

Q.  Your  answer  indor-ed  on  the  back  of  tho  lecter  was  published  in  the  newspapers  ?  A.  Yes, 
sir;  he  published  the  letter,  I  b  -lieve. 

Q,.  As  publi-lied,  did  they  corre^^pond  with  your  recollection  of  the  papers  as  written  ?  A.  Yes, 
sir;  I  wrote  it  off  hastily:  lie  came  to  my  room  and  said  he  had  been  accused  of  all  kinds  of  crimes 
and  misdemeanors;  I  told  him  I  had  made  no  such  statement  as  he  represented;  h«^  wanted  me  to 
say  in  writing  that  I  had  not;  I  touk  his  letter,  which  he  said  he  intended  to  have  inclosed  with  the 
money,  and  wrote  on  the  back  of  it  that  I  had  made  no  such  statement. 

Q.  The  published  correspondence  in  the  morning  papers  of  the  next  day  is  your  recollection  of 
what  occurred  ?  A.  It  agrees  wirh  my  recollection,  except  that  he  says  he  left  a  letter  for  me  at  the 
Arlington;  I  never  received  that  letter;  I  only  saw  the  letter  on  which  I  indorsed  my  answer. 

Q.  Did  he  inclose  the  money  ?  A.  Some  money  came  to  me  Inclosed  lu  an  enveloue  which,  he 
said  he  had  sent;  I  gave  it  b  ick  to  him. 

Q.  How  much  money  was  in  that  envelope  ?    A.  Four  hundred  dollars. 

THE  FAMOUS  MEMORANDUM  BOOK   AND   CHECK. 

3morandu 
field,  was  placed  in  evidence : 


The  following  memorandum  referred  to  by  mtness  as  a  statement  of  his  account  with  Mr.  Gar- 
d  in  e  " 


J.  A.  G.  Dr. 

1868.  To  10  shares  stock  Credit  Mobilierof  A $1,000  00 

Interest .  47  00 

June  19.       To  cash 329  00 

$1,376  00 


1868.  By  dividend  bonds,  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  $1,000,  at  80  per  cent,  less  3  per 

cent , 

June  17.        By  dividend  collected  for  your  account , 


Cr. 


$1,376  00 


On  January  29,  1873,  Oakes  Ames  was  further  re-examined  in  regard  to  the 
■checks  upon  the  Sergcant-at-Arms  of  the  House  of  Representatives  with  which 
he  had  paid  the  different  members  of  Congress  their  dividends  on  Credit  Mobilier 
stock  (sec  pages  353,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  and  9,  ibid.) 

Q.  Here  is  another  check  upon  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  same  date,  June  22,  1868:  "  Pay  O. 
A.  or  bearer  $32«,  and  charge  to  my  accunt.  Oakes  Ames."  That  seems  to  have  been  paid  to 
somebody  and  taken  up  by  the  Sergeant-at-Arms.    These  initials  are  your  own  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Do  you  know  who  had  the  benefit  of  that  check  ?    A.  I  cannot  tell  you. 

Q.  Do  you  think  you  received  the  money  on  it  yourself  ?  A.  I  have  no  idea.  I  may  have 
drawn  the  money  and  handed  it  to  another  person.  It  was  paid  on  that  transaction.  It  may  have 
been  paid  to  Mr,  Garfiela.    There  were  several  sums  of  that  amount. 

*********** 

Q.  Is  there  any  other  gen'lemen  here  in  Congress  who  received  $329  dividend  except  those 
who  have  already  been  named  by  you  ?    A.  I  don't  think  of  any  other. 

Q.  In  regard  to  Mr.  Garfield,  do  you  know  whether  you  gave  him  a  check  or  paid  him  the 
money  ?  A.  I  think  I  did  not  pay  him  the  money.  He  got  it  from  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  upon  a 
check. 

Q.  You  have  testified  to  the  check  of  $1,200,  payable  to  S.  C.  or  bearer  ;  also  to  one  $329  to 
Mr.  Allison  ;  also  $329  to  \V.  D.  K.:  the  same  amount  to  Mr.  Wilson,  and  the  same  amount  to 
John  A.  Logan,  whose  names  appear  here.  These  are  all  the  names  that  appear  oh  the  books  of 
the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  persons  in  Congress  on  that  day.      Are  you  satisfied  that  this  check  of 

?i29.  In  which  your  own  initials  are  written,  was  to  pay  some  one  a  dividend  on  that  stock  ?     A. 
OS,  sir.    I  don't  know  why  I  should  draw  a  check  for  $329  except  for  that  purpose. 

*  *  **  *  ***  *  *  * 

Q.  You  think  the  check  in  which  you  wrote  nothing  to  indicate  the  price  must  have  been  for 
Mr.  Garfield  ?    A.  Yes.  sir  ;  that  is  my  judgment. 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

Q.   You  say  that  Mr.  Scofield,  Mr.  Dawes,  Mr.  Logan,  and  others  with  whom  you  made  an 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEK    FRAUD.  61 

adjastment,  they  having  declined  to  take  the  shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  did  not  receive  these 
dividends  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  they  went  out  after  the  sixty  per  cent,  dividend  ;  they  had  no  more  to 
do  with  it,  and  they  were  not  entitled  to  anything  more. 

Q.  But  Mr.  Kelley,  you  suppose,  was  entitled  to  receive  the  dividends,  and  will  receive  them 
when  you  settle  with  him  ?  A.  Ye?,  sir  ;  I  expect  to  pay  over  to  Mr.  Kelley  everything  I  have 
received  on  his  stock. 

Q.  And  in  relation  to  Mr.  Garfield  ?  A.  The  same  in  relation  to  him,  if  it  is  not  borrowed 
money.    I  consider  that  I  sold  him  the  stock  and  that  he  holds  it. 

Q.  You  understand  that  Mr.  Kelley  and  Mr.  Garfield  have  each  been  bettered  $329  by  their 
transactions  ?    A.  That  is  all  there  is  of  it. 

Garfield's  telltale  figures. 

Q.  How  many  of  them  have  you  had  conversations  with  ?  A.  I  have  had  conversations  with 
almost  all  of  them. 

Q.  What  the  committee  want  to  learn  is,  whether  in  conversations  with  any  of  these  gentlemen 
they  have  stated  or  admitted  the  matter  to  be  different  from  what  they  have  testified  to  before  the 
committee  ?    A.  I  hardly  know  how  to  answer  that  question. 

Q.  Take  any  one  that  occurs  to  you  ;  Mr.  Merrick  suggests  Mr.  Garfield.  A.  Mr.  Garfield  has 
heen  to  see  me  about  the  matter,  and  we  have  talked  it  over.  A  part  of  the  time  he  thinks  it  was 
a  loan  ;  sometimes  he  thinks  he  has  repaid  me  ;  and  then  again  he  is  in  doubt  about  it. 

Q.  You  may  state  whether,  in  conversation  with  you,  Mr.  Garfield  claims,  as  he  claimed  before 
us,  that  the  only  transaction  between  you  was  borrowing  $300  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  he  did  not  claim  that 
with  me. 

Q.  State  how  he  does  claim  it  with  you  ;  what  was  said  ;  state  all  that  occurred  in  conversation 
between  you.  A.  I  cannot  remember  half  of  it.  I  have  had  two  or  three  interviews  with  Mr.  Gar- 
field. He  wants  to  put  it  on  the  basis  of  a  loan.  He  states  that  when  he  came  back  from  Europe, 
bein^  in  want  of  funds,  he  called  on  me  to  loan  him  a  sum  of  money.  He  thought  he  had  repaid 
it.    I  do  not  know.    I  cannot  remember. 

Q.  What  did  you  say  to  him  in  reference  to  that  state  of  the  case  ?  A.  I  stated  to  him  that  he 
never  asked  me  to  lend  him  any  money  ;  that  I  never  knew  he  wanted  lo  borrow  any.  I  did  not 
know  he  was  short.  I  made  a  statement  to  him,  showing  the  transaction,  and  what  there  was  due 
on  it ,  that,  deducting  the  bond  dividend  and  the  cash  dividend,  there  was  $329  due  him,  for  which 
I  had  given  him  a  check  ;  that  he  had  never  asked  me  to  loan  him  any  money,  and  I  never  loaued 
him  any. 

Q.  After  you  had  made  that  statement,  what  did  he  state  in  reply  ?  A.  He  wanted  to  have  it  go 
as  a  loan. 

Q.  Did  he  claim  that  it  was  in  fact  a  loan  ?    A.  No,  sir  ;  I  do  not  think  he  did.    No,  he  did  not. 

Q.  Go  on  and  state,  then,  what  was  said— all  the  discussion  that  took  place.  A.  I  cannot  tell 
you  all ;  we  had  three  or  four  talks.    I  cannot  remember  all  that  was  said. 

Q.  How  long  after  that  transaction  did  he  go  to  Europe  ?    A.  1  believe  it  was  a  year  or  two. 

Q.  Did  you  nave  any  conversation  in  reference  to  the  influence  this  transaction  would  have  upon 
the  election  last  fall  ?    A.  Yes  ;  he  said  it  would  be  very  injurious  to  him. 

Q.  What  else  in  reference  to  that  ?  A.  I  am  a  very  bad  man  to  repeat  conversation  ;  I  cannot 
remember. 

Q.  State  all  that  you  know  in  reference  to  it.  A.  I  told  him  he  knew  very  well  that  that  was  a 
diviaend.  I  made  out  a  statement,  and  showed  it  to  him  at  the  time.  In  one  conversation  he 
admitted  it,  and  said,  as  near  as  I  can  remember,  that  there  was- $2,400  due  him  in  stock  and  bonds. 
He  made  a  little  memorandum  of  $1,000  and  $1,400,  and,  as  I  recollect,  said  there  was  $1,000  of 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  stock,  $1,000  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  and  $400  of  stock  or  bonds,  I  do  not 
recollect  what. 

WHEN  GARFIELD  MADE  THE  FIGURES. 

Q.  When  was  that  memorandum  made  ?  A.  It  was  made  in  my  room  ;  I  cannot  remember  the 
date.    It  was  since  this  investigation  commenced. 

Q.  Was  it  in  that  conversation  that  he  referred  to  the  influence  this  matter  would  have  upon 
the  election  in  his  district  ?  A.  I  do  not  recollect  whether  it  was  in  that  one  or  some  other.  I  have 
had  two  or  three  conversations  with  him. 

Q.  Tell  us,  as  nearly  as  you  can,  precisely  the  remarks  he  made  in  that  connection.  A.  It  was 
that  it  would  injure  his  reputation  :  that  it  was  a  cru«l  thing.  He  felt  very  bad,  was  in  great  dis- 
tress, and  hardly  knew  what  he  did  say. 

Q.  Did  he  make  any  request  of  you  to  make  no  statement  in  reference  to  it  ?  A.  I  am  not  posi- 
tive about  that. 

Q.  What  is  your  best  recollection  in  reference  to  it  ?  A.  My  impression  is  that  he  wanted  to 
say  as  little  about  it  as  he  could,  and  to  get  off  as  easily  as  he  could.  That  was  about  the  conver- 
sation I  had  with  him,  about  the  long  and  short  of  it. 

Q.  Have  you  the  memorandum  that  Mr.  Garfield  made  ?    A.  I  have  the  figures  that  ho  made. 

Paper  shown  to  the  committee,  containing  figures  as  follows; 
"  $1,000 
1.400 

$2,400  " 

Q.  You  say  these  figures  were  made  by  Mr.  Garfield  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  What  do  these  sums  represent  ?  How  did  he  put  them  down  ?  A.  $1,000  Union  Pacific  Kail- 
road  stock,  $1,000  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  and  $400  which  he  could  not  remember  whether  it  was 
to  be  in  cash,  srock  or  bonds. 

Q.  Is  that  what  he  had  received,  or  what  he  was  entitled  to  ?    A.  What  he  was  entitled  to. 

Q.  That  was  his  idea  of  what  was  comint;  to  him  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Was  that  about  what  he  would  have  been  entitled  to  ?  A.  He  would  have  been  entitled  to 
the  $1,000  in  stock,  and  he  would  have  been  entitled  to  more  than  that.  The  $400  I  think  he  is  iu 
«rror  about.    I  gave  him  $329;  I  do  not  know  whether  the  $400  referred  to  that. 

Q.  Did  he  put  this  dowA  W  Ws  recollection  of  the  statement  you  made  to  him  ?  A.  I  so  under 
stood  It. 


62  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD. 

By  Mr.  Merrick: — Q.  It  was  in  this  conversation  that  these  figures  were  made— that  he  depre- 
cated the  efff  ct  of  the  matter  upon  his  election  ?  A.  I  do  not  know  about  his  election;  it  was  about 
his  prospects,  his  reputation,  &c. 

Q.  I  understand  that,  in  substance,  he  desired  you  to  say  as  little  as  possible  about  it  ?  A.  Yes, 
sir;  and  that  is  my  desire. 

Q.  Will  you  repeat  just  about  what  he  did  say  ?  A.  I  cannot  remember  the  conversation  well 
enough  to  repeat  it. 

Q.  You  can  repeat  the  substance  of  it  ?    A.  I  have  given  you  the  substance  of  it. 

AMES  THOUGHT   HE  WOULD  KEEP  THE  FIGURES. 

Q.  How  did  you  happen  to  retain  that  little  stray  memorandum  ?  A.  I  do  not  know.  I  found  it 
on  my  table  two  or  three  days  afterward.  I  did  not  pay  any  attention  to  it  at  the  time,  until  I  found 
there  was  to  be  a  conflict  of  testimony,  and  I  thought  that  might  be  something  worth  preserving. 

Q.  This  conversation  was  in  your  room,  and  the  figures  made  there  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Do  I  understand  you  that  this  loan  which  Mr.  Garfield  claims  to  have  been  made  was  in 
reference  to  a  trip  to  Europe  taken  by  him  a  year  or  two  afterward  ?  A.  I  do  not  know  when  he 
took  his  trip.  I  know  he  aid  not  go  during  that  session  of  Congress.  This  payment  was  made  to 
him  during  that  session  of  1867-'68. 

Q.  Do  you  know  whether  he  went  during  that  recess  following  ?  A.  I  cannot  say;  I  do  not 
know. 

Q.  Do  you  not  know  that  he  did  not  go  to  Europe  for  nearly  two  years  afterward  ?  A.  No,  I  do 
not.  It  is  my  impression  it  was  two  years  afterward,  but  I  cannot  remember  dates.  People  ask  me 
about  things  that  occurred  a  year  ago,  and  I  cannot  tell  whether  it  was  ten  years  ago  or  one. 

By  the  Chairman:  Q.  Did  you  understand  in  this  conversation  you  had  with  General  Garfield 
that  you  detailed  to  him  the  history  of  this  matter  as  to  how  the  statement  you  had  lot  him  have 
was  made  up;  and  did  you  understand  him  to  concede  your  statement  about  it  to  be  the  truth? 
A.  Well,  I  cannot  say.  Ee  would  not  have  been  very  apt  to  recollect  the  amount  there  was  due  to 
him  if  he  had  not  acceded  to  my  statement. 

Q.  From  the  whole  conversation— from  what  he  said  and  the  figures  that  he  made,  did  you  un- 
derstand him  to  concede  the  statement  you  had  made  to  him  as  about  the  truth  ?  A.  Yes,  I  so 
understood  him. 

Q.  That  statement  you  made  to  him  was  in  substance  the  statement  you  have  made  to  us  iu 
reference  to  him  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

AMES  EXHIBITED   THE   FAMOUS  MEMORANDUM  BOOK. 

On  February  11, 1873,  Mr.  Ames  exhibited  to  the  committee  the  entry  ia  his 

memorandum  book  which  showed  his  transactions  with  Gen.  Garfield  and  other 

members.     It  will  be  observed  in  Gen.  Garfield's  defense  of  himself,  furnished  to 

the  author  of  his  biography,  as  given  above,  that  he  said: 

In  the  case  of  each  of  those  who  did  purchase  the  stock  there  was  produced  as  evidence  of  the 
sale  either  a  certificate  of  stock,  receipt  of  payment,  a  check  drawn  in  the  name  of  the  payee,  or 
entries  in  Mr.  Ames'  diary  of  a  stock  account,  marked,  adjusted  and  closed,  but  that  no  one  of 
these  evidences  exists  in  reference  to  me. 

Contrast  with  this  statement  the  following  from  the  testimony  of  Oakes  Ames, 
page  459,  Poland  Report : 

Q,.  Now  turn  to  any  entries  you  may  have  in  reference  to  Mr.  Garfield.  A.  Mr.  Garfield's  pay- 
ments were  just  the  same  as  Mr.  Kelley's. 

Q.  I  find  Mr.  Kelley's  name  on  the  list  of  June  dividend  payments  for  $329.  That  I  understand 
you  to  be  the  amount  of  th  ;  June  dividend  after  paying  the  oalancedue  on  his  stock?  A.  Yes,  sir; 
the  general  statement  made  up  for  Mr.  Garfield  is  as  follows: 

OARFIKLD. 

10  shares  Credit  M 1,000 

7  mos.  10  days , 43  36 

1,043  3t> 
80per  ct.  bd.  div.,  at  97 776 

267~3J 
Int'et  to  June  20 3  61 

271  00 


1.000  C.  M. 
1,000  U.  P. 

Q,.  You  received  S600  cash  dividend  on  his  ten  shares?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And,  as  you  say,  paid  him  $329,  as  the  balance  of  the  dividend  due  him?    A.  I  think  I  did. 

Q.  In  this  list  of  names  for  the  June  dividend  Mr.  Garfield's  name  is  down  for  $339?  A.  That 
would  be  the  balance  due. 

Q.  The  cross  opposite  his  name  indicates  that  the  money  was  paid  to  him?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Clark  remarked  that  Mr.  Ames  was  not  certain  whether  th.d  amount  was  paid  Mr.  Garfield 
by  check  or  in  currency. 

The  Witness:  If  I  drew  the  check  I  may  have  paid  him  off  in  currency,  as  I  find  no  chock  with 
initials  corresponding  to  his. 

Q.  We  find  three  checks  for  the  amount  of  $.329  each;  one  is  in  blank;  there  are  no  in'tials 
written  in.  There  are,  however,  the  same  number  of  checks  for  that  amount  a-i  are  called  f <  r  by 
the  names  on  this  list  for  that  amount.  A.  I  am  not  sure  how  I  p  lid  Mr.  Garfield;  I  paid  him  ia 
some  form. 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEU    FRA.UD.  C3 

THE   COMMITTEE   CONDEMN   GARFIELD. 

The  committee,  ia  their  report  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  which  was 
unanimous,  having  been  signed  by  every  member  of  the  committee,  found  in  re- 
gard to  Gen.  Garfield  as  follows  (see  page  7  of  report) : 

MR.    JAMES  A.    GARFIELD,    OF    OHIO. 

The  facts  in  regard  to  Mr.  Garfield,  as  found  by  tiie  committee,  are  identical  with  the  case  of 
Mr.  Kelley  to  the  point  of  reception  of  the  clieclj  for  $329.  He  agreed  with  Mr.  Ames  to  take  ten 
8han-s  of  Crydit  Mobilier  stock,  but  did  not  pay  for  the  same.  Mr.  Ames  received  the  80  per  cent, 
dividend  ia  bonds,  and  sold  them  for  97  per  cent.,  and  also  received  the  60  per  cent,  cash  dividend, 
which  together  paid  the  price  of  the  stock  and  interest,  and  left  a  balance  of  $329.  This  sum  was 
paid  over  lo  Mr.  Garfleld  by  a  check  on  tlie  Sergeant-at-Arms,  and  Mr.  Garfield  then  understood 
tiiis  sum  was  the  balance  of  dividends  after  paying  for  the  stock.  Mr.  Ames  received  ail  the  sub- 
sequent  dividends,  and  the  committee  do  not  find  that,  since  the  payment  of  the  $329,  there  has 
been  any  communication  between  Mr.  Ames  and  Mr.  Garfleld  on  the  subject  until  this  investiga- 
tion l)egan.  Some  correspondence  between  Mr.  Garfleld  and  Mr.  Ames,  and  some  conversations 
between  them  during  this  investigation,  will  be  found  in  the  reported  testimony. 

THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   CREDIT   MOBILIER  OF  AMERICA. 

The  Credit  Mobilier  of  America  was  originally  the  Pennsylvania  Fiscal  Agency. 
It  was  incorporated  by  the  legislature  of  that  State  November  1st,  1859.  The 
powers  conferred  upon  this  corporation  was  something  wonderful.  It  was  em- 
powered to  carry  on  every  sort  of  financial  business  except  banking,  without  indi- 
vidual liability  on  the  part  of  these  stockholders.  The  company  had  been 
organized  before  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  a  part  of  its  stock  subscribed  and  an 
installment  thereon  paid  in.  Among  the  incorporators  were  Duif  Green,  David 
li.  Porter,  formerly  governor  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  number  of 
other  capitalists  of  that  state.  The  promoter  of  this  enterprise  was  Duff  Green, 
and  his  intention  was  to  use  it  in  building  a  Southern  Pacific  Railroad  along  the  line 
since  adopted  by  the  Texas  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  While  Durant,  Ames, 
IMcComb,  Bushnell  and  the  other  directors  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  were  en- 
deavoring to  evolve  from  their  heads  a  plan  whereby  they  might  execute  the  Hoxie 
contract  without  incurring  individual  liability,  Geo.  Francis  Train,  who  knew  of 
Green's  corporation,  suggested  to  Durant  the  idea  of  purchasing  it.  There  was 
one  difficulty,  however,  in  the  way.  None  of  the  officers  of  the  company  were 
to  be  found  except  the  secretary,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Barnes.  Duff  Green,  the 
president  and  the  owner  of  a  majority  of  the  stock,  was  in  the  service  of  the  Con- 
federacy, but  Barnes  got  together  a  few  of  the  stockholders,  organized  anew  the 
concern  and  sold  it  to  Durant  through  Geo.  Francis  Train.  At  the  suggestion  of 
Train  the  name  of  the  corporation  was  changed  to  the  Credit  iVIobilier  of  America. 

THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   UNION  PACIFIC   RAILROAD. 

The  germ  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  legislation  was  the  charter  granted  by  the 
pro  slavery  legislature  of  the  Territory  of  Kansas  in  1855  for  the  Leavenworth, 
Pawnee  and  Western  Railroad  Company,  which  afterwards  became  the  Union 
Pacific,  eastern  division,  sometimes  called  the  Denver  Pacific.  It  is  a  notorious 
fact  that  this  company  furnished  the  funds  used  in  Congress  in  1863  to  promote 
the  Pacific  Railroad  bill,  under  which  all  Pacific  railroads  obtained  their  sub- 
sidies from  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  The  Act  of  18G2  contemplated 
n:i  organization  composed  of  men  from  all  quarters  of  the  country,  so  that  the 
stock  might  be  distributed  in  an  equitable  manner  to  the  different  sections. 
There  were  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  corporators  named  in  the  bill.  The 
main  features  of  this  act  were  first  to  incorporate  the  persons  named  with  five 
commissioners  designated  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  under  the  name  and 
style  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  who  were  r.uthorizci  to  build  pad 
maintain  a  railroad  from  the  ICCtli  meridian  to  the  western  boundary  of  Nevada 
Territory.     The  capital  stock  ',.as  a  liunilrcd  millions  of  dollars,  divided  into 


64  THE    CREDIT   MOBILIER    FRAUD. 

shares  of  $1,000  each  ;  not  more  than  200  shares  to  be  held  by  any  one  person. 
As  soon  as  3,000  shares  or  two  per  cent,  of  the  stock  was  taken,  and 
|10  a  share,  or  one  per  cent,  paid,  the  President  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Board  of  Commissioners  were  to  designate  the  time  at  which  the  subscribers 
to  the  stock  should  meet  and  elect  officers.  The  right  of  way  was  granted 
through  all  the  public  domain,  with  all  necessary  grants  for  stations,  buildings, 
workshops,  side  tracks,  etc.,  and  alternate  sections  of  land  for  ten  miles  on 
each  side  of  the  road.  In  addition  there  was  granted  United  States  bonds  at  the 
rate  of  $16,000  per  mile  for  about  150  miles,  $48,000  per  mile  for  300  miles,  to 
include  the  section  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Nevada,  and 
$32,000  per  mile  for  about  850  miles  included  between  the  two  ranges  named. 
These  bonds  were  declared  to  be  a  first  mortgage  upon  the  road,  and  the  grant 
was  made  upon  the  express  condition  that  they  should  be  paid  at  maturity,  and 
all  compensation  for  services  rendered  to  the  Government  was  to  be  applied  to 
pay  the  interest  on  said  bonds  and  five  per  cent,  of  the  yearly  earnings  of  the 
road  was  to  be  reserved  and  applied  to  the  payment  of  the  principal  of  said 
bonds. 

THE   LEGISLATION   OF   1864. 

The  legislation  of  1864  was  mainly  the  means  by  which  fifty  millions  of  dollars 
were  stolen  from  the  people  of  the  United  States  in  the  construction  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad.  Gen.  Garfield  was  then  a  member  of  Congress.  He  voted  for 
the  Act  of  1864  and  against  an  amendment  offered  by  Mr.  Washburne  of  Illinois, 
which  prevented  the  subordinating  of  the  security  of  the  United  States  to  that  of 
the  railroad  companies  (see  Congressional  Olohe,  vol.  53,  p.  3267). 

The  Act  of  1864  doubled  the  land  grants,  abandoned  the  government  security 
by  making  its  bonds  a  second  mortgage  upon  the  property  of  the  road,  and  pro- 
vided that  only  one-half  of  the  earnings  from  government  freights  should  be  ap- 
plied to  pay  the  interest  upon  the  government  bonds.  By  this  act  the  railroad 
company  was  authorized  to  issue  first  mortgage  bonds  equal  to  the  amount 
granted  by  the  government,  which  became  a  prior  lien  on  the  road.  Up  to  this 
time  no  work,  save  on  the  eastern  division,  had  been  done  towards  the  completion 
of  the  road.  In  all  there  was  less  than  20  miles  built  and  in  running  order.  The 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  however,  claimed  that  they  had  $2,000,000  of 
stock  subscribed,  $200,000  paid  in,  and  to  have  expended  $800,000.  During 
the  debate  in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  this  bill  in  1864,  Mr.  Elihu  B. 
Washburne  said  (see  vol.  53,  p.  351,  Gongremonal  Globe)  : 

E.    B.    WASHBURNE   DENOUNCED   THE  ACT   OF    1864. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois.  Who  are  the  men  who  are  here  to  lobby  this  bill  through  ? 
Have  the  men  of  high  character  and  of  national  reputation  whose  names  were  at  an  earlier  period 
connected  with  this  enterprise  been  here,  animated  by  u  commendable  public  spirit,  by  motives  of 
patriotism,  to  ask  iis  to  pass  this  bill  ?  I  have  not  heard  of  such  men  being  here  for  that  purpose, 
but  on  the  other  hand,  the  work  of  "  putting  the  bill  through  "  has  gone  into  the  hands  of  such  men 
AS  Samuel  Hallett  and  George  Francis  Train,  par  nobUefratrum. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  in  opposing  the  provisions  of  this  act  of  1864,  which  gave  the 
company  the  right  to  issue  first  mortgage  bonds  and  make  the  government  lien  on  the  road 
secondary  to  the  mortgage  which  secured  the  bonds  issued  by  the  company  {Globe,  volume  53,  page 
3152),  said  : 

"I  come  now  to  the  tenth  section  of  the  bill,  and  I  confess  to  a  sort  of  admiration  of  the 
sublime  audacity  which  parties  must  have  to  come  here  and  ask  Congress  to  enact  such  u  provision 
into  a  law. 

"I  have  called  attention  to  other  provisions  of  an  extraordinary  nature,  but  this  proposed  enact- 
ment throws  all  others  far  into  the  shade,  and  stands  out  in  bold  relief  as  an  indication  of  the  •  base 
uses'  that  this  company  have  conceived  that  Congress  may  be  put  to  in  their  behalf.  I  carefully 
read  the  section,  that  every  gentleman  mav  know  its  exact  meaning  and  purport : 

"  Sec.  10.  Avd  be  it  further  enacted.  That  bection  five  of  said  act  be  so  modified  and  amended 
that  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  and  any  other 
company  authorized  to  participate  in  the  construction  of  said  road,  may  issue  their  first  mortgage 
bonds  on  their  respective  railroads  and  telegraph  lines  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  the  amount  of 
the  bonds  of  the  United  States  authorized  to  be  issued  to  said  railroad  companies  respeciivcly.  And 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEK    FRAUD.  65 

tbe  liet  of  the  United  States  bonds  shall  be  subordinate  to  that  of  the  bonds  of  any  or  either  of  said 
comoanies  hereby  authorized  to  be  issued  on  their  respective  roads,  property  and  equipments.  And 
said'section  is  further  amended  by  striking  out  the  word  '  forty '  and  inserting  in  lieu  thereof  the 
words  '  on  each  and  every  section  of  not  less  than  twenty.' 

SURRENDERING  EVERYTHING  TO  THE  CORPORATION. 

"Now,  it  will  be  recollected  that  the  fifth  section  of  the  existing  law  provides  for  the  repayment 
of  the  bonds  issued  to  the  company,  and  declares  that  the  issue  and  delivery  of  them  to  the  com- 
pany shall  ipso  facto  constitute  a  first  mortgage  on  the  whole  line  of  road  and  telegraph,  together 
with  the  rolling  stock.  This  was  the  security  which  Confess  had  a  right  to  demand  of  any  com- 
pany that  should  be  organized.  It  Avas  its  duty  to  require  it  unless  it  was  intended  to  surrender  up 
everything  and  place  the  most  gigantic  interests  at  the  feet  of  the  company,  without  control  and 
wfthout  challenge.  We  donated,  as  I  have  before  stated,  millions  upon  millions  of  acres  of  the 
public  lands  to  tne  company  for  this  purpose,  then  we  agreed  to  ^ive  our  bonds  for  the  amount, 
with  the  interest  thereon,  of  $96,000,000,  and  if  Congress  had  required  less  than  a  first  mortgage  as 
its  security  it  would,  in  my  judgment,  have  been  derelict  in  its  duty  to  the  country,  whose  interests 
in  this  regard  it  can  alone  protect. 

"What  is  now  proposed  oy  this  amendment  ?  I  demand  that  gentlemen  shall  look  at  it ;  let  the 
mirror  be  held  up  to  nature.  Nothing  less  than  that  the  government,  with  its  liability  of  a  hundred 
millons,  shall  relinquish  its  first  mortgage  and  subordinate  its  lieu  to  the  liens  of  all  the  companies 
created  for  building  the  road.  The  bonds  of  the  United  States  are  to  be  issued  to  the  company,  and 
the  government  is  to  have  no  prior  lien  for  its  security  ;  but  by  this  provision  the  company,  repre- 
senting as  it  may  but  one  per  cent,  or  a  little  over  of  the  amount  that  the  government  is  liable  for, 
is  to  subordinate  that  government  to  its  own  interests,  raise  money  on  the  means  that  the  govern- 
ment has  furnished,  give  a  first  mortgage  for  the  security  of  that  money,  and  leave  the  United 
States  as  a  second  mortgagee,  obliged  to  pay  oflF  the  first  mortgage  before  it  can  be  in  a  position  to 
take  advantage  of  anjr  security  there  'might  "by  possibility  be  as  a  second  mortgagee.  But  who  is 
wild  enough  to  believe  that  should  the  provisions  of  this  section  become  a  law  the  remaining  secu- 
rity of  the  government  will  be  worth  a  straw  ? 

"  It  is  worse  than  idle  to  contend  that  ^e  shall  have  any  security  left  for  all  our  liability  if  this 
bill  shall  pass.  And  further,  by  the  fifth  section  of  the  law,  bonds  cannot  be  issued  till  forty  con- 
secutive miles  of  the  road  are  fully  completed  and  equipped.  It  is  now  proposed  by  this  tenth  sec- 
tion to  strike  out  forty  and  make  it  twenty.  This  company,  not  content  with  snatching  from  the 
government  the  security  it  now  holds  for  the  bonds  it  issues,  cannot  even  wait  to  finish  the  fort}-- 
miles  of  road  at  present  required  before  grabbihg  what  is  proposed  to  put  into  their  hands,  but  they 
must  cut  it  down  so  they  can  go  in  on  twenty  miles.  Sir,  on  my  responsibility  as  a  representative- 
I  pronounce  this  as  the  most  monstrous  and  flagrant  attempt  to  overreach  the  government  and  the 
people  that  can  be  found  in  all  the  legislative  annals  of  the  country.  When  we  look  at  the  original 
law  with  all  its  liberal  and  just  provisions,  when  we  look  at  the  company  organized  under  it  and 
see  how  far  it  has  failed  to  meet  its  proper  obligations,  and  consider  the  extraordinary  amendm«»nt8 
here  proposed,  are  we  not  filled  with  astonishment  at  what  is  demanded  of  ub  as  the  guardians  of 
the  people's  rights  ?    Indeed,  may  we  now  exclaim: 

"  '  Can  such  things  be, 
And  overcome  us  like  a  summer's  cloud, 
Without  our  special  wonder  ? ' 

WARNINGS  WHICH   WERE  NOT   HEEDED. 

"I  warn  the  true  friends  of  the  road,  I  warn  Congress  and  the  people  what  will  be  the  result. 
The  present  directors  of  the  company  hold  for  three  years,  and  the  whole  business  of  the  directors 
is  done  by  an  executive  committee  of  the  board,  who  hold  for  the  same  time.  The  real  state. 
of  the  case  seems  to  be  that  the  executive  committee  is  the  board  of  directors,  and  one  man  is  the 
executive  committee." 

The  vote  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne,  to  strike  out  this  tenth  section 
subordinating  the  Grovernment  lien,  was  taken  June  24,  1864  {Olohe,  vol.  52,  p. 
3244). 

The  yeas  were  38,  nays  81,  not  voting,  63.  Among  the  yeas  were  Messrs.  Boutwell,  Famsworth, 
Holman,  Orth,  Scofield,  Spalding  and  E.  B.  Washburne. 

Among  the  nays,  Messrs.  Allison,  Ames,  Blaine.  Brooks,  Dawes,  Elliott,  Kelley  and  Wilson. 
Among  those  not  voting,  Messrs.  Alley,  GARFIELD  and  Hooper. 

The  final  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  was  taken  June  25,  1864  (see  Olohe,  vol. 
53,  p.  3267),  and  resulted,  yeas  70,  nays  38,  not  voting  74. 

Among  the  yeas  were  Messrs.  Allison,  Ames,  Blaine,  Brooks,  Dawes,  Elliot,  Garfield,  Hooper 
and  Wilspn. 

Among  the  nays,  Messrs.  Boutwell,  Holman,  Orth,  Scofield  and  E.  B.  Washburne. 

The  bill  returned  to  the  Senate,  and  finally  passed  on  a  conference  report,  which 
was  not  printed,  the  call  of  E.  B.  Washburne  for  the  yeas  and  nays  being  refused 
(see  Qlohe,  vol.  53,  p.  3481). 

Under  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1862  and  the  amendments  of  1864,  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  obtained  about  twelve  millions  of  acres  of  land  and  bonds  guaran- 
teed by  the  government  to  the  amount  of  $27,236,512,  and  was  authorized  to  issue 


66  THE    CREDIT    MORILIER    FRAUD. 

:lir^t  mortgage  bonds  to  a  like  amount.  The  first  section  of  the  act  of  1863  re- 
quired a  subscription  of  $2,000,000  to  be  m.ido,  and  ten  percent,  thereon  to  bo 
paid  before  organization.  The  sum  of  $2,180,000  was  subscribed,  and  ten  per  cent., 
$218,000,  paid  in,  and  in  October,  1863,  the  company  was  organized  and  the  Board 
of  Directors  was  elected. 

In  addition  to  the  first  mortgage  bonds  of  the  company,  and  the  government 
bonds  of  $54,473,024,  the  company  also  issued  l.md-graut  bonds,  and  income  bonds, 
and  stock,  amounting  in  all  to  about  $50,000,000,  so  that  there  were  assets,  inde- 
pendent of  the  13,000,000  acres  of  public  lands,  about  $111,000,000. 

OVER  A  MILLION   THE   FIRST  HAUL. 

The  first  contract  for  the  construction  of  the  road  was  made  with  one  H.  M. 
Hoxie,  who  seemed  to  have  been  a  person  of  little  pecuniary  responsibility.  His 
proposal  to  build  and  equip  one  liundred  miles  of  the  railroad  and  telegraph  is 
dated  New  York,  August  8,  1864,  signed  H.  M.  Hoxie,  by  H.  C.  Crane,  attorney. 
Jt  was  accepted  by  the  company  September  23,  1864.  On  the  30th  September, 
1864,  Hoxie  agreed  to  assign  this  contract  to  Thomas  C.  Durant,  who  was  then 
Tice-Prcsident  and  Director  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad,  or  suph  parties  as  he 
migbt  designate.  On  the  4th  of  October,  1804,  this  contract  was  extended  to  the 
'ODC  hundredth  meridian,  an  additional  one  hundred  and  forty-six  and  forty  five 
liur»dreth  miles,  the  agreement  for  extension  being  signed  by  Crane  as  attorney  of 
Hoxie,  Hoxie  was  an  employee  of  the  company  at  the  time,  and  Mr.  Crane,  who 
signed  as  Hoxie's  attorney,  was  Durant's  "confidential  man,"  as  Durant  himself 
^expresses  Jt 

By  this  contract  and  its  extension  Hoxie  agreed  to  build  two  hundred  and  forty- 
six  and  forty -five  hundreths  miles  of  road,  to  furnish  money  on  the  securities  of 
the  company,  to  subscribe  one  million  dollars  to  the  capital  stock,  and  he  was  to 
receive  fifty  thousand  dollars  per  mile  for  the  work. 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  October,  1864,  an  agreement  was  entered  into  by  Du- 
rant, Bushncll,  Lambard,  McComb,  all  directors  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
Company,  and  Gray,  a  stockholder,  to  take  from  Hoxie  the  assignment  of  his  con- 
tract (wliich  assignment  he  had  previously  bound  himself  to  make  to  such  persons 
ixs  Durant  should  designate),  and  to  contribute  $1,600,000  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  the  contract  out. 

THE  EFFECT  OF  THE  LEGISLATION  OF   1867, 

The  resolution  as  amended  by  the  Senate  was  passed  and  became  the  law. 
This  \arv  changed  the  time  and  place  of  holding  the  meeting  of  stockholders  of 
Ihe  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Campany  from  New  York,  where  they  had  beer 
<enj©ined  by  the  Courts,  to  Boston,  Mass.  While  the  resolution  above  referred 
tto  was  pending  in  Congress,  Durant,  in  order  to  compel  his  opponents  to  com- 
promise with  him,  announced  his  determination  to  make  a  complete  exposure  of 
all  the  rascality  connected  with  the  building  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  Ac- 
cor*lmgly  he  wrote  a  letter,  in  which  he  set  out  all  the  facts,  and  actually  mailed 
it  to  Mr.  Washburne.  When  his  opponents  learned  of  this,  they  agreed  to  his 
c»mproinise,  and  then  went  to  the  jJOst  office  and  got  Durant's  letter  out  and 
destroyed  it  (see  Credit  Mobilier  Investigation,  Poland  Committee,  Third  Session, 
Forty-second  Congress,  p.  175).  Then  Mr.  J.  M.  F.  Williams,  of  Boston,  was 
given  the  contract  to  build  and  equip  two  hundred  and  sixty  seven  and  fifty-two 
©afi  hundredth  miles  west  from  the  one  hundredth  meridian,  at  fifty  thousand 
dollars  per  mile.  This  contract  he  proposed  to  as-^ign  to  the  Credit  Mobilier,  of 
jLmerica,  in  order  to  enable  it,  or  the  managing  directors  of  the  Union  Pacific 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD.  C7 

Hailroad  through  it,  to  make  a  profit  of  about  22,500  dollars»per  mile  on  ninety- 
eight  and  one  quarter  miles  of  road,  which  had  by  this  time  been  completed 
under  the  Boomer  contract.     With  reference  to  this,  Mr.  Williams  was  asked: 

Q.  Then  what  purpose  had  you  to  propose  to  build  a  road  that  had  already  been  built  by  the 
company  at  a  cost  to  them  of  less  than  the  amount  mentioned  in  your  proposition  ?  A.  We  were 
Identical  m  interest.  The  Credit  Mobilier  and  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  were  the  same 
identical  parties.  We  were  building  it  for  ourselves,  by  ourselves,  and  among  ourselves.  There 
was  not  twenty  thousand  dollars  interest  in  it. 

Q.  Was  this  understood  at  the  time  ?  A.  Yes,  sir  ;  it  was  understood  that  we  were  dealing  with 
ourselves  to  get  the  control  in  the  right  hands.  ^ 

Durant  again  interfered  and  defeated  this  project  by  legal  proceedings.      Then 

a  new  device  was  resorted  to  on  the  sixteenth  of  August,  1867. 

The  Poland  report  says  :  "The  Oakes  Ames  Contract  "  was  entered  into.  At  this  time,  one 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  miles  of  road  had  been  completed  and  accepted  west  of  the  one 
hundredth  meridian",  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars  per  mile.  A  portion 
of  the  road  embraced  in  the  Ames  contract  began  at  the  one  hundredth  meridian  and  extended 
Avestward  six  hundred  and  sixty-seven  miles,  and  by  the  terms  of  the  contract  the  railroad 
company  was  to  pay  as  follows  : 

For  the  first  one  hundred  miles  $42,000  per  mile $4,200,000 

"      next  167  miles,  $45,000  per  mile    7,515,000 

"     100    "  96,000        "  9,600,000 

"     100    "  80,000        "  8,000,000 

"     100    "  90,000        "  9,000,000 

"  "    100    "  96,000        "  9,600,000 


667  $47,925,000 

At  the  time  this  contract  was  made  there  was  an  understanding  that  it  was  for  the  benefit 
of  the  shareholders  of  the  Credit  Mobilier.  Ames  was  the  only  medium  through  whom  these 
shareholders  should  receive  the  benefits  accruing  from  it. 

This  contract  was  signed  on  behalf  of  the  railroad  company  by  Oliver  Ames,  as  President  pro 
tempore,  who  was  brother  and  business  partner  of  Oakes  Ames.  It  was  approved  by  Oliver  Anif^s, 
0.  S.  Bushnell,  Springer  Harbaugh,  and  Thomas  C.  Durant,  as  Executive  Committee  of  the  Rail- 
road Company,  all  of  whom,  excepting  Harbaugh,  were  interested  in  the  Credit  Mobilier. 

Pursuant  to  the  previous  understanding  that  this  contract  was  to  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  share- 
holders of  the  Credit  Mobilier,  on  the  15th  day  of  October,  1867,  it  was  signed  by  a  tripartite 
agreement  to  seven  trustees,  namely,  Thomas  C.  Durant,  Oliver  Ames,  John  B.  Alley,  Sydnej'' 
Dillon,  Cornelius  S.  Bushnell,  Henry  S.  McComb,  and  Benj.  E.  Bates,  all  stockholders  in  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  and  in  the  Credit  Mobilier,  Oliver  Ames  occupying  the  anomolous 
position  of  president  of  the  railroad  company  making  the  contract,  and  one  of  the  parties  to  whom 
it  was  assigned— all  of  them  were  directors  of  the  railroad  company. 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  that  in  order  to  i)rocure  any  of  the  proceeds  of  this  contract,  stock- 
holders of  the  Credit  Mobilier  who  owned  stock  in  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  were 
compelled  to  give  an  irrevocable  proxy  to  these  seven  trustees  to  vote  in  all  cases  six-tenths  of 
their  railroad  slock. 

The  stockholders  in  the  two  corporations  were  substantially  identical.  These  proxies  were 
executed  and  delivered  to  these  trustees  ;  they  represented  a  majority  of  the  stock,  and  by  this 
means  the  entire  control  of  the  railroad  company  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  stockholders  of 
the  latter  company,  and  was  reposed  in  the  seven  trustees,  and  for  two  years  they  exercised  the 
power  thus  acquired. 

The  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  railroad  company  during  the  execution  of  the  work  under 
this  contract,  was  under  the  control  of  the  beneficiaries  thereof,  and  of  course  the  trustees  who 
acquired  this  power  by  means  of  the  proxies  above  mentioned,  were  not  very  anxious  to  protect 
the  interest  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

This  Oakes  Ames  contract  extended  over  138  miles  of  road  completed  and  accepted.  That  portion 
already  completed  had  cost  not  to  exceed  $27,500  per  mile,  and  by  embracing  these  one  hundred 
and  thirty-eight  miles  in  the  contract,  the  persons  interested  derived  a  profit  which  enabled  them 
to  make  a  dividend  among  themselves  in  less  than  sixty  days  after  the  assignment,  as  follows  : 

Sixty  per  cent,  in  first  mortgage  bonds  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company $2,244,000 

Sixty  per  cent,  in  stock  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company 8,244,000 

This  was  mainly,  if  not  entirely  derived  from  the  owners  of  the  contract  over  what  the  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-eight  miles  had  cost.  The  trustees  proceeded  to  construct  the  road  under  this 
contract,  and  from  a  balance  sheet  taken  from  the  books  of  the  company,  it  appears— 

That  the  cost  to  the  railroad  company,  was $57,140,102  74 

The  cost  to  the  contractors,  was 27,285,141  99 


Profits .$29,8.54,141 


The  Oakes  Ames  contract  was  entered  into  August  16,  1867,  and  on  December 
9,  1867,  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  introduced  House  resolution  No.  252,  to 
create  a  Government  Commission,  with  power  to  regulate  freight  and  passenger 
rates  on  the  Pacific  Railroads,  which  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Pacific 
Railroads.  This  resolution  provided  that  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  and  Attorney- General  of  the  United  States,  should  appoint  a  Board 
of  Commissioners,  whose  duty  it  should  be  on  the  first  day  of  July  in  each  year 


68  THE    CREDIT    MOBILTER    FRAUD. 

to  establish  a  tariff  for  freight  and  passengers  over  the  Union  Pacific  and  Central 
Pacific  Railroads,  and  their  branches,  which  tariff  was  to  be  equitable  and  just, 
and  not  exceeding  double  the  average  rates  charged  on  the  different  lines  of  rail- 
road between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  in  latitude  north 
of  St.  Louis,  Mo. ,  and  it  should  not  be  lawful  for  said  company  to  charge  any 
sum  in  excess  of  the  rates  so  fixed  and  established.  The  Committee  on  Pacific 
Railroads  not  reporting  on  this  resolution,  it  was  reintroduced  in.  the  morning^ 
hour,  Monday,  January  20,  1868,  by  Mr.  Windom,  of  Minnesota,  and  read  the 
first  and  second  time,  but  the  previous  question  not  being  seconded,  Mr.  Higby 
arose  and  debated  the  resolution.  It  went  over  under  the  rules,  but  came  up  again 
March  12,  1868,  and  debated.  Between  the  reintroduction  of  this  Washburne 
resolution,  on  January  20  and  March  12,  when  the  debate,  which  will  be  quoted 
hereafter,  occurred,  the  following  correspondence  between  Oakes  Ames  and  H.. 
S.  McComb  ensued  : 

CAKES  AMES'  LETTERS,  WITH  LIST  OP  ASSIGNMENTS  AS  GIVEN  TO  MCCOMB. 

Washington,  January  25,  1868. 

Bear  Sir :  Yours  of  the  23d  is  at  hand,  in  which  you  say  Senators  Bayard  and  Fowler  have 
writen  you  in  relation  to  their  stock.  I  have  spoken  to  Fowler  but  not  to  Bayard.  I  have  never 
been  introduced  to  Bayard,  but  will  see  him  soon.  You  say  1  must  not  put  too  much  in  one  local- 
ity. I  have  assigned,  as  far  as  I  have  §one  to,  four  from  Massachusetts,  one  from  New  Hampshire, 
one  Delaware,  one  Tennessee,  one  Ohio,  two  Pennsylvania,  one  Indiana,  one  Maine,  and  I  have 
three  to  place,  which  I  shall  put  where  they  will  do  most  good  to  us.  I  am  hereon  the  spot,  and 
can  better  judge  where  they  should  go.  I  think  after  thfs  dividend  is  paid  we  should  make  our 
capital  to  four  millions,  and  distribute  the  new  stock  where  it  will  protect  us,  let  them  have  the 
stock  at  par,  and  profits  made  in  the  future;  the  fifty  per  cent,  increase  on  the  old  stock  I  want  for 
distribution  here,  and  soon.  Alley  is  opposed  to  the  division  of  the  bonds;  says  we  will  need 
them,  etc.  I  should  think  that  we  ought  to  be  able  to  spare  tiiem,  with  Alley  and  Cisco  on  the 
Finance  Committee— we  used  to  be  able  to  borrow  when  we  had  no  credit  and  debts  pressing. 
We  are  now  out  of  debt  and  in  good  credit— what  say  you  about  the  bond  dividend— a  part  of  the 
purchasers  here  are  poor,  and  want  their  bonds  to  sell  to  enable  them  to  meet  their  payment  on 
the  stock  in  the  C.  M.  I  have  told  them  what  they  would  get  as  dividend,  and  they  expect,  I 
think,  when  ihe  bonds  the  parties  receive  as  the  eighty  per  cent,  dividend,  we  better  give  ihem  the 
bonds— it  will  not  amount  to  anything  with  us.  Some  of  the  large  holders  will  not  care  whether 
they  have  the  bonds  or  certificates,  or  they  will  lend  their  bonds  to  the  company,  as  they  have  done 
before,  or  lend  them  money.  Quigley  has  been  here,  and  we  have  got  that  one-tenth  that  was 
Underwood's.  I  have  taken  half,  Quigley  one-quarter,  and  you  one-quarter.  J.  Carter  wants  a 
part  of  it;  at  some  future  day  we  are  to  surrender  a  part  to  him. 

Yours  truly, 

H.  S.  McCoMB,  Esq.  OAKES  AMES. 

WHERE   IT   WILL   DO    MOST    GOOD. 

Washington,  January  30,  1868. 

Bear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  28th  is  at  hand,  inclosing  copy  of  letter  from,  or  rather  to,  Mr.  King. 
I  don't  fear  any  investigation  here.  What  some  of  DuranVs  fi-iends  may  do  in  New  York  courts 
can't  he  counted  upon  with  any  certainty.  You  do  not  understand  by  your  letter,  what  I  have  done, 
and  am  to  do  with  my  sales  of  stock.  Yousay  none  to  New  Yoi^k.  I  havk  placed  some  tvith  New 
York,  or  have  agreed  to.  You  must  remember  it  was  nearly  all  placed  as  you  saw  it  on  the  list  in 
Ne%o  York,  and  there  was  but  six  or  eight  m.  for  me  to  place.  I  could  not  give  all  the  world  all  they 
might  want  out  of  that.  You  would  not  want  me  to  offer  less  than  one  thousand  m.  to  any  one. 
We  allow  Durand  to  place  some  fifty-eight  thousand  to  some  three  or  four  of  his  friends,  or 
keep  it  himself. 

I  HAVE  USED  THIS  WHERE  IT  WILL  PRODUCE  MOST  GOOD  TO  US,  I  THINK.  In  view  of  King''s  Ut- 
ter and  Washburne' s  move  here,  I  go  in  for  making  our  bond  dividend  in  full.  We  can  do  it  with 
perfect  safety.  I  understand  the  opposition  to  it  comes  from  Alley  ;  he  is  on  the  Finance 
Committee,  and  can  raise  money  easy  if  we  come  short,  which  I  don't  believe  we  shall,  and  if  we 
do  we  can  loan  our  bonds  to  the  company,  or  loan  them  the  money  we  get  from  the  bonds. 
The  contract  calls  for  a  division,  and  I  say  have  it.    When  shall  I  see  you  in  Washington  ? 

Yours  truly, 
H.  S.  McCoMB.  OAKES  AMES. 

We  stand  about  like  this  : 

Bonds,  first  mortgage,  received  on  525  miles,  at  16  m $8,400,000 

Bonds,  first  mortgage,  received  on  15  miles,  at  48  m 720.000 

Bonds,  first  mortgage,  received  on  100  miles,  at  48  m 4,800,000 

$13,920,000 
Ten  millions  sold  and  to  sell  to  pay  our  debts 10,(X)0,00& 

$3,920,000 
Eighty  per  cent,  dividend  on  $3,700,000  C.  M.  of  A 3,000,000 

$920,000 

Government  bonds  received  this  day 960,000 

Due  for  transportation  four  hundred  M.,  one  half  cash 200,000 

$2,080,000 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEK    FRAUD.  '  89 

In  addition  to  this  we  can  draw  government  bonds  for  two  thirds  of  the  work  done  in  advance  of 
track,  if  we  desire  it. 

Indorsed  on  letter  as  sworn  by  McComb. 

"Oakes  Ames' list  of  names  as  showed  to  me  to-day  for  Credit  Mobilier  :  Blaine,  of  Maine, 
3,000;  Patterson.  l»Jew  Hampshire,  3,000;  Wilson,  Massachusetts.  2;  Painter,  reporter  for  Inquirer, 
3-  S.  Colfax,  Speaker,  2  ;  Elliott,  Massachusetts,  3  ;  Dawes,  Massachusetts,  2  ;  Boutwell,  Mass- 
achusetts, 2  ;  Bingham  and  Garfield,  Ohio  ;  Scofield  andKelley,  Pennsylvania;  Fowler,  Tennes- 
see.   February,  1  1868." 

WE  WANT   MORE    FRIENDS   IN   CONGRESS. 

Washington,  February  22,  1878. 
Dear  Sir:  Yours  of  the  21st  is  at  hand  ;  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  getting  along  so  well 
with  Mr.  West;  hope  you  will  bring  it  out  all  satisfactory,  so  that  it  will  be  so  rich  that  we  cannot 
help  going  into  it.  I  return  you  the  paper  by  mail  that  you  ask  for.  You  ask  me  if  I  will  sell  some 
of  my  Union  Pacific  Railroad  stock.  I  will  sell  some  of  it  at  par  Credit  Mobilier  of  America.  I 
don't  care  to  sell.  I  hear  that  Mr.  Bates  offered  his  at  $300,  but  I  don't  want  Bates  to  sell  out.  I 
think  Grimes  may  sell  a  part  of  his  at  $350.  I  want  that  $14,000  increase  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  to 
sell  here.  We  want  more  friends  in  this  Congress,  and  if  a  man  will  look  into  the  law  {and  it  is 
difficult  to  get  them  to  do  it  unless  they  have  an  interest  to  do  so),  he  cannot  help  being  convinced  that 
we  shmUd  not  be  interfered  with.    Hope  to  see  you  here  or  at  New  York  the  lUh. 

Yours  truly, 

OAKES  AMES. 
H.  S.  McCoMB,  Esq. 

{See  Report  Poland  Com.,  pp.  4, 5,  6, 7.) 

THE   RELATIONS  OF   THE   CREDIT  MOBILIER  TO   THE  UNION  PACIFIC   EXPOSED 

IN   MARCH,    1868. 

It  is  important  to  observe  that  Henry  S.  McComb  swears  that  on  February  1st, 
1868,  Oakes  Ames  showed  him  a  list  of  names  of  members  of  Congress  to  whom 
he  had  assigned  Credit  Mobilier  stock.  This  proves  that  prior  to  that  date,  Ames 
had  sold  to  Gen.  Garfield  ten  shares  of  the  stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier.  Imme- 
diately thereafter  the  true  character  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  enterprise;  the 
existence  of  the  Credit  Mobilier;  its  connection  with  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad; 
the  enormous  profits  its  stockholders  were  realizing  from  the  construction  of  the 
railroad,  and  the  suit  of  McComb  against  Oakes  Ames  and  others,  for  a  part  of 
these  profits,  were  made  known  in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate. 

On  March  12,  1868,  the  following  debate  occurred  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, on  the  "Washburne  resolution,  which  Ames,  in  his  letter  to  McComb  of 
January  30,  1868,  refers  to  as  Washburne's  move.  This  was  a  joint  resolution  to 
regulate  the  tariff  for  freight  and  passengers  on  the  Pacific  Railroads  {see 
Congresssional  Globe,  vol.  66,  page  1861). 

The  next  business  lying  over  under  the  rules  was  House  joint  resolution  No.  168,  to  regulate  the 
tariff  for  freight  and  passengers  on  the  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroads  and  their  branches,  in- 
troduced by  Air.  Windom,  January  20,  1868. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  move  to  refer  it  to  the  Committee  on  the  Post  Office  and  Post  Roads,  and  call 
the  previous  question. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois:  I  hope  the  House  will  not  second  the  previous  question.  Let  us 
have  a  square  vote  and  see  who  is  in  favor  of  this  resolution. 

Mr.  Dawes:  We  had  a  square  vote  the  other  day. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois  :  And  the  gentleman  was  with  the  monopolists.  [Laughter.]  (See 
vote  on  Dawes'  resolution,  page  21.) 

On  seconding  the  previous  question  there  were— ayes  52,  nays  51. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois:  I  demand  tellers. 

Tellers  were  ordered;  and  the  Chair  appointed  Messrs.  Garfield  and  Woodward. 

Mr.  Allison:  Let  the  joint  resolution  be  reported  in  full. 

The  Speaker:  The  clerk  not  expecting  this  business  to  be  reached  to-day,  the  joint  resolution  iB 
not  here;  it  is  on  the  files  at  the  clerk's  oflice. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  think  it  is  very  proper,  therefore,  to  have  it  referred. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois:  It  is  a  resolution  that  ought  to  be  passed. 

The  House  divided;  and  the  tellers  reported— ayes  42,  nays  54. 

So  the  previous  question  was  not  seconded. 

The  Speaker:  The  clerk  will  now  report  the  joint  resolution. 

it  was  read. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  demanded  the  previous  question. 

Mr.  Van  Horn  moved  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the  table. 

Mr.  Hooper,  of  Massachusetts,  called  the  yeas  and  nays;  and  they  were  ordered. 

The  vote  on  laying  on  ihe  table  stood— yeas  53,  nays  70,  not  voting  66. 

So  the  House  refused  to  l:iy  the  bill  on  the  table. 

The  Speaker:  The  morning  hour  has  expired,  and  the  bill  goes  to  the  Speaker's  table. 

March  20,  1888  (see  Globe,  vol.  66,  p.  2029)— The  resolution  was  again  in  order,  and  Mr.  C.  C. 
Washburn,  of  Wisconsin,  addressed  the  House.  The  following  are  extracts  from  his  remarks,  aa. 
JMinted  in  Globe,  vol.  67,  pp.  269-98,  Appendix: 


70  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD. 

GREAT  EXAGGERATION  ABOUT   COST   OP  PACIFIC   RAILROADS. 

Mr.  Washburn,  of  Wisconsin:  There  is  great  exaorgeration  about  the  difficulties  attending  thc- 
building  of  these  Pacific  railroads.  If  gentlemen  want  information  I  will  give  it  to  them.  I  will 
give  the  gentleman  from  Iowa  (Mr.  Dodge),  the  very  able  and  distinguished  engineer  of  the  road, 
some  of  his  own  fijjures.    I  will  refer  to  his  report  of  186S. 

It  was  asserted  in  Congress  in  1864  that  there  were  miles  of  this  road  that  would  cost  ^500,000- 
per  mile  to  build.  Here  is  my  friend's  own  report  made  in  1868.  The  table  of  grades  shows  upon 
the  line  from  Omaha  to  the  eastern  line  of  California,  a  distance  of  one  thousand  six  hundred  and 
twenty-two  and  a  half  miles:  of  dead  level  ground,  two  hundred  and  seventy- two  miles;  from  level 
to  twenty  feet  per  mile,  six  hundred  and  sixty -five  miles;  ranging  from  twenty  feet  to  forty  feet, 
three  hundred  and  forty-three  miles;  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  per  mile,  ninety-six  miles;  from  sixty 
to  eighty  feet  per  mile,  eighty-one  miles;  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  feet  per  mile,  forty-five  miles; 
from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  sixteen  feet  per  mile,  thirty-seven  miles. 

Such  are  the  grades  of  this  Pacific  road  as  determined  by  their  own  engineers.  The  almost  im- 
passable mountains  of  which  "Pathfinders"  and  others  ^ive  such  marvellous  accounts,  when 
Drought  to  the  unerring  test  of  the  engineer's  level,  dwindle  into  insignificance.  And  I  think  I  can 
safely  assert  here  that  there  is  no  sixteen  hundred  miles  of  road  running  in  any  given  direction  m 
the  United  States  that  show  such  easy  grades  as  from  Omaha  to  the  line  of  California.  There  was 
much  difficulty  in  determining  where  the  base  of  the  Rocicy  Mountains  was,  but  it  was  finally  de- 
termined in  the  level  valley  of  the  Platte  river  at  Crow  Creek  crossing,  and  from  that  point  to  the 
summit  of  the  mountains  the  distance  is  only  between  thirty-one  aiid  thirty-two  miles,  although 
we  give  them  a  subsidy  of  $48,000  per  mile  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  at  this  point  of  the 
road. 

IT   COULD   BE   BUILT   FOR   THE   GOVERNMEKT   SUBSIDY. 

Now,  sir,  I  have  asserted  that  this  road  can  nearly  or  quite  be  btiilt  with  the  government  sub- 
sidy. The  first  five  hundred  miles  are  nearly  a  dead  level.  I  am  assured  by  gentlemen  who  have 
traveled  over  the  route  that  up  to  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  it  is  a  dead  level,  so  that  the 
sleepers  are  laid  down  for  miles  and  miles  on  the  naked  soil  without  any  grading,  only  a  ditch  on 
each  side. 

There  cannot  be  a  shadow  of  doubt  that  your  subsidy  in  bonds  will  nearly  or  quite  build  and 
equip  the  road,  for  this  part  of  the  line  at  least,  with  the  vast  grant  of  lands  thrown  in. 

I  nave  always  said  that  this  road  could  be  built  for  the  government  subsidies,  and  I  reiterate 
that,  provided  it  is  built  as  other  roads  are  built,  by  contracting  with  the  lowest  bidder.  To  make 
the  road  cost  the  stockholders  no  more  than  absolutely  necessary,  and  at  the  same  time  to  make  it 
represent  a  nominal  cost  that  would  relieve  the  stockholders  from  the  appearance  of  not  putting  in 
money  of  their  own,  and  also  to  relieve  them  from  the  ten  per  cent,  dividend  proposition,  they  re- 
sort to  a  device  unheard  of  betore  in  this  country. 

WASBTBURNE  TELLS  OF  THE   CREDIT  MOBILIER. 

The  stockholders  in  the  Pacific  road  are  few  in  number.  They  could  easily  have  made  a  con- 
tract with  themselves  for  the  building  of  the  road,  without  bids  or  advertisements  of  any  kind. 
They  could  have  agreed  to  have  paid  themselves  one  or  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  mile, 
and  swelled  the  nominal  cost  to  such  a  figure  as  to  neutralize  the  ten  per  cent,  proviso  in  regard  to 
earnings.  But  would  such  a  transaction  have  been  regarded  as  an  honest  or  legitimate  and  straight- 
forward one,  and  binding  on  the  government?  Clearly  not.  Would  a  transaction  which  amounts 
to  precisely  the  same  thing,  arrived  at  an  indirect  manner,  be  any  more  honorable  and  straightfor- 
ward or  binding  on  the  government?  Instead  of  contracting  for  the  construction  of  the  road  as 
all  other  roads  have  been  built,  what  do  they  do?  A,  B,  C,  and  D  are  the  stockholders  of  the  com- 
pany. A,  B.  C,  and  D,  under  acliarter  from  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  organize  themselves  into  a 
company  cnUed  the  C7'edU  Afobilie?' o(  America,.  A,  B,  C,  and  D,  stockholders,  enter  into  a  con- 
tract with  the  Credit  Mobilier  to  build  this  road  at  fabulous  prices,  and  the  Credit  Mobilier  let  out 
the  contract  at  the  lowest  figure  ar,  which  the  road  can  be  built,  making  a  clear  profit  of  the  differ- 
ence between  the  price  at  which  the  contract  is  taken  and  the  price  actually  paid  to  those  who  do 
the  work,  a  sum  I  am  assured  that  will  not  fall  short  of  many,  many  million  dollars.  It  will  readily 
be  seen  from  this  that  the  company  practically  contracts  with  itself  to  build  the  road,  and 
that  the  enormous  figures  they  exhibit  as  representing  the  cost  of  the  road  are  absolutely 
fictitious." 

March  25,  1868  (see  Globe,  volume  sixty-seven,  pp.  2109,  2113),  the  resolution  was  again  in  order 
and  was  debated  at  length.  Mr.  Price  answering  Mr.  Washburne,  and  Messrs.  Garfield,  Scofield, 
and  Dawes  took  part  in  the  proceedings.  Mr.  Price  iroved  to  refer  the  resolution  to  the  Pacific  Rail- 
road Committee,  and  demanded  the  previous  question.  Pending  the  previous  question  the  House 
adjourned. 

March  26, 1868  (see  Globe,  volume  sixty-seven,  p.  2129),  the  subject  was  resumed.  Mr.  Wash- 
burne, of  Illinois,  asked  further  time  for  debate,  as  there  was  no  quorum.  This  was  resisted,  and 
Mr.  Washburne  moved  a  call  of  the  House;  and  upon  division  there  were— ayes  33,  noes  55;  no 
quorum  voting.  Tellers  were  ordered,  and  announced— ayes  40,  noes  61.  Mr,  Washburne  de- 
manded the  yeas  and  nays,  and  they  were  ordered;  and  on  a  motion  for  a  call  of  the  House  there 
were— yeas  45,  nays  86,  not  voting  58. 

Among  the  yeas  were  Messrs.  C.  C.  Washburn  and  E.  B.  Washburne. 

Among  the  nays,  Messrs.  Atlison,  Ames,  Bingham,  Boutwell,  Dawes.  Dodge,  Eliot,  Hooper, 
Kelly,  Scofield,  Twichell  and  James  F.  Wilson. 

Among  those  not  voting,  Messrs.  Blaine,  Brooks,  and  Garfield. 

The  previous  question  was  seconded,  and  on  ordering  the  main  question  on  referring  the  resolu- 
tion, the  yeas  were  73,  the  nays  54,  not  voting  62. 

Among  the  yeas  were  Messrs.  Allison,  Ames,  Bingham,  Boutwell,  Dawes,  Dodge,  Eliot,  Hooper, 
Kelley,  Twichell,  and  JamesF.  Wilson. 

Among  the  nays,  Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne. 

Among  those  not  voting,  Messrs.  Blaine,  Brooks,  Garfield,  and  Scofield. 

So  the  main  question  was  ordered. 

And  thereupon  the  following  proceedings  occurred: 

Mr.  Holmaii;  I  rise  to  a  privileged  question.    I  make  the  request  that   under  the  twenty-nintik 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD.  71" 

mlc  of  the  House  the  gentlemen  who  are  interested  in  the  result  of  this  question  may  be  permitted 
to  withdraw  their  votes.    If  it  be  proper  I  make  that  point  now. 
The  Speaker  : 

THAT  rOINT   CANNOT   BE   MADE 

durincr  a  roll-call,  as  the  gentleoian  from  Indiana  is  aware. 

Mr.  Holman:  Must  it  be  made  bef  re  tlie  roll-call  ? 

The  >pt!aki;r:  It  must;  it  cannot  be  made  while  the  roll-call  continues,  and  the  roll-call  con- 
tinues unt  1  the  Chair  aniumnces  the  result.  O; herwise  there  mi^ht  be  roll-calls  within  rail-calls^, 
the  yens  and  nays  heiiii^  ord-red  on  th  •■  questions  >i  rising  under  the  point  of  order. 

The  vote  was  tlu-n  announced  as  above  r.-c  rded. 

The  question  ncuned  on  th   motion  to  refer  to  the  Committee  on  the  Pacific  Railroad. 

Mr.  Wa-ihoiirnc,  of  Illinois,  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays. 

T  e  \eas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

Mr.  'Washburne,  of  Illinois:  1  ask  that  this  vote  shall  be  considered  as  a  test  vote  on  thia 
quistion.  Those  in  favor  of  the  resolution  will  vote- 
Mr.  Pric<':  1  call  the  gentleman  to  order. 

'I'lie  Speaker:  Debate  is  not  in  order. 

M  r.  Holman:  I  riow  rise  for  the  purpose  of  asking  the  clerk  to  read  the  twenty-ninth,  rule  of  the 
House. 

The  c'erk  read  as  follows: 

No  memher  slia  1  vote  on  any  question  in  the  event  of  which  he  is  immediately  and  particu- 
1  irly  interested,  or  in  any  case  wuere  he  was  not  within  the  bar  of  the  House  when  the  q^uestion 
w&A  put. 

Tiie  question  was  taken;  and  it  was  decided  in  the  affirmative— yeas  83,  nays  49,  not  voting 57. 

Among  the  yeas,  Messrs.  Auies,  Bingham,  Buutwell,  Dawes,  Dodge,  Eliot,  Hooper,  Twichell^ 
and  James  F.  Wilson. 

Among  the  nays,  Messrs.  Holman,  and  C.  C.  Washburn  and  E.  B.  Washburne. 

Not  voting,  Messrs.  Blaine,  Brooks,  Garfiehl,  and  Scofleld. 

So  the  resolution  was  referred  lo  the  Committee  on  the  Pacific  Railroad,  and  Mr.  W^ilson,  of 
Iowa,  moved  to  reconsider  and  lay  on  the  table;  which  was  done. 

WASHBURNE   STILL  MORE  FULLY   EXPOSES  THE   GREAT  FRAUD. 

The  resolution  to  regulate  frei«jht  and  passenger  tariff  on  the  Pacific  railroads 
having  been  refcired,  as  above  stated,  to  the  Committee  on  the  Pacific  Railroads, 
which  was  constituted  entirely  in  the  interest  of  these  corporations,  Mr.  E.  B. 
Wasliburne,  in  order  to  have  an  opportunity  to  more  fully  expose  the  character 
of  the  corporations  and  individuals  which  were  being  enriched  out  of  the  govern- 
ment subsidies,  called  up  a  motion,  submitted  on  the  26th  of  February  by  Mr. 
Washburne,  of  Wisconsin,  to  reconsider  the  vote  by  which  the  letter  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  relative  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  was  ordered  to 
be  printed.  This  gave  Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne  and  Mr.  C.  C.  Washburne  an  op>- 
portunity  to  speak.  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  reviewed  at  length  the  resolution 
of  1864,  quoting  liberally  from  a  speech  made  by  him  at  the  time  that  bill  was 
pending,  and  showing  under  what  circumstances  it  passed  the  House. 

He  said  : 

No  gentleman  who  was  here  at  that  time  will  ever  forget  the  extraordinary  scene  which  was 
presented.  Tlie  lobl)y  mustered  in  its  full  force.  I  saw  nothing  here  of  the  shameful  means  which 
It  is  alleged  were  used  in  a  confidential  way  to  carry  through  this  bill  ;  but  I  do  say  that  the  scene 
w.isoneof  the  most  exciting  and  animated  that  I  have  ever  witnessed,  in  a  service  of  nearly  16 
years,  Tne  galleries  were  packed  wih  people  interested  in  the  measure  ;  by  lobbyists,  male  and 
female  ;  by  shysters  and  and  advenuirers,  hoping  for  something  to  turn  up. 

Your  gilded  corridors  were  filled  with  lobbyi^t^  who  broke  through  the  rules  and  made  their 
way  u|)on  the  lloor  and  into  the  seats  of  membeis.  I  undertook  to  show  by  the  Senate  document, 
which  I  held  in  my  hand,  the  amount  of  the  liability  for  bonds  issued  and  interest  thereon,  after 
the  law  for  the  purpose  of  building  the  Pacific  Railroad,  would  be  $95,088,000,  but  which  document 
I  an  advised  somewhat  oversiates  the  amount  as  the  estimate  was  made  upon  a  greater  number  of 
miles  ihan  the  real  length  of  th«i  road.  In  my  speech  on  that  occasion  I  compared  the  riilFerent 
sections  of  the  original  law  of  1862  with  the  modification  proposed  by  the  Act  of  1864,  which  we 
were  then  consiaering. 

Mr.  Wai-hburne  then  proceeds  in  his  speech  to  quote  what  he  stated  in  1864; 
how  he  moved  to  strike  out  all  of  the  bill  of  1884,  that  part  which  subordinated 
government  liens,  and  made  its  bond  a  second  mortgage  in  the  property  of  the 
railroad.  He  quoted  the  yeas  and  nays  by  which  his  proposition  was  rejected. 
Thev  were  as  follows  : 

Yeas — .Messrs.  Ancona,  Arnold,  Bailey,  John  D.  Baldwin,  Boutwell,  Cobb,  Creswell,  Dawson 
Denison,  Kden.  Edgerton,  Farns.worth,  Hale,  Harding,  Harrington,  Herrick,  Holman,  William 
Johnson.  Orlando  Kellogg,  Kernan,  Law,  Marcy.  McDowell,  Morrison,  Nelson,  John  O'Neil,  Orth, 
Rogers,  Edward  ,  Scofieid,  Sloan,  Spalding,  Stiles,  Thayer,  Tracy,  Opson,  Elihu  B.  Wash- 

burne, and  Joseph  W.  White— 38. 


72  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEK    FRAUD. 

Nays — Messrs.  Allison,  Ames.  Anderson,  Ashley,  Baxter,  Beaman,  Blaine,  Blair,  Blow,  Boj'd, 
Brooks,  Broomall.  Ambrose  W.  Clark,  Cole,  Thomas  T.  Davis,  Dawes,  Deming,  Dixon,  Donnelly, 
Driggs,  Eckley,  Eldridge,  Eliot,  English,  Finck,  Gooch,  Griswold,  Benjamin  G.  Harris,  Higby, 
Hotchkiss,  Asahel  W.  Hnbbard,  John  H.  Hubbard,  Hnlbard,  Julian,  Kelley,  Francis  W.  Kellogg, 
Knapp,  Knox,  Le  Blond,  Littlejohn,  Long,  Longyear,  Marvin,  McBride,  McClurg,  Samuel  F.  Miiler, 
Morrill,  Daniel  Morris,  James  R  Morris,  Amos  Myers,  Leonard  Myers,  Noble,  Norton,  Charles 
O'Neil,  Perhara,  Pomerov,  Price,  Samuel  J.  Randall,  John  H.  Rice,  James  S.  Rollins,  Ross, 
Schenk,  Scott,  Shannon,  Smithers,  John  B.  Steele,  William  G.  Steele,  Stevens,  Stuart,  Sweat,  Van 
Valkenburgh,  Ward,  William  |5.  Washburn,  Webster,  Whaley.  Wheeler,  Williams,  Wilson,  Win- 
dom,  Winfield,  and  Benjamin  Wood  {Congressioioal  Globe,  vol.  53,  page  3,844). 

He  also  quoted  the  yeas  and  nays  on  the  passage  of  the  bill,  which  were  as 

follows : 

Yeas— Messrs.  Allison,  Ames,  Ashley,  Augustus  C.  Baldwin,  Beaman,  Blaine,  Blair,  Blow, 
Brandegee,  Brooks,  William  G.  Brown,  Ambrose  W.  Clark,  Coffroth,  Cole,  Creswell,  Thomas  T. 
Davis,  Dawes,  Deming,  Dixon,  Donnelly,  Eliot,  English,  Fenton,  Gakfield,  Griswold,  Hale,  Hig- 
by, Hooper,  Asahel  W.  Hubbard,  JohnH.  Hubbard,  Hulburd,  Jenckes,  Julian  Kalbfleisch,  Orlando 
Kellogg,  Knox,  Littlejohn,  Loan,  Longyear,  Marvin,  McBride,  McClurg,  Moorhead,  Morrill,  Mor- 
rison, Amos  Myers,  Noble,  Odell,  Charles  O'Neill,  Patterson,  l^erham,  Pomeroy,  Price,  John  H. 
Rice,  Ross,  Schenck,  Shannon,  Sloan,  Smithers,  John  B.  Steele,  William  G.  Steele,  Stevens, 
Stuart,  Sweat,  Thayer,  Upson,  Webster.  Wilson,  Windom,  and  Benjamin  Wood— 70. 

Nays— Messrs.  Ancona,  Bailey,  Bliss,  Boutwell,  Chandler,  Dawson,  Denison,  Eden,  Edgerton, 
Gooch,  Grider,  Harding,  Harrington,  Benjamin  G.  Harris,  Holman,  Philip  Johnson,  Kernan, 
Knapp,  Law,  Le  Blond,  Mallory,  Marcy.  McDowell,  McKinney,  John  O'Neill,  Orth,  Radford, 
Robinson,  Rogers,  Edward  H.  Rollins,  Scofield,  Styles,  Thomas,  Elihu  B.  Washburn,  William  B. 
Washburn,  Chilton  A.  White,  Joseph  W.  White,  and  Fernando  Wood— 38. 

WASHBCRNE  TELLS  WHO   VOTED   FOll  THE   ACT   OF   1864. 

Mr.  Wasburne  then  said  : 

The  members  of  the  present  Congress  who  voted  for  the  bill  were  as  follows  :  Allison  of  Iowa, 
Ames  of  Massachusetts,  Ashley  of  Ohio,  Baldwin  of  Massachusetts,  Beaman  of  Michigan,  Blaine 
of  Maine,  Brooks  of  New  York,  Dawes  of  Massachusetts.  Dixon  of  Rhode  Island,  Donnelly  of 
Minnesota,  Eliot  of  Massachusetts,  Garfield  of  Ohio,  Griswold  of  New  York,  Higby  of  California, 
Hooper  of  Massachusetts,  Hubbard  of  Iowa,  Jenckes  of  Rhdde  Island,  Julian  of  Indiana,  Loan  of 
Missouri,  Marvin  of  New  York,  McClurg  of  Missouri,  Moorhead  of  Pennsylvania,  O'Neill  of  Penn- 
«ylvania,  Perham  of  Maine,  Pomeroy  of  New  York,  Price  of  Iowa,  Ross  of  Illinois,  Schenck  of 
Ohio.  Stevens  of  Pennsylvania,  Upson  of  Michigan,  Wilson  of  Iowa,   and  Windom  of  Minnesota. 

Those  m  "mbers  of  the  present  Congress  who  voted  in  the  negative  were  as  follows  :  Boutwell 
of  Massachusetts,  Chanler  of  New  York,  Holman  of  Indiana,  Orth  of  Indiana,  Scofield  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Washburne  of  Illinois,  Washburn  of  Massachusetts,  and  Fernando  Wood  of  Now  York. 

The  bill  then  went  to  the  Senate  and  came  back  with  amendments,  upon  which  a  Committee  of 
Conference  was  ordered.  On  the  Ist  of  July  the  Committee  of  Conference  reported,  bringing  up 
such  new  matter  as  would,  in  my  opinion,  be  in  violation  of  every  rule  which  governs  Committees 
of  Conference  in  legislative  bodies.  Gentlemen,  by  turning  to  the  Globe,  volume  fifty-three,  page 
3480,  will  see  that  the  new  matter  so  introduced  covers  nearly  a  page  of  nonpareil.  And  this  re- 
port, changing  so  materially  the  bill  as  acted  upon  by  the  House  and  Senate,  was  gagged  through; 
the  opponents  of  the  measure  were  not  permitted  to  have  it  printed  and  postponed  so  that  they 
could  see  what  it  was.  I  struggled  in  vain  for  the  printing  of  the  report,  and  for  its  delay  until  the 
members  of  the  House  could  have  an  opportunity  of  reading  it;  but  the  gentleman  from  Penn- 
sylvania (Mr.  Stevens)  demanded  the  previous  question,  which  was  seconded  and  the  main 
question  ordered  to  be  put ;  and  it  would  seem  incredible  that  in  a  matter  of  legislation  involving 
interests  so  vast  and  pledging  amounts  of  money  so  enormous,  even  the  yeas  and  nays  were 
refused — that  even  tellers  were  refused.  I  read  from  the  proceedings  as  reported  in  the  Globe, 
volume  fifty-three,  page  3481  : 

"  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays ;  on  agreeing  to  the  report ;  and 
tellers  upon  the  yeas  and  nays. 

"  Tellers  were  not  ordered,  and  the  yeas  and  nays  were  not  ordered. 

"  Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois,  demanded  tellers  on  agreeing  to  the  report. 

"  Tellers  were  not  ordered. 

"  The  report  was  agreed  to." 

Thus  ends  the  story  of  the  action  of  the  House  touching  this  extraordinary  legislation,  which 
•will  go  into  the  history  of  the  country. 

FURTHER  DISCUSSION  IN   1868. 

On  March  12th,  1868,  the  Committee  on  Pacific  railroads  reported  back  a  sub- 
stitute for  Washburne's  resolution  which  had  been  referred  to  it  on  March  26th, 
1868.  This  substitute  provided  that  the  government  should  not  attempt  to 
regulate  the  freight  and  passenger  tariffs  on  the  Pacific  railroads  until  they  were 
completed,  and  provided  further  also  that  the  charges  for  freight  should  never 
be  reduced  below  8  cents  per  mile  for  freight  and  6  cents  per  mile  for  passengers. 

In  discussing  this  proviso  Mr.  Van  Wyck  of  New  York  said  : 

Now,  what  do  we  see  from  the  company's  report?  That  a  rpad eleven  hundred  miles  in  length, 
by  their  own  report,  is  to  be  built,  which  will  cost,  with  all  their  fabulous  prices  for  construction, 
$82,000,000.  That  is  the  cost  according  to  their  report.  And  then  they  show  what  they  have  to 
build  this  road  with.    They  have  of  the  United  States  bonds,  $'^9,000,000;  of  first  mortgage  bonds, 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIKR    FRAUD.  73 

$29,000,000;  of  capital  stock  paid  iu,  $8,000,000;  of  land  grants,  fourteen  millions  eight  hundred 
thousand  acres,  which  at  $1.50  per  acre,  amounts  to  $21,000,000,  making  in  all  $88,000,000. 

Now,  mark,  they  say  the  cost  of  eleven  hundred  miles  is  $82,000,000,  and  yet  they  have  $88,- 
000,000  to  build  it.  So  they  will  have  $6,000,000  more  in  their  treasury  when  the  road  is  com- 
pleted than  they  have  resources  to  build  it.  or  that  $88,000,000,  $8,000,000  is  money  which  they 
nave  put  in  their  hands  for  building  the  road;  so  that  when  it  is  linished  they  will  have  paid  out, 
according  to  their  own  figures,  only  $2,000,000  to  build  it. 

But  this  road  does  not  cost  $82,000,000.  Those  gentlemen  have  made  contracts  with  themselves, 
whereby  they  pay  double  the  amount  to  build  tiie  road  that  it  ought  to  cost.  They  have  contracted 
to  build  it  for  the  first  five  hundred  miles  at  $50,000  per  mile;  and  the  government  commissioners, 
who  certainly  are  not  unfriendly  to  these  parties,  in  speaking  of  this  matter,  dated  July  8,  1865, 
say: 

"  In  October,  1864,  when  we  assumed  the  duties  of  our  appointment,  we  found  that  in  the 
months  of  August  and  September  previous  a  contract  had  been  arranged  and  consummated  by  the 
executive  committee,  in  which  are  vested  the  powers  of  the  board  when  not  in  session,  for  the 
construction  and  equipment  of  the  first  one  hundred  miles  of  the  road  west  of  the  Missouri  river 
at  the  rate  of  $50,0tJ0  per  mile,  payable  $5,000  per  mile  in  the  stock  of  the  company,  and  the  bal- 
ance in  the  currency  bonds  of  the  government  and  the  securities  of  the  company.  From  the  first 
the  contract  price  appeared  to  us  to  be  very  high.  At  present,  with  the  probable  decline  in  the 
cost  of  labor  and  materials,  and  advance  in  the  value  of  government  bonds,  it  seems  extravagant." 

Another  commissioner  reports,  on  the  26th  of  August,  1865,  that  the  balance  of  the  five  hun- 
dred miles  could  be  built  at  a  small  cost  compared  with  the  rate  at  which  the  first  one  iiundred 
miles  were  contracted.  And  yet  $50,000  per  mile  has  been  paid  for  building  the  road,  which  could 
not  have  cost  over  $25,000. 

The  eastern  division,  a  more  expensive  road,  cost  less  than  $30,000  to  build  it.  The  Atchison 
branch  has  cost  less  than  that. 

MR.  VAK  WYCK  SAID  THAT    THE  CREDIT  MOBILIER  WAS   A  RING    TO    ROB  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT. 

These  men,  then,  do  not  go  outside  of  their  own  corporation  to  make  contracts.  They  have 
created  a  Credit  Mobilier.  They  have  created  a  ring  inside  the  corporation.  Look.  In  1864  there 
^  were  one  himdred  and  twenty-five  stockholders  in  this  Pacific  Railroad,  holding  two  thousand 
'  shares  of  stock.  In  January,  1866,  there  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  stockholders,  holding 
twenty-eight  thousand  shares  of  stock.  In  the  report  which  these  gentlemen  were  required  to 
make  they  named  the  stockholders  and  the  amount  of  stock  held.  In  the  last  report  the  number 
of  stockholders  had  dwindled  down  to  fifty-three,  and  they  do  not  state  the  number  of  shares  they 
own.  Only  fifty-three  stockholders,  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  owning  a  road  representing  $100,000,000 
of  capital !  It  takes  twenty  of  these  stockholders  to  make  a  directory,  so  that  you  have  thirty  out- 
side. Sir,  they  have  demonstrated  that  the  obstacles  iu  the  way  of  the  construction  of  this  road 
have  passed  away.  The  company  is  now  drawing  a  triple  subsidy  of  $96,000  a  mile  for  building 
what  was  said  to  be  the  most  "  diflScult  and  mountainous  "  part  of  the  road.  .  From  the  foot  of  the 
Black  Hills,  which  are  claimed  to  be  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  they  run  about  forty-five 
miles  and  then  strike  the  Laramie  plain  and  run  one  hundred  miles  almost  on  a  level,  and  on  these 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  they  are  receiving  the  triple  subsidy. 

Mr.  Johnson,  of  California:  The  Central  Pacific  division  of  that  great  road  is  now  charging 
the  people  of  the  State  of  Califoniia  fifteen  cents  a  mile  for  freight,  and  ten  cents  a  mile  tor  pas- 
sengers. 

Mr.  Washburne,  of  Illinois:   In  gold? 

Mr.  Johnson,  of  California:  In  gold.  The  net  proceeds  of  that  road,  which  is  about  ninety 
miles  in  length,  were  last  year  nearly  one  million  and  a  half  dollars.  In  a  very  short  time  that 
road,  like  a  mighty  vortex,  will  drink  up  all  the  wealth  of  our  new  and  growing  state.  Now,  Mr. 
Speaker,  if  there  is  any  honest  intention  on  the  part  of  this  House  to  protect  our  people  against 
this  oppression,  I  ask  that  the  demand  for  the  previous  question  be  voted  down,  and  allow  this 
amendment  to  be  made,  restricting  this  corporation,  and  not  leaving  them  the  latitude  of  the  four 
■winds. 

Mr.  Clarke,  of  Kansas:  A  tthe  moment  the  merchants  of  the  city  of  Topeka  are  transporting 
their  freight  by  oxen  and  horse  teams  to  the  city  of  Leavenworth— a  distance  of  forty-five  or  fifty 
miles— instead  of  sending  it  by  railroad 

END   OP  A  BRAVE  CONTEST   FOR  THE   RIGHT. 

After  further  debate  the  following  votes  were  taken.  May  12,  1868  (see  Globe,  vol.  67,  pp. 
^28-29). 

On  Mr.  Famsworth's  motion  to  recommit,  the  yeas  were  62,  nays  59,  not  voting  58. 

Among  the  yeas,  Messrs.  Ames,  BrooKs,  Dodge,  Eliot,  Hooper,  Kelly ,  Scofield,  and  Twichell. 

Among  the  nays,  Messrs.  Allison,  Biaiue,  Butler,  Garfield,  and  James  F.  Wilson. 

Among  those  not  voting,  Messrs.  Bingham,  Boutwell,  Dawes  and  C.  C.  Washburne. 

The  next  question  was  on  motion  to  amend  the  substitute  by  striking  out  the  proviso,  on  which, 
the  yeas  were  75,  nays  48,  not  voting  66. 

Among  the  yeas  were  Messrs.  Holman  and  E.  B.  Washburne. 

Among  the  nays.  Messrs.  Allison,  Ames,  Brooks,  Butler,  Dodge,  Eliot,  Garfield,  Hooper,  Sco- 
field, Twichell,  and  James  F.  Wilson. 

Among  those  not  voting,  Messrs.  Bingham.  Blaine,  Boutwell,  Dawes  and  Kelly. 

And  thereupon  a  further  amendment  was  adopted  and  the  substitute  for  the  resolution  passed 
without  division. 

It  went  to  the  Senate,  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  the  Pacific  RaUroad,  and  there  it  "slept 
the  sleep  that  knows  no  waking." 

Thu:^  was  begun,  prosecuted,  and  ended  one  of  the  bravest  contests  ever  made  for  the  rights  of 
the  people. 

THE  PROFITS  OF   THE   CREDIT  MOBILIER. 

Up  to  this  time  the  Credit  Mobilier  had  received  the  profits  in  the  construction 
of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  through  the  original  Hoxie  contract,  which  were 


74  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEK    FRAUD. 

$5,168,233.91.  Iii  addition  it  received  $1,104,000,  which  was  paid  to  the  concern 
under  resolution  of  January  5,  1867  {see  pages  6,  7  aiid  8,  Wilson  Report,  Credit 
Mohilier  Investigation).  Also  the  profits  from  the  Oakes  Ames  contract,  amount- 
ing to  $29,854,141.99. 

This  brings  us  to  November  1,  1868.  We  have  shown  from  the  Congressional 
Globe  that  General  Garfield  must  have  been  familiar  .at  this  time  with  the  true 
character  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  and  its  connection  with  the  construction  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad. 

On  November  1,  1868,  a  contract  was  made  with  James  W.  Davis  to  construct 

the  remainder  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  from  the  point  where  the  Oakes 

Ames  contract  left  off  to  the  junction  with  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad.     The 

report  of  the  Wilson  Credit  Mobilier  Committee  {see  Report  No.  78,  H.  R.,  43<f 

Congress,  ^d session,  pages  13  and  14)  says  of  the  Davis  contract: 

This  was  a  contract  made  with  J.  W.  Davis,  a  man  of  little,  if  any,  pecuniary  abilitjr  (and  not 
expected  to  perform  the  contract),  for  the  construction  of  that  part  of  the  road  beginning  at  the 
western  terminus  of  the  "Ames  contract"  and  extending  to  tlie  western  terminus  of  the  road,  a 
distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-iive  and  twenty-three  one  hundredtlis  miles.  It  was  upon 
the  same  terms  as  the  Ames  contract,  and  was  assigned  to  the  same  board  of  trustees. 
Under  it  the  remainder  of  the  road  was  constructed,  and  from  a  balance-sheet  taken 
from  the  boolis  of  the  railroad  company,  it  appears  that  the  cost  to  the  railroad 

company  was $23,431,768  10 

And  from  a  balance-sheet  taken  from  the  books  of  the  trustees,  that  the  cost  to  the 

contractor  was 15,629,633  6^ 

Your  committee  present  the  following  summary  of  the  cost  of  this  road  to  the  Railroad  Com- 
pany and  to  the  contractors,  as  appears  by  the  books: 

COST  TO  THE  RAILROAD  COMPANY. 

Hoxie  contract .  $12,974,416  24 

Ames  contract 57,140,102  94 

Davis  contract 23,431,768  10 

Total ' $93,546,287  28 

COST  TO  THE   CONTRACTORS. 

Hoxie  contract $7,806,188  33 

Ames  contract 27,285,141  99 

Davis  contract 15,629,633  62 

50,720,958  94 

$42,825,328  34 
To  this  should  be  added  amount  paid  Credit  Mobilier,  on  account  of  58  miles . .     1,104,000  00 

Total  profit  on  construction $43,925,328  34 

The  balance-sheets,  from  which  the  foregoing  results  have  been  obtained,  were  made  out  by 
Mr.  Crane  and  Mr.  Ham,  accountants  familiar  with  the  books  and  with  most  of  the  transactions. 
Your  committee  have  earnestly  endeavored  to  get  the  exact  cost  of  the  road  to  the  company  and 
to  the  contractors,  and  If  they  have  failed  it  is  because  those  who  should  know  and  have  had  the 
opportunity  to  inform  the  committee  have  failed  to  give  the  information.  The  books  have  been 
kept  in  such  a  way,  and  the  transactions  have  been  of  such  a  character,  as  that  their  true  nature: 
has  been  very  much  disguised. 

THE  RING  COMES  TO  CONGRESS  AGAIN    FOR  PROTECTION. 

It  was  known  to  everybody  in  the  country  who  took  any  interest  in  these 
matters,  and  as  we  have  shown,  to  every  member  of  Congress,  Gen.  Garfield  in- 
cluded, that  the  men  interested  in  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  were  making 
enormous  profits  by  building  it  through  the  medium  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  of 
America.  The  notorious  Jim  Fisk  and  his  associate  Jay  Gould,  had  obtained 
some  sort  of  an  interest  in  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  and  wanted  to  force  them- 
selves into  the  Oakes  Ames  ring.  They  began  proceedings  in  the  New  York 
courts,  and  Judge  Barnard  issued  various  injunctions  and  restraining  orders  to 
compel  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  and  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America 
to  state  accounts,  and  all  interested  with  Ames  were  dreadfully  frightened. 
Nothing  could  save  them  from  a  frightful  exposure  but  Congressional  legislation. 
Accordingly  they  came  to  Congress  for  relief.  It  was  natural  that  they  should 
come  there,  for  Ames,  as  he  had  said  in  his  letter  to  McComb,  had  placed  the 
stock  of  the  Credit  Mobilier,  "where  it  will  produce  most  good  to  us,  IthinkJ" 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD.  75 

On  March  15th,  1869,  Mr.  Bingham,  of  Ohio,  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee and  one  of  the  members  of  the  House  to  whom  Ames  had  given  Credit 
Mobilier  stock,  asked  unanimous  consent  to  introduce  the  following  joint  resolu- 
tion: 

Joint  resolution  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the  United  States  in  the  Union  Pacific  Bail- 
road  Company  and  for  other  purposes. 

Whereas,  the  proceedings  of  the  regular  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  convened  in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the  lOlh  day  of  March,  1863. 
were  interrupted  by  an  ex-parte  injunction,  issued  by  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state 
of  New  York,  before  the  business  of  said  meeting  was  concluded  and  before  the  time  for  closing, 
its  proceedings ;  and 

Whereas  The  government  of  the  United  States  is  largely  interested  in  the  proper  management, 
of  the  affairs  of  said  company,  and  in  a  strict  observance  and  proper  administration  of  the  laws, 
organizing  and  governing  the  same  ;  and 

Whereas,  Important  legal  questions  may  arise  as  to  the  validity  of  the  acts  of  the  meeting 
interrupted  as  aforesaid  ;  therefore 

Be  IT  Resolved,  Bij  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  in  Congress 
Assembled,  That  the  said  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  said  company  mentioned  in  the  preamble 
of  this  resolution,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  declared  to  have  been  lawfully  convened  and  organ- 
ized, and  that  the  resolution  adjourning  the  same,  to  meet  in  the  city  of  Washington,  on  Thursday, 
the  10th  day  of  March,  18G9,  and  fixing  the  city  of  Boston  as  the  place  for  holding  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  stockholders,  for  the  year  1870,  be  and  the  same  is  hereby  declared  valid,  and  of 
full  legal  force  ;  and  the  said  stockholders  who  convene  in  said  adjourned  meeting,  in  the  city  of 
Washington  as  aforesaid,  or  in  any  adjourned  meeting  thereto  to  be  held  within  one  month  at 
Washington  or  Boston,  are  hereby  required  to  elect  a  Board  of  Directors  for  said  Company  for 
this  year,  and  after  their  successors  shall  have  been  elected  and  qualified,  they  may  then  transact 
snch  other  business  as  they  are  required  to  do,  or  may  lawfully  do  ;  and  every  stockholder  at  such 
meeting  shall  be  entitled  in  person,  or  by  proxy,  to  cast  one  vote  for  each  share  of  stock  lawfully 
held  by  him  and  standing  in  his  name  on  the  books  of  the  company  on  the  first  day  of  March, 
1869  ;  and  in  all  proxies  given  to  be  used  at  the  said  meeting  of  the  tenth  of  March,  1869  ;  which 
were  given  on  or  since  the  first  day  of  September,  1868,  and  none  other  shall  be  good  and  valid 
at  the  adjourned  meeting  to  be  held  on  the  18th  day  of  March,  1869,  and  at  any  adjourned  meeting 
thereof,  and  may  be  used  thereat  with  the  same  effect  as  they  could  have  been  used  at  the  meeting 
of  the  10th  of  March,  1869  ;  but  nothing  in  this  resolution  shall  be  construed  to  effect  or  limit 
the  right  of  any  stockholder  who  has  given  any  proxy  to  vote  his  stock  in  person,  or  his  right  to 
revoke  his  proxy,  by  giving  one  of  a  later  date,  or  otherwise  ;  but  the  right  of  any  stockholder  then 
to  vote  for  himself,  or  to  so  revoke  his  proxy  previously  given,  is  hereby  fully  confirmed  and 
established. 

Provided  further,  That  on  the  election  of  the  directors  herein  provided  for,  the  term  of  office 
of  all  persons  then  acting  or  claiming  the  right  to  act  as  directors  pf  the  said  company,  except  the 
government  directors,  shall  cease  and  terminate. 

And  provided  further.  That  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company 
shall  have  power,  whenever  in  their  judgment  the  interests  of  the  company  or  of  the  government 
of  the  United  States  may  require  it,  to  remove  the  general  office  of  said  company  and  all  the  books, 
papers  and  effects  from  the  city  of  New  York  to  either  of  the  cities  of  Boston,  Philadelphia, 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,  St,  Louis,  Council  Bluffs,  or  Omaha,  and  in  no  manner  shall  a  free  exercise  of 
said  judgment  to  remove  be  restrained  : 

Provided  further,  That  no  court,  other  than  the  United  States  Circuit  or  District  Court, 
shall  have  power  or  jurisdiction  to  enjoin  any  of  the  acts  in  this  resolution,  authorize  or  appoint  a 
receiver  for  or  on  account  of  any  of  the  rights,  property,  assets,  and  effects  or  interests  of  the 
said  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  in  any  case  in  which  the  defense  rests  on  the  constitution  or 
any  law  or  treaty  of  the  United  States  ;  and  all  actions  in  any  court,  so  far  as  in  conflict  with  this 
clause  of  the  resolution,  shall,  upon  the  application  of  the  said  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  or 
any  person  interested  therein  as  a  bona  fide  stockholder,  be  removed  to  the  United  States  District 
or  Circuit  Court  having  jurisdiction  in  the  district  within  which  said  action  or  actions  may  arise, 
which  said  application  to  remove  may  be  made  directly  to  said  United  States  District  or  Circuit 
Court,  and  the  joining  of  other  parties  to  the  said  company  shall  not  affect  the  right  of  said  Com- 
pany to  remove  such  application  or  its  right  to  have  such  cause  or  causes  removed  as  aforesaid. 

And  provided  further.  That  the  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the  said  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  Company,  after  the  meeting  provided  for,  as  aforesaid,  to  be  held  in  the  city  of  Boston  in 
the  year  1870,  may  be  held  either  in  the  cities  of  Bo>ton,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  Washington^ 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,  Omaha,  or  St,  Louis,  as  may  be  determined  by  the  said  stockholders  at  tb» 
next  preceding  annual  meeting. 


*IQ  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD. 

HOW   THE    RING    WAS   PROTECTED. 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  joint  resolution,  among  other  things,  legalized  the 
proceedings  of  the  director's  meeting  at  New  York,  which  had  been  broken  up 
by  an  injunction  issued  by  Judge  Barnard,  restraining  the  officers  and  directors  of 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  from  holding  such  a  meeting.  It  will  also 
be  observed  that  it  was  provided  that  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  directors 
might  be  held  in  the  city  of  Washington,  which,  under  the  charter  of  the  rail- 
road company,  would  not  have  been  possible  without  this  special  legislation.  It 
will  also  be  further  observed  that  this  resolution  in  effect  placed  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  corporation  on  wheels,  and  allowed  it  to  be  run  about  the  coun- 
try as  Oakes  Ames  and  the  principal  managers  of  it  might  deem  expedient,  in 
order  to  avoid  legal  process  issued  on  the  petition  of  bona  fide  stockholders 
whom  they  were  defrauding  through  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America.  At  this 
very  time  the  officers  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  and  of  the  Credit 
Mobilier  of  America  were  hiding  in  out-of-the-way  places  to  avoid  legal  process. 
The  books  of  these  two  companies  had  been  in  defiance  of  the  restraining  order 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state  of  New  York,  abstracted  from  the  company's 
offices  and  carried  first  to  New  Jersey,  thence  to  Philadelphia,  and  subsequently 
to  the  city  of  Boston.  Moreover,  as  was  proven  in  the  two  investigations  or- 
dered by  the  House  of  Representatives  at  the  third  session  of  the  Forty-second 
Congress,  some  of  the  most  important  books  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  Company 
were  lost  or  pretended  to  be  lost  during  the  time  they  were  being  carried  about 
the  country,  and  to  this  day  the  officers  of  this  company  aver  that  they  do  not 
know  of  their  whereabouts  ;  and  still  further  during  this  time  $500,000  belong- 
ing to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company,  part  of  them  being  the  bonds 
indorsed  by  the  government,  and  the  balance  the  first  mortgage  bonds  of  the 
railroad  company,  were  lost  and  have  never  been  accounted  for,  although  it  has 
been  shown  by  competent  testimony  that  the  interest  on  a  portion  of  these  bonds 
is  regularly  drawn  by  some  of  the  officers  of  the  railroad  company. 

When  the  resolution  above  quoted  had  been  read  in  the  house  on  March  15,  1869 — 
Mr.  Axtell  of  California  said  :  I  object  to  tlie  consideration  of  the  joint  resolution. 
Mr.  Bingham  :  I  move  to  suspend  the  rules  in  order  to  introduce  the  joint  resolution. 
Mr.  Wood  :  Mr.  Speaker,  I  doubt  whether  the  House  understands  this  resolution. 
Mr.  Bingham  :  I  object  to  debate. 

The  question  being  put  on  suspending  the  rules  there  were— ayes  90  ;  nays  47. 
Mr.  Bingham  :  I  call  for  tellers. 

Tellers  were  ordered,  and  Messrs.  Bingham  and  Axtell  were  appointed. 
The  House  divided  and  the  tellers  reported— ayes  96  ;  nays  28. 
So,  two-thirds  having  voted  in  favor  thereof,  the  rules  were  suspended. 

The  joint  resolution  (H.  R.  No.  6).  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the  United  States  in 
the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  and  for  other  purposes,  was  read  a  first  and  second  time,  was  ordered 
to  be  engrossed  and  read  a  third  time,  and  being  engrossed  it  was  accordingly  read  a  third  time. 
Mr.  Bino:ham  :  I  demand  the  previous  question  on  the  passage. 

Mr  Wood  :  Is  it  now  in  order  to  refer  the  resolution  to  the  Committee  on  the  Pacific  Railroads  ? 
The  Speaker  :  It  is  not.    If  the  previous  question  is  not  sustained,  the  Chair  will  then  entertain 
that  motion. 
The  previous  question  was  seconded  and  the  main  question  ordered. 
Mr.  Wood  :  I  demand  the  yeas  and  nays. 
The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

The  question  was  taken  and  decided  in  the  affirmative.    Yeas  99,  nays  32  ;  not  voting  66. 
Among  those  who  voted  in  the  affirmative,  were,  Ames,  Banks,  Bingham,  Dawes,  Garfield,  Kelly, 
and  Scolield. 

THE   CREDIT  MOBILIER   IN   THE   SENATE. 

'  The  resolution  having  passed  the  House,  it  went  to  the  Senate.  When  it  came 
up  there  for  debate,  Mr.  Stewart  of  Nevada,  in  the  course  of  a  remarkable  speech 
said  : 

Mr.  President :  This  extraordinary  measure  must  have  emanated  from  some  extraordinary 
set  of  facts.  Here  is  a  great  corporation,  in  the  first  place,  asking  Congress  to  place  it  on  wheels— 
to  send  it  all  over  the  country.  In  the  next  place,  it  asks  Congress  to  exempt  it  from  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  courts,  and  confer  upon  it  special  privileges.  If  there  is  anything  clear  in  law,  if  there 
is  any  rule  of  law  that  has  been  determined  since  the  foundation  of  the  government,  it  is  that  a 


THE  CREDIT  MOBTOER  FRAUD.  ^    77 

corporation,  no  matter  whether  the  government  holds  stock  in  it  or  not,  is  subject  to  all  the  inci- 
dents of  every  other  corporation.  It  was  claimed  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  Bank,  that 
because  the  government  of  the  United  States  was  the  largest  stockholder,  it  could  be  taken  out  of 
the  state  courts  ;  that  it  could  be  endowed  with  certain  extraordinary  privileges  ;  but  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  took  hold  of  that  question  and  laid  down  the  law  in  a  manner  that  has  never  been  doubted 
until  now. 

By  this  resolution  the  House  of  Representatives  proposes  to  endow  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 
with  rights  above  all  the  laws  of  the  states,  and  not  only  that,  but  to  allow  it  to  travel  all  over  the 
United  States  ;  to  give  it  a  roving  mission  and  to  liberate  it  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  state 
courts.  If  the  government  of  the  United  States  can  establish  such  a  corporation  for  one  purpose 
they  can  for  all  purposes,  and  you  have  no  United  States  at  all.  The  power  exists  in  the  general 
government  to  carry  on  everything  by  one  corporation  if  this  resolution  be  constitutional. 

EXTRAORDINARY  LEGISLATION  FOR  THE  BENEFIT   OF  THE  UNION  PACIFIC   ROAD. 

Why  are  we  called  upon  for  this  extraordinary  legislation  ?  Since  the  formation  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  Company  we  have  given  it  some  legislation  in  this  direction.  We  passed  a  joint 
resolution  when  they  had  another  electioir  up.  The  Union  Pacific  Road  got  into  difficulty  in  1867, 
and  they  came  to  Congress  for  relief  and  Congress  passed  this  resolution. 

"^  Be  it  resolved,  etc.,  That  the  time  of  holding  the  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company  for  the  choice  or  directors  is  hereby  changed  from  the  first  Wed- 
nesday in  October  to  the  first  Wednesday  after  the  fourth  day  of  March,  and  the  stockholders  are 
authorized  to  determine  the  place  at  which  such  annual  meeting  shall  be  held  at  the  last  annual 
meeting  of  the  stockholders'  meeting  preceding  such  annual  meeting  :  Provided  the  same  shall  be 
held  in  either  of  the  cities  of  New  York,  Washington,  Boston,  Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati, 
Chicago,  or  St.  Louis  ;  and  provided  further  that  on  the  election  of  directors  herein  provided  for  to 
take  place  m  March,  A.  D.  1868,  the  terms  of  office  of  all  persons  then  acting  or  claiming  the  right 
to  act  as  directors  of  said  company  shall  cease  and  terminate." 

(This  is  the  same  resolution  that  Mr.  Dawes  passed  through  the  House  of 
Representatives,  16th  of  December,  1867,  the  proceedings  in  regard  to  which  have 
heretofore  been  given). 

Mr.  Stewart  further  called  attention  to  a  remarkable  act  of  Congress  which  was 
passed  in  July,  1868,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Ring.  This  was 
the  time  their  first  litigation  began  in  New  York, 

SENATOR  STEWART  TELLS  ALL  ABOUT   CREDIT   MOBILIER, 

Mr.  Stewart  said :  They  got  into  law  suits  and  then  came  to  Congress  in  July,  1868,  and  said 
somebody  was  going  to  eat  them  up  directly  unless  they  could  get  a  law  passed  to  take  them  out  of 
these  horrid  state  courts  ;  and  in  the  last  days  of  the  session  of  Congress  did  actually  pass  the 
following  very  remarkable  law,  the  constitutionality  of  which  is  very  doubtful  : 

"  That  any  corporation  or  member  therof,  other  than  a  banking  corporation  organized  under  a 
law  of  the  UniLed  States  and  against  which  a  suit  at  law  or  equity  has  been  or  may  be  commenced 
in  any  court  other  than  a  Circuit  or  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  any  liability  or 
alleged  liability  of  such  corporation,  or  any  member  thereof,  as  such  member,  may  have  such  suit 
removed  from  the  court  in  which  it  may  be  pending  to  the  Circuit  or  District  Court  of  the  United 
States,  upon  filing  a  petition  therefor,  certifying  by  oath  either  before  or  after  issue  joined,  stating 
that  they  have  a  defense  arising  under  or  by  virtue  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  of 
any  treaty  or  law  of  the  United'States,  and  srivinggood  and  sufficient  surety  for  entering  in  any  such 
court.  On  the  first  day  of  its  session  copies  of  all  proceedings,  pleadings,  depositions,  testimony 
and  other  proceedings  in  said  suit  shall  be  entered,  and  doing  such  other  proper  acts  as  are  required 
to  be  done  by  the  act  entitled  '  An  act  for  the  removal  of  causes  in  certain  cases  from  state  courts, 
approved  July  27,  1866,'  and  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  Court  to  accept  the  surety  and  proceed  no 
further  in  the  suit ;  and  the  said  copies  being  entered,  as  aforesaid,  m  such  court  of  the  United 
States,  the  suit  shall  then  proceed  in  the  same  manner  as  if  it  had  been  brought  there  by  original 
process;  and  all  the  provisions  of  said  act  in  this  section  referred  to  respecting  any  bill,  attach- 
ment, delay,  injunction,  or  other  restraining  process,  and  respecting  any  bonds  of  indemnity  of 
other  allegations  given  upon  the  issue  or  granting  of  any  attachment,  injunction  or  other  restrain- 
ing process,  shaU  apply  with  like  force  and  effect  in  all  respects  to  similar  matter,  process  or 
things,  in  the  suits  for  the  removal  of  each,  which  the  act  provides." 

A  REMARKABLE  DOCUMENT — MORE  REVELATIONS. 

This  was  passed  at  the  instance  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  Now, 
why  are  they  in  these  difficulties  ?  I  have  in  my  hand  a  paper  which  will  illustrate  the  beginning 
of  this  trouble.  As  they  are  calling  upon  Congress  for  this  extraordinary  legislation,  I  desire  to 
have  this  paper  read,  and  I  wish  to  call  special  attention  to  this  document,  for  I  do  believe  that  in 
this  controversy  the  dignity  and  honor  of  Cougress  aSd  of  the  country  are  more  or  less  involved. 
I  ask  for  the  reading  of  the  document,  which  I  send  to  the  Chair. 

This  document,  which  was  read  by  the  clerk  at  Mr.  Stewart's  instance,  was  the 
agreement  made  on  the  16th  day  of  October,  1867,  between  the  seven  trustees 
under  the  Oakes  Ames  contract,  by  which  these  men,  who  held  a  majority  of  the 
stock  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  pledged  themselves  to  protect  their  mutual 
interests  in  this  contract  by  voting  at  each  annual  stockholder's  meeting  the  direc- 
tors who  were  then  holding  office,  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  interference 
with  the  Oakes  Ames  contract,  the  profits  of  which  were  to  be  shared  pro  rata 
with  these  seven  trustees,  according  to  their  respective  interests. 


78  THE    CREDIT    MOBILIEK    FRAUD. 

After  tlie  reading  of  this  documeat  Mr.  Stewart  went  on  to  say,  that  he  had 
^also  a  paper  purporting  to  be  a  bill  in  equity,  filed  by  James  Fisk  against  the 
officers  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  setting  forth  that  there  is  a  conspiracy 
between  a  certain  body  of  people  styled  the  Credit  Mobilier,  a  ring  consisting  of 
the  members  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company ;  that  these  men  have  reaped 
immense  profits  from  this  arrangement,  to  the  injury  of  other  stockholders  who 
were  not  in  the  ring;  that  some  thirty  millions  of  dollars  have  been  obtained  and- 
divided  in  this  way. 

In  commenting  upon  this  Mr.  Stewart  said  : 

^^  I  have  heard  it  stated  that  leadin.'j  mcnbers  of  the  Committee  on  Pacific  Railroads  in  the  House 
^ere  not  only  in  the  Union  Pacific,  but  in  this  identical  Credit  Mobilif^-r,' and  were  the  recipients  of 
enormous  dividends,  and  I  have  not  heard  it  denied.  It  is  farther  statu  I,  t  hit  for  that  venj 
reasonthe  thing  would  never  be  investigated ;  and  it  is  said  you  want  to  lakc  it  out  'of  the  courts, 
you  want  to  stifle  investisatioa  everywhere.  Are  we  prepare  I  to  place  Congress  in  that  situation, 
if  there  is  anything  wrong  about  this  matter.  (^See  Congressional  Globe,  first  session,  Forty-first 
Congress,  pp.  303,  305.) 

The  next  day,  when  the  resolution  was  again  under  consideration,  Mr.  Stewart 
said  that  he  had  called  attention  to  some  singular  and  rather  remarkable  paper 
connected  with  the  Credit  Mobilier,  and  a  memorandum  of  agreement  with  cer- 
tain stockholders  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company.  Since  then  he  had 
looked  farther  into  the  subject,  and  he  had  some  more  revelations  to  make  to  the 
Senate.  He  then  read  the  title  of  JNIr.  McComb's  bill  in  equity  against  the  Credit 
Mobilier,  and  also  some  extracts  from  the  body  of  the  bill  itself.  lie  called  par- 
ticular attention  to  the  fact  that  Ames  was  charged  with  having  348  shares  as  a 
secret  trust  for  persons  whose  names  do  not  appear  on  the  books  of  thecompan-, 
and  the  allegation  that  he  was  distributing  the  dividends  among  unknown 
parties.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  scandal  of  the  Credit  Mobilitr  and  Oakes 
Ames'  distribution  of  the  stock  of  the  same  among  members  of  Congress  was, 
as  far  back  as  1869,  gravely  discussed  in  Congress. 

WHAT    THE    FACTS  PROVE  AGAINST   GARFIELD. 

The  foregoing  facts,  compiled  from  the  official  record,  establish  beyond  per- 
adventure,  in  regard  to  Gen.  Garfield,  the  following  points: 

First.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  when  the  Act  of  1864 
was  passed.  The  character  of  that  legislation  was  thoroughly  exposed  in  the 
House  by  Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne  of  Illinois,  Mr.  Holman  of  Indiana,  and  other 
gentlemen.     Gen.  Garfield  knew  what  he  was  voting  for. 

Second.  Prior  to  January  30,  1868,  he  had  contracted  with  Oakes  Ames  for  10 
shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock.  This  is  proved  by  Ames'  letter  to  McComb,  of 
that  date. 

Third.  On  December  9,  1867,  a  joint  resolution  was  introduced  in  the  House  to 
create  a  government  commission  with  power  to  regulate  the  freight  and  passen- 
ger tariffs  of  the  Pacific  railroads.  It  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Pacific 
Railroads,  and  never  reported  to  the  House.  On  January  20,  1808,  IMr.  Windom 
reintroduced  this  resolution,  audit  was  debated  then,  and  on  March  13,  20,  25,  21), 
and  May  13,  1868.  This  debate  fully  elucidated  the  relations  of  the  Credit  Mobil- 
ier of  America  to  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad.  On  every  test  voto  in  ihe  Ilou.se 
upon  this  resolution,  Gen,  Garfleld  is  shown,  by  the  Congressional  Olobe,  to  have 
either  dodged  the  issue  or  squarely  voted  for  the  corrupt  corporation. 

Fourth.  On  March  15,  1809,  after  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America  had  received 
the  profits  from  the  Hoxie  and  the  Oakes  Ames  contracts,  amounting  to  $6,273,- 
233.91,  and  was  in  process  of  receiving  the  profits  of  the  Davis  contract,  which 
amounted  to  $39,854,141.99,  the  joint  rosolufion  introduced  by  Mr.  Bingliam,  of 
Ohio,  was  debated  and  its  purpose  shown.     The  record  proves  that  Gen.  Garfield 


THE    CREDIT    MOBILIER    FRAUD.  79 

Toted  for  this  resolution,  which  was  intended  for  tlie  protection  of  the  men  who 
were  enjoying  the  enormous  profits  realized  in  the  construction  of  the  Union 
Pacific  Railroad  through  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America. 

Fifth.  The  evidence  of  Oakes  Ames,  corroborated  by  that  of  John  B.  Alley, 
proves  that  Gen.  Garfield  was  one  of  the  beneficiaries  of  the  Credit  Mobilier 
fraud;  that  Judge  Black,  his  intimate  friend,  said  to  Alley,  that  "he  should  be 
very  sorry  to  expose  Mr.  Garfield,  Avho  was  a  particular  friend  of  his." 

Sixth.  That  when  Gen.  Garfield  testified  before  the  Poland  Committee,  January 
13,  1872,  that,  "  1  never  owned,  received,  or  agreed  to  receive  any  stock  of  the  Credit 
Mobilier,  or  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  nor  any  dividends  or  profits  arising  from 
eitlier  of  them,''  he  committed  perjury. 

Seventh.  That  the  unanimous  report  of  the  Congressional  Committee,  made  by 
Luke  P.  Poland  of  Vermont,  N.  P.  Banks  of  Massachusetts,  G.  W.  McCreary  of 
Iowa,  W.  E.  Niblack  of  Indiana,  and  W.  M.  Merrick  of  Maryland,  proves  that 
Gen.  Garfield  was  a  perjurer.  Of- Gen.  Garfield's  connection  with  the  Credit 
Mobilier  this  report  says : 

The  facts  in  regard  to  Mr.  Garfield,  asfmind  by  the  committee,  are  that  he  agreed  with  Mr.  Am£s 
to  take  ten  shares  of  Credit  Mobilier  stock,  but  did  not  pay  for  the  same.  Mr.  Aw£S  received  the 
eighty  per  cent,  dividend  in  bonds  and  sold  them  for  ninety-seven  ])er  cent.,  and  also  received  the 
sixty  per  cent,  rash  dividend,  ■which,  together  with  the  price  of  the  stock  and  interest,  left  a  balance 
of  ^329.  This  sum  was  paid  over  to  Mr.  Oarfield  by  a  check  on  tlie  Sergeant-at-Arms,  and  Mr. 
Garfield  then  understood  this  sum  %vas  the  balance  of  dividends  after  paying  for  the  stock. 

The  New  York  Tribune  commenting  January  28,  1873,  on  the  position  in  which 
Garfield  was  left  by  Oakes  Ames'  testimony  said: 

To  accept  from  the  Credit  Mobilier  valuable  allotment  of  shares  at  a  merely  nominal  price  ; 
to  lie  and  shuffle  and  prevaricate  about  the  transaction;  to  concert  with  a  witness  the  manufacture 
of  false  testimony;  to  testify  falsely  under  oath.  These  are  offenses  which  should  ruin  not  only 
those  who-commit,  but  those  who  apologize  for  them. 

Again  the  Tribune,  February  19,  1873,  says: 

James  A.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  had  ten  shares,  never  paid  a  dollar,  received  $329,  which  after  the 
investigation  began,  he  was  anxious  to  liave  considered  as  a  loan  from  Mr.  Ames  to  himself. 

The  New  York  Times,  February  19,  1873,  says; 

We  do  not  agree  with  the  committee  in  its  lenient  assumption  that  such  knowledge  was  not 
possessed  by  the  Congressmen  who  purchased  the  stock.  If  they  did  not  know  its  character  they 
must  have  been  curiously  deaf  and  blind  as  to  what  was  going  on  about  them.         *  *         * 

Of  the  members  thus  referred  to  Messrs.  Kelly  and  GARFIELD  present  a  most  distressing  figure. 

The  Cincinnati  Commercial,  February  3,  1873,  said : 

The  member  (of  Congress),  who  had  ten  or  twentjr  shares  to  his  credit,  was  not  called  upon  to 
invest  his  own  money,  as  his  stock  more  than  paid  for  itself.  In  plain  words  and'  putting  aside  the 
flimsy  pretense  of  a  business  transaction,  it  was  a  division  of  spoils  taken  from  the  munificence 
of  the  people.  No  member  of  Congress  could  have  been  so  absolutely  ignorant  as  not  to  know  that 
such  enormous  profits  were  not  legitimate  earnings. 

The  New  York  Independent,  the  leading  religious  paper  in  the  United  States,  ia 
1874,  said  of  General  Garfield: 

We  cannot  forget  tliat  he  was  more  deeply  involved  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  diflSculty  than  any 
other  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  excepting  of  course  Ames  and  Brooks. 


80  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    KING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 


THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA  MM  AND 
THE  DE  GOLYER  BRIBE. 


Gen.  Garfield  was  the  friend  of  the  District  of  Columbia  Ring.  He  was 
owned  by  that  combination  of  public  plunderers.  He  was  the  most  influential 
friend  they  had  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  As  Chairman  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  Appropriations  he  was  the  leader  of  the  House.  In  the  spring  of  1872,  by 
its  profligate  waste  of  money,  the  Ring  was  getting  into  deep  water.  The  only 
salvation  of  Boss  Shepherd  and  his  associates  was  to  obtain  large  appropriations 
from  Congress.  There  was  obstinate  opposition  to  the  Board  of  Public  Works 
on  the  part  of  a  respectable  number  of  the  citizens  of  the  District.  In  the  win- 
ter of  1871-2  a  Congressional  investigation  was  instituted,  which,  although  con- 
trolled by  the  friends  of  the  Ring,  had  developed  damaging  facts.  It  was  neces- 
sary for  the  safety  of  every  member  of  the  Ring  to  have  in  the  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations  a  staunch  friend.  The  opportunity  offered.  Shep- 
herd was  a  shrewd  man.  He  knew  Gen.  Garfield's  value.  DeGolyer  &  Mc- 
Clellan,  a  firm  of  Chicago  contractors,  sent  to  Washington  early  in  the  spring  of 
1872  George  R.  Chittenden,  to  procure  a  contract  for  them  from  the  Board  of 
Public  Works.  They  controlled  a  patent  for  wood  pavement.  It  had  been  tried 
in  Chicago  and  found  to  be  worthless.  A  commission  of  eminent  men,  appointed 
by  the  District  government,  had  just  previous  to  the  advent  of  Chittenden  pro- 
nounced against  all  wood  pavements.  This  did  not  discourage  the  persistent 
agent  of  DeGolyer  &  McClellan.  He  felt  the  ground  and  returned  to  Chicago 
and  told  his  principals  that  he  wanted  $100,000.  They  agreed  to  furnish  it.  He 
came  back  to  Washington.  He  secured  the  services  of  Henry  D.  Cooke,  the 
Governor  of  the  District,  through  a  Rev.  William  Calvin  Brown.  His  main  ob- 
ject, however,  was  to  reach  Gen.  Garfield,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations.  For  this  purpose  he  employed  Col.  Richard  C.  Parsons,  of 
Ohio.  He  agreed  to  pay  Parsons  $15,000  if  he  reached  Garfield,  and  through 
him  obtained  a  contract.  When  he  was  assured  by  Parsons  that  Garfield  was 
retained  he  wrote  to  DeGolyer  &  McClellan  a  jubilant  letter. 

The  influence  of  Gen.  Garfield,  he  said,  has  been  secured  by  yesterday's,  last  night's  and  to-day's 
labors.  He  carries  the  purse  of  the  United  States,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropria- 
tions, and  is  the  strongest  man  in  Congress;  and,  with  him  our  friend,  my  demand  is  to-day  not 
less  than  a  hundred  thousand  more— two  hundred  thousand  in  all.  Everything  is  in  the  best 
shape  ;  the  connections  complete. 

***  **  ********* 

I  can  hardly  realize  that  we  have  Gen.  Garfield.    It  is  rare,  and  very  gratifying.    All  the  appro- 
priations of  the  District  come  through  him. 

For  the  service  which  Gen.  Garfield  rendered  he  was  paid  |o,000.  He  claims 
that  it  was  not  a  bribe;'  Let  any  impartial  man  read  carefully  the  history  of  the 
District  Ring  and  the  services  which  Gen.  Garfield  rendered  it,  and  say  on  his  honor 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  81 

that  he  believes  he  was  paid  this  money  save  for  his  influence,  or  that  he  earned 
it  by  any  other  way  than  the  exercise  of  his  influence  with  Boss  Shepherd. 

THE   HISTORY   OP   THE   DISTRICT   RING. 

The  District  of  Columbia  Ring  in  the  zenith  of  its  power  was  the  most  per- 
fectly organized,  the  strongest  entrenched  corrupt  combination  this  country  ever 
saw.  It  not  only  included  all  the  corrupt  men  in  Congress,  but  all  the  principal 
representatives  of  the  great  rings  in  the  country  were  either  directly  interested 
or  were  anxious  to  secure  the  assistance  and  friendship  of  its  leaders.  It  was 
primarily  the  conception  of  a  few  unscrupulous  plotters  in  1870-1.  The  flood- 
tide  of  apparent  prosperity  which  set  in  at  the  close  of  the  civil  war  had,  at  this 
period,  reached  its  greatest  height.  It  was  an  era  of  gigantic  undertakings,  stu- 
pendous jobs  and  wholesale  corruption  of  public  men.  The  Union  Pacific  Rail- 
road had  been  completed,  and  the  Credit  Mobilier  of  America  had  pocketed 
$50,000,000.  The  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  had  been  chartered  and  endowed 
with  a  landed  subsidy  equal  in  extent  to  the  Empire  of  France  and  the  kingdoms 
of  Spain,  Portugal  and  Italy.  Washington  was  full  to  overflowing  with  jobbers 
and  lobbyists.  All  the  great  rings  which  were  being  gorged  with  public  plunder 
had  their  agents  and  representatives  at  the  national  capital  to  watch  events  and 
take  care  of  their  interests.  The  kings  of  the  lobby  then  were  Jay  and  Henry  D. 
Cooke.  Their  trusted,  adroit  general  manager  was  the  late  William  S.  Hunting- 
ton, a  brilliant  versatile  man  of  exceedingly  affable  manners,  with  a  genius  for 
jobbery,  and  endowed  with  an  unsurpassed  talent  for  bold  combinations.  He 
was  on  intimate  terms  with  many  public  men,  and  his  entertainments  were  ex- 
celled only  by  those  of  Sam  Ward.  Concerned  in  all  great  schemes,  he  saw  a 
grand  opportunity  for  speculation,  jobbery  and  money-making  in  the  national 
capital.  His  first  effort,  the  passage  through  Congress  of  a  charter  for  the 
Washington  and  Georgetown  Passenger  Railroad  Company,  along  Pennsylvania 
avenue,  had  proved  a  grand  success,  since  not  long  after  the  road  was  completed 
it  was  sold  to  a  few  New  York  capitalists  at  a  profit  of  three  hundred  per  cent, 
on  the  original  investment. 

A  NATIONAL   EXHIBITION   JOB. 

The  next  scheme,  originated  in  September,  1869,  was  to  procure  a  most  extra- 
ordinary charter  from  Congress  for  a  corporation  which  was  to  hold  a  ' '  Grand 
Universal  Exposition  of  all  Nations  in  the  City  of  Washington  in  1871."  On 
October  1st,  1869,  President  Grant  was  made  President  of  the  General  Executive 
Committee  and  ex-officio  Chairman  of  the  Local  Executive  Committee.  On  De- 
cember 7th,  1869,  the  scheme  was  introduced  into  the  United  States  Senate  by 
Senator  Paterson,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  was  interested  in  real  estate  specula- 
tions with  the  leading  members  of  the  Ring.  It  provided  an  appropriation  of 
13,000,000  ;  instructed  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  and  of  the  Navy  to  pro- 
vide transportation  by  land  and  water  ;  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  place  a 
public  reservation  at  the  disposal  of  the  corporators,  to  grade,  lay  out  and  other- 
wise improve  the  same,  and  the  streets  and  avenues  leading  thereto  ;  the  Secre- 
taries of  War  and  of  the  Navy  were  to  furnish  an  indefinite  number  of  soldiers 
and  marines  to  do  guard  duty  from  the  commencement  of  the  work  to  the  sale  or 
final  disposition  of  the  buildings,  and  our  ambassadors  and  consuls  in  foreign 
lands  were  to  act  as  agents  for  the  corporation  in  securing  foreign  contributions. 
"Give  us  the  money  to  put  up  the  buildings  and  the  thing  will  run  of  itself," 
said  the  promoters  of  the  undertaking  in  their  appeal  for  assistance.  It  was  ap- 
parent to  every  one  that  this  was  a  wild  scheme  intended  solely  for  the  benefit  of 


82  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

its  originators  ;  yet  tlie  Senate  spent  day  after  day  during  tlie  whole  winter  and 
spring  in  its  earnest  discussion,  and  only  the  masterly  opposition  of  two  well- 
informed  and  incorruptible  Senators,  assisted  by  the  independent  press  of  the 
country  in  exposing  the  fraud,  saved  us  from  a  national  disgrace,  and  spoiled 
this  huge  real  estate  and  stock  speculation.  Senator  Tliurraan  termed  the 
scheme  "  a  humbug,  imposing  an  expense  of  five  or  six  millions  of  dollars  upon 
the  Treasury  of  the  United  States."  Finally,  on  June  10th,  1870,  the  Senate, 
ashamed  apparently  of  the  earnestness  bestowed  upon  a  manifest  job,  quietly 
passed  over  the  bill  and  it  was  never  called  up  again. 

THE  ring's  royal  NOTIONS. 

The  next  great  enterprise  undertaken  by  these  schemers  was  to  provide  a  city 
park.  A  sufficient  extent  of  land  along  the  picturesque  banks  of  Rock  Creek, 
northwesterly  from  the  city,  was  found  to  be  in  the  hands  of  public-spirited  citi- 
zens (?)  who  were  willing  to  sell  tracts  of  it  for  such  a  meritorious  object ;  and  in 
close  proximity  thereto  were  found  j^roper  sites  for  a  mansion  and  summer  resi- 
dence for  the  President  of  the  United  States,  for  costly  edifices  for  the  use  of 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  for  homes  for  Senators,  to  be  erected  by  their 
States.  A  resolution  was  introduced  and  rushed  through  Congress  to  have  these 
lands  surveyed  and  plans  perfected  for  laying  out  roads,  drives,  vistas  and  build- 
ing bridges,  under  the  direction  of  the  Commissioners  of  Public  Buildings  and 
Grounds,  and  the  necessary  funds  were  appropriated  to  enable  him  to  pay  for 
this  work.  To  do  this  preliminary  work  took  General  Michler,  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds,  longer  than  the  impetuous  improvers  were  in- 
clined to  wait,  and  so  this  undertaking  was,  for  the  time  being,  suffered  to  re- 
main in  this  inchoate  condition.  In  the  meantime,  the  Ring  speculators  were 
quietly  working  up  two  other  jobs  which  promised  more  immediate  remunera- 
tion. One  of  these  impromptu  schemes  hurriedly  passed  through  Congress  was 
the  Act  of  May  20th,  J870,  under  the  provisions  of  which  the  public  reservation 
No.  7,  on  Pennsylvania  avenue,  between  Seventh  and  Ninth  streets,  worth  half 
a  million  of  dollars,  was,  coupled  with  the  most  valuable  municipal  franchises, 
handed  over,  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  the  Mayor  and  City  Council,  to  the  "Wash- 
ington Market  Company  for  a  term  of  ninety-nine  years,  subject  to  the  payment 
of  a  disproportionate  rental  for  the  benefit  of  the  Poor  Fund  of  the  District,  and 
to  the  further  condition  of  erecting  a  grand  monumental  edifice  to  be  used  as  a 
City  Hill.  All  opposition  to  this  scheme  was  overcome  by  the  exhibition  of  a 
monstrous  picture  of  the  proposed  palatial  building  during  the  debates  in  the 
Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  trifling  rental  which  was  to  be 
paid  to  the  Poor  Fund  was  subsequently  reduced  by  a  legislature  of  which  we 
shall  speak  hereafter,  and  then  well  nigh  annihilated  by  the  act  of  three  of  the 
original  corporators,  who  nominally  went  out  of  the  enterprise,  and,  acting  as 
territorial  officers,  made  a  bargain  with  themselves  and  associates,  by  which,  be- 
sides nullifying  the  rental  obligation,  they  formally  assumed  on  the  part  of  the 
District  the  erection  of  the  costly  building  which  under  its  charter  the  Market 
Company  was  obliged  to  build.  To  commit  Congress  to  an  implied  approval  of 
this  bargain,  they  had,  on  March  3d,  1873,  an  appropriation  of  $75,000  smuggled 
into  the  Sundry  Civil  Appropriation  Bill,  with  an  obscure  description  of  reserva- 
tion No.  7.  With  this  sum  they  were  to  commence  the  erection  of  a  City  Hall, 
but,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen,  this  money  was,  in  violation  of  law,  applied  to 
another  purpose. 

A  RICH  BONANZA   FOR  PILFERING   AND   STEALING. 

The  founders  of  Washington  planned  it  upon  a  magnificent  scale.    Wide  streets 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYBR    BRIBE.  83 

und  avenues  intersect  each  other,  the  former  running  from  north  to  south,  de- 
signated by  numbers,  and  from  east  to  west  by  letters,  crossing  each  other  at 
right  angles  and  again  are  cut  diagonally  by  avenues  bearing  the  names  of  the 
States  of  the  Union.  By  this  many  public  places  are  formed  consisting  of  cir- 
cles, triangles  and  squares  in  different  parts  of  the  city.  Sections  were  set  apart 
as  reservations  for  the  benefit  of  the  citizens  and  for  public  buildings.  A  number 
of  these  had  been  beautified  by  degrees  in  the  course  of  years.  As  these  plans  of 
men  of  genius  were  developed  it  became  apparent  that  there  was  a  chance  to  gain 
a  cheap  popularity  by  filching  credit  for  originality  due  to  bygone  generations 
and  a  rich  bonanza  for  pilfering  and  stealing,  since  any  improvement  not  in  total 
disregard  of  the  splendid  design  could  not  fail  to  bring  out  the  dormant  beauties 
of  the  city  and  at  the  same  time  contribute  largel}^  to  the  health  and  pleasure  of 
the  inhabitants.  The  time  was  wonderfully  auspicious  ;  with  feeble  resources 
the  local  authorities  had  struggled  for  half  a  century  to  shape  the  city  in  the 
rough  while  it  remained  a  mere  straggling  villige,  a  city  magnificent  in  distances 
only,  so  that  legitimate  demands  for  street  improvements  and  sewerage  had  the 
cooperation  and  applause  of  all  progressive  citizens.  The  rapid  growth  of  the 
country  during  the  past  few  years,  the  almost  unexampled  increase  of  wealth  and 
the  consequent  extravagant  rage  for  display  which  always  follows,  made  the  par- 
venu bankers,  shoddy  contractors,  railroad  corporators  and  lobbyists  who  flocked 
to  Washington  every  winter,  dissatisfied  with  the  old-fashioned  city.  They  com- 
plained about  the  absence  of  level  streets  and  avenues  on  which  to  speed  their 
fast  horses  and  show  their  grand  equipages.  They  wanted  to  build  palatial  resi- 
dences in  which  to  entice,  entertain  and  seduce  Congressmen,  but  gravelled  streets 
and  macadamized  avenues  did  not  suit  their  fastidious  tastes.  The  wily  schemers 
intent  upon  plunder  joined  in  and  threw  out  hints  about  "  smooth  and  noiseless  " 
'everlasting  patent  pavements.  "It  was  a  disgrace  to  this  great  country,"  they 
one  and  all  said,  "  that  the  national  capital  was  neglected  in  this  manner.  Con- 
gress ought  to  lift  it  out  of  its  mud  and  squalor,  and  make  it  worthy  of  the  great 
American  republic." 

MILLIONS  MUST   FLOW  FROM  THE   PEOPLE'S  TREASURY. 

Men  who  had  thrust  their  arms  into  the  national  treasury  up  to  their  elbows 
And  raked  out  princely  fortunes  at  one  haul,  were  not  willing  to  wait  for  the  slow 
work  of  years  and  the  gradual  growth  of  the  capital.  No,  there  must  be  a  wave 
of  the  enchanter's  wand,  millions  must  flow  from  the  national  treasury,  and  the 
<jity  rise  in  gorgeous  grandeur  for  their  immediate  delectation.  Congress  was 
debauched  ;  the  Executive  power  was  in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  had  as  little 
regard  for  the  proprieties  of  the  public  service  as  he  had  for  those  of  private  life. 
"Without  a  blush  he  accepted  munificent  gifts  and  rewarded  the  givers  with  emol- 
uments and  honors  of  high  official  position.  Offices  were  bestowed  as  Napoleon 
the  First  parcelled  out  kingdoms  among  his  kinsmen.  The  integrity  and  sense  of 
responsibility  of  official  life  which  distinguished  the  better  days  of  the  Republic 
were  gone,  and  in  their  stead  we  had  the  low  standard  of  barter  and  trade.  It 
was  emphatically  a  period  of  bargain  and  sale,  of  speculation  and  jobbery  ;  in  a 
word,  radical  rule  had  become  a  synonym  for  all  the  vices  of  the  shoddy  society 
of  the  day. 

Washinirton  had,  as  is  well  known,  up  to  the  year  1867,  an  old-fashioned  muni- 
cipal government,  simple  in  its  form  and  economical  in  its  working,  such  as  the 
experience  of  centuries  has  shown  to  be  the  best  and  most  inexpensive  for  large 
cities  if  properly  administered.  Improvements  within  a  limited  range  were  being 
made,  and  the  people  had  the  right  to  choose  their  own  rulers.     The  great  pro- 


84  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

portion  of  the  community  was  content  with  this  form  of  government.  The  laws- 
were  respected,  the  checks  upon  official  power  good,  and  the  opportunities  for 
plunder  small  indeed.  Subsequent  experience  has  proved  that  all  the  clamor  of 
bold,  bad  men,  against  this  old  municipal  government  and  the  way  it  was  ad- 
ministered, was  for  the  purpose  of  practising  a  deception  on  Congress,  and  thus^ 
getting  control  of  the  District  with  a  government  they  could  manage  for  schemes 
of  plunder  under  the  pretence  of  improving  the  city.  By  buying  up  the  local 
press  they  had  gained  a  powerful  influence  for  evil,  and  they  used  it  diligently  to 
promote  their  designs  on  the  public  treasury. 

THE  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT  CHANGED  TO  GET  RID  OF  NEGRO  SUFFRAGE. 

The  District  of  Columbia  had  been  since  the  war  a  harbor  of  refuge  for  the 
colored  people,  and  for  some  years  past  they  constituted  one-third  of  the  whole 
population.  To  school  their  youth  properly,  all  the  taxes  collected  from  colored' 
people  had  been  set  aside,  but  in  consequence  of  the  efforts  of  Sayles  J.  Bowen, 
a  local  radical  politician,  who  in  his  person  united  the  offices  of  disbursing  clerk 
of  the  Senate,  city  postmaster,  police  commissioner,  member  of  the  levy  court  of 
the  county  and  school  commissioner.  Congress  passed  a  law  compelling  the  cities 
of  Washington  and  Georgetown  and  the  county,  to  set  aside  for  the  use  of  a  newly 
created  board  of  trustees  of  the  colored  school,  appointed  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  such  a  proportionate  part  of  all  the  moneys  appropriated  for  the  pur- 
chase of  sites,  construction  of  buildings,  payment  of  teachers  and  any  other  ex- 
penditures, including  contingencies  of  the  white  schools,  as  the  colored  children 
of  school  age  bore  to  the  whites.  In  view  of  Bowen's  connection  with  the  pro- 
curement of  this  legislation  it  is  not  strange  that  in  May,  1868,  when  by  act  of 
Congress  negro  suffrage  for  the  first  time  became  an  element  of  power  in  the 
municipal  politics  of  Washington,  a  total  revolution  occurred,  by  which  Sayles  J. 
Bowen  was  elected  mayor  in  the  place  of  Richard  Wallach,  a  loyal  and  respected 
conservative,  who  had  served  three  successive  terms,  and  under  whose  adminis- 
tration every  requisition  or  appeal  made  on  the  city  for  volunteers  or  contribu- 
tions to  the  pressing  needs  of  the  Union  soldiers  had  been  responded  to  with 
commendable  alacrity  and  without  adding  scarcely  a  dollar  to  the  municipal  in- 
debtedness. After  the  expiration  of  his  two  years'  term,  Mr.  Bowen  was  swept 
from  office  by  a  so-called  citizens'  movement,  and  M.  G.  Emery  was  elected  in  his 
stead  by  10,076  against  6,882  votes.  After  two  short  years  the  pay  of  the  officers, 
teachers,  employes,  laborers  and  contractors  was  five  months  in  arrears,  and  all 
the  safeguard  against  the  increase  of  debt  had  been  disregarded  by  unusual  devices 
suggested  by  William  A.  Cook,  a  legal  trickster,  feared  by  many  but  respected 
by  none,  who  had  been  appointed  corporation  attorney,  and  had  with  others  of 
a  similar  character,  brought  disgrace  upon  the  Bowen  administration.  The  great 
success  of  the  reform  ticket  was  due  unquestionably  to  the  universal  desire  to  get 
rid  of  this  local  trickster,  who  had  given  up  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  and  taken 
to  the  practice  and  distortion  of  the  law  some  years  previous. 

BOSS  SHEPHERD  COMES  TO  THE  FRONT. 

It  was  not  long  before  it  became  evident  that,  among  the  elements  which  had 
combined  in  the  citizens'  movement  of  1870,  there  were  some  mischievous  men 
who  had  simply  used  the  popular  current  to  get  rid  of  a  successful  rival,  and  by 
indirection  to  further  personal  sinister  interests.  In  this  crusade  a  man  turned 
up  who  had  for  long  years,  and  in  vain,  striven  to  reach  the  highest  municipal 
honor  in  Washington.  Alexander  R.  Shepherd  was  elected  an  alderman,  but  had 
scarcely  taken  his  seat  in  the  City  Council  before  he  began  intriguing  for  the 
overthrow  of  Mayor  Emery's  administration,  and  along  with  it  the  old  mufaicipal 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  85 

government  of  the  city.  The  extravagance  and  misrule  which  had  characterized 
the  Bowen  administA,tion  had  so  disgusted  a  large  majority  of  property  holders 
with  an  elective  government,  that  the  white  people,  irrespective  of  politics,  were 
ready  to  welcome  any  change.  Shepherd  is  a  shrewd,  adroit  and  unscrupulous 
man,  who  has  come  up  from  the  lowest  ranks  of  life  just  as  Boss  Tweed  did. 
Without  even  serving  an  apprenticeship,  he  had  managed  to  become  the  head  of 
one  of  the  largest  plumbing  and  gas-fitting  establishments  in  the  District,  and  to 
control  the  greatest  proportion  of  work  on  government  buildings  in  Washington. 
From  contract  jobbery  he  gradually  ventured  into  all  descriptions  of  speculative 
enterprises,  and,  with  a  tender  regard  for  the  dead  as  well  as  the  living,  had  un- 
dertaken to  run  a  graveyard  as  well  as  a  life  insurance  company.  Later  on  he 
embarked  in  real  estate  speculations,  and  began  the  erection  of  rows  of  a  cheap 
class  of  buildings,  which  were  generally  sold  to  mechanics  and  clerks  on  long 
terms.  This  business  he  began  in  partnership  with  Moses  Kelly,  well  known  in 
city  politics,  and  with  the  bosses  of  the  various  building  trades.  It  was  a  happy 
thought  to  tempt  into  this  speculation,  about  the  year  1868,  Senator  J.  W.  Patter- 
son, of  New  Hampshire ,  since  this  association  gave  Shepherd  social  standing  in 
higher  circles  than  those  in  which  he  had  hitherto  moved,  although,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  speedily  proved  the  political  ruin  of  the  senator.  Since  that  time  the 
Tictims  of  Mr.  Shepherd's  temptations  may  be  counted  by  scores.  Even  while  a 
member  of  the  City  Council,  Shepherd  was  concerned,  as  a  large  stockholder,  in 
wood  and  concrete  paving  companies,  especially  in  the  Metropolis  Wood  Paving 
Company,  whose  headquarters  were  over  his  store  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue. 

FROM  THE   SLUMS  TO   AFFLUENCE. 

His  tastes,  at  the  outstart  of  his  career,  were  low.  By  nature  brutal  and  op- 
pressive to  his  inferiors,  he  was  ever  fawning  and  sycophantic  to  his  equals  and 
superiors.  About  the  year  1868,  J.  G.  Naylor,  a  hard-working  builder,  dared  to 
ask  this  budding  boss  for  money  due  him,  which  so  enraged  Shepherd  that  he 
seized  a  piece  of  gas-pipe,  struck  the  mechanic,  and  nearly  broke  his  skull.  After 
Naylor's  recovery  from  a  protracted  sickness.  Shepherd  compromised  the  pend- 
ing suit  by  the  payment  of  a  large  sum  of  money.  It  was  not  long  after  this  that 
he  discovered  that  men  who  cheated  with  due  regard  to  the  conventionalities  of 
society,  and  broke  the  Ten  Commandments  only  in  secret,  are  quite  as  apt  at  ras- 
cality, and  much  more  useful  associates,  than  the  roughs  who  people  the  slums 
of  cities.  As  deacon  of  a  fashionable  church,  nicknamed  the  "  Holy  Locomotive," 
from  its  suggestive  appearance,  he  craved  the  smiles  of  society,  sought  recogni- 
tion from  so-called  gentle  folks,  and  enlarged  the  circle  of  his  creatures  and  tools 
by  extending  his  alliances  to  the  very  threshold  of  the  White  House.  He  spread 
a  bounteous  board,  and  boasted  a  well-stocked  cellar;  and  soon  all  the  shoddy 
element  of  Washington  society  courted  his  hospitalities,  while  all  decent  people 
denounced  him  as  a  rogue.  While  he  was  squandering  millions  of  the  people's 
money  on  worthless  tar  poultice  and  rotten  wood  pavements,  his  own  aggrandize- 
ment was  attested  by  the  erection  of  a  stately  palatial  residence,  with  carved 
stone  fronts,  and  doors  and  trimmings  of  rare  woods.  Antique  furniture,  huge 
mirrors,  gorgeous  carpets,  costly  pictures,  filled  this  lordly  mansion,  and  china, 
manufactured  in  France  to  order,  graced  his  festal  board.  His  splendid  landau- 
let,  drawn  by  a  span  of  thoroughbreds  harnessed  in  glittering  trappings,  driven 
and  attended  by  flunkeys  wearing  wonderful  liveries,  attracted  as  much  notice  in 
the  streets  as  the  snob  four-in  hand  of  President  Grant.  There  was  an  object  in 
this  ostentatious  display,  for  by  it  Shepherd  managed  to  fill  his  salons  with 
judges,  generals,  senators,  ambassadors  and  fine  ladies,  and  his  banquets  soon  be- 


86  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    G0LYP:R    BRIBE. 

came  the  talk  of  the  town  gossipers,  and  his  balls  the  envy  of  every  shoddy  up- 
start, and  thus  in  a  little  while  the  moral  tone  of  the  community  was  demoralized 
A  bold,  unscrupulous  man  like  Shepherd,  invested  with  almost  absolute  power, 
and  sustained  by  the  legislative  as  well  as  the  executive  branch  of  the  national 
government,  could  not  fail  to  become  a  dangerous  instrument  of  oppression  to 
the  people  of  the  District,  and  an  adroit  agent  for  plundering  the  public  treasury, 

WHEN  THE  DEVIL  WAS   SICK,  ETC. 

The  subject  of  the  foregoing  sketch  was  elected  in  1870,  by  the  Board  of  Alder- 
men, Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Finance.  As  such,  he  publicly  simulated 
economy,  and  quietly  favored  the  grossest  extravagance.  On  the  2d  of  Septem- 
ber, 1870,  he,  in  reporting  the  general  tax  bill,  spoke  of  the  then  financial  condition 
of  Washington  as  follows : 

The  estimates  of  the  Mayor  for  the  expenses  of  the  current  year  are  $1,251,287.38.  Your  com- 
mittee, however,  are  of  opinion  that,  in  view  of  the  large  indebtedness  of  the  corporation,  and  the 
heavy  taxation  imposed  under  laws  recently  passed  by  Congress,  it  will  be  necessary  to  reduce  the 
estimates  of  expenditures  to  gl, 000,000.  This  can  be  done  by  omitting  the  sum  estimated  for  clean- 
ing the  streets,  by  reducing  the  salaries  of  corporation  officials,  which,  exclusive  of  teachers  and 
police,  have  reached  the  enormous  aggregate  of  $1;53,320,  and  by  carefully  restricting  our  improve- 
ments within  the  limits  of  our  resources.  Thtse  taxes  will  bear  very  heavily  upon  our  people, 
already  compelled  to  provide  for  an  enormous  fimded  debt.  It  tlierefore  becomes  our  duty  to  ad- 
minister their  affairs  with  ri";id  economy,  and  to  take  all  necessary  measures  to  restore  the  credit 
of  the  city,  now  so  greatly  depreciated.  Your  committee,  therefore,  recommend  the  reduction  of 
the  salaries  of  the  corporation  officers,  which  now  absorb  twelve  per  cent,  of  the  revenue,  the  intro- 
duction of  a  radical  change  in  the  cleaning  of  streets,  and  by  carefully  avoiding  waste  and  reckless- 
ness in  every  branch  of  corporation  expenditures. 

THE  PENNSYLVANIA  AVENUE  JOB. 

At  the  very  time  these  professions  of  economy  were  made  by  Shepherd,  he  had 
quietly  sent  out  one  W.  H.  Chase  as  an  emissary  to  look  after  patent  wood  pave- 
ments. On  his  return,  Chase  reported  that,  "when  properly  laid,  wood  pave- 
ments will  last  from  fifteen  to  twenty  years  in  Washington."  Congress  had  been 
importuned  about  this  time  by  the  ring  then  forming,  to  authorize  paving  Penn- 
sylvania Avenue,  between  the  Capitol  and  Treasury  Grounds,  with  a  patent  pave- 
ment of  some  description,  the  government  to  pay  $160,000,  that  being  about  one- 
half  of  the  estimated  cost. 

In  speaking  of  this  proposition  to  pave  the  avenue,  the  Hon.  J.  Proctor  Knotty 
of  Kentucky,  said : 

In  my  judgment,  there  is  more  in  this  measure  than  seems  to  be  visible  on  the  surface.  I  think 
it  contains  the  materials  for  another  of  those  never  ending  repasts  for  the  hungry  flock  of  small 
retainers  who  hover  like  vultures  about  this  capital  to  prey  on  government  garbage,  and  for  which 
there  must  be  paid  out  of  the  public  treasury  an  unlimited  amount  of  money.  Lay  not,  then,  I 
beseech  you,  "  the  flattering  unction  to  your  soul  "  that  because  the  amount  to  be  expended  in  this 
project  appears  to  be  limited  to  $160,000,  that  it  will  stop  there.  I  tell  you  there  is  no  power 
short  of  an  Omniscient  Providence  that  can  foretell  what  the  government  will  eventually  have  to 
pay  for  the  improvement  of  this  avenue,  if  it  undertakes  it  at  all.  It  is  true  that,  assisted  by  the 
wonderful  powers  of  science  the  astronomer  can  sit  in  his  closet  and  tell  precisely  at  what  moment 
and  at  what  particular  part  of  the  sidereal  heavens  a  comet  will  appear,  which  has  bten  absent  a 
thousand  years  on  its  pathless  pilsrrimage  through  the  wilderness  of  space,  and  true  to  the  letter 
of  the  prophecy,  its  fiery  train  flashes  upon  our  vision.  But,  sir,  to  foretell  what  any  public  im- 
provement about  this  city  will  cost,  or  when  it  will  be  finished,  not  only  defies  the  highest  powers 
of  mathematics,  but  is  beyond  the  utmost  range  of  human  conjecture  itself. 
"  When  the  stars  shall  fade  away,  the  sun  himself 
Grow  dim  with  age,  and  nature  sink  in  years," 
then,  and  not  till  then,  may  you  expect  to  see  one  of  these  government  jobs  completed  and  the  last 
deficiency  bill  passed  to  pay  for  it.  This  language  may  sound  like  hyperbole,  but  show  me  one  sin- 
gle government  job  around  this  city  that  has  yet  been  finished. 

IT   LEADS  TO  OTHER  JOBS. 

On  July  8th,  1870,  a  paving  bill  was  passed,  under  which  the  United  States  was 
to  pay,  like  other  property-holders,  for  its  frontage  along  the  Botanic  Garden, 
the  railroad  company  for  23  feet  in  the  center  of  the  street,  the  private  property 
for  the  pavement  on  its  frontage,  from  curb  to  area  chargeable  to  the  railroad, 
and  the  Corporation  of  Washington,  for  all  intersections  of  streets  and  avenues^ 
including  the  spaces  along  the  park  inclosures. 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RIXG    AND    DE    GOLYEK    BRIBE.  87 

Shortly  thereafter  Louisiana  and  Indiana  avenues,  and  Fourteenth  street,  north- 
west, for  the  length  of  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half,  were  ordered  to  be  paved  with 
wood  by  the  retrenching  City  Councils.  Though  newspaper  proprietors  inter- 
ested in  the  patents  previously  selected,  worked  up  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
these  jobs  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  still  many  of  the  property-holders  vigor- 
ously protested ;  and  in  the  case  of  Louisiana  avenue,  their  protests  against  the 
costly  experiment  were  so  determined,  that  as  a  concession  a  stone  pavement  30 
feet  in  width  had  to  be  laid  on  both  sides  of  the  street  next  to  the  curb,  but  a 
wood  pavement  was  forced  upon  them  in  the  center  of  the  avenue.  The  stone 
pavement  still  stands  with  rotten  wood  borders,  as  a  monument  of  one  of  the 
first  tricks  of  the  ring. 

THE  RING  PAVING  COMPANY  IN  CLOVER. 

The  Pennsylvania  avenue  pavement,  after  three  months'  delay,  was  given  out 
on  October  19th,  in  ^our  sections,  not  to  the  lowest  responsible  bidders,  but  to 
the  owners  of  those  patents  which  were  claimed  to  give  the  most  substantial 
guarantees  for  permanency  ;  all  of  the  aforesaid  owners  being  members  of  the 
ring,  then  in  course  of  formation.  The  largest  two  of  the  four  sections  at  once 
gravitated  to  number  908|  Pennsylvania  avenue,  the  headquarters  of  the  Metrop- 
olis Paving  Company,  over  A.  R.  Shepherd's  store.  The  stock  of  this  com- 
pany had  been  distributed  in  large  blocks  to  Hallet  Kil bourne,  John  O.  Evans, 
W.  S.  Huntington,  Lewis  Clephane,  Sam  Young,  Shepherd's  brother-in-law,  and 
to  the  proprietors  of  tjie  Evening  Star  and  the  National  liepublican,  the  two  prin- 
cipal daily  newspapers  of  Washington.  The  future  glories  of  the  great  avenue, 
when  paved  with  the  durable  and  noiseless  wood  pavement,  were  dwelt  upon 
daily  by  the  subsidized  editors  of  the  ring  organs,  and  in  the  meantime  the  three 
months'  delay  in  awarding  the  contract  was  industriously  employed  by  the  ring 
managers  in  making  their  arrangements  with  the  Paving  Commission,  which 
consisted  of  Columbus  Delano,  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  Mayor  Emery  and 
General  Michler,  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds.  The  season 
having  been  wasted  in  this  way  Pennsylvania  avenue  was  torn  up  in  the  fall 
and  work  rushed  through  in  November  and  December,  1870.  On  November  1st, 
eleven  days  after  the  award  of  the  contract,  a  merry,  company  enjoyed  an  ex- 
quisite champagne  collation,  prepared  by  Wormley,  at  an  improvised  frame 
building  near  the  sheds  where  the  machinery  for  sawing  the  blocks  had  been  set 
up  by  the  Metropolis  Paving  Company,  and  the  famous 

DR.  BUCHU  HELMBOLD  DROVE   UP  WITH  HIS  STYLISH  SIX  IN  HAND 

to  give  his  blessing  to  the  enterprise.  The  ringleaders  with  wild  enthusiasm  then 
and  there  promised  the  quack  doctor  that  the  opening  of  wood  paved  Pennsyl- 
vania avenue  should  be  celebrated  by  a  grand  carnival  and  fete  on  Washington's 
birthday.  The  fete  was  duly  celebrated  and  the  unsuspecting  citizens  contrib- 
uted liberally  to  pay  the  piper,  never  dreaming  that  at  no  very  distant  day  they 
would  look  back  to  the  occasion  through  tears  of  sorrow,  and  curse  the  hour  in 
which  they  made  merry  over  their  enslavement.  Meanwhile  the  session  of  Con- 
gress approached.  On  November  33d,  1870,  the  National  Republican,  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  President  and  the  administration,  wound  up  a  double-leaded  leader 
on  the  subject  of— legislation  for  the  District,  as  follows  : 

A  few  hundred  dollars  judiciously  expended  upon  terrapins,  oysters,  champagne  and  cigars 
wi.I  be  "  bread  cast  upon  the  waters,''^  The  experiment  worked  well  last  winter,  well  enough  we 
think  to  warrant  repetition.  Instead  of  an  appropriation  of  a  few  thousand  dollars  every  year,  we 
ehould  have  five  or  six  millions  to  beautify  and  improve  the  National  Capital. 

WHAT  WINE  AND  WASSAIL  ACCOMPLISHED. 

Acting  upon  this  advice,  ring  hospitality  was  liberally  dispensed.     There  was  a 


88  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    KING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

grand  banquet  to  the  Press  of  the  country  at  the  Metropolitan,  another  to  Con- 
gress at  the  Arlington.  The  governors  of  the  states  and  numerous  municipal 
bodies  were  invited,  the  crack  militia  regiments  of  the  Eastern  cities  were  to 
have  competitive  exercises  on  the  newly-paved  avenue,  and  representatives  of 
all  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  vie  with  each  other  in  the  exhibition  of  the 
sports  of  their  native  lands.  While  this  surface  movement  was  going  on,  public 
attention  was  skillfully  diverted  from  more  momentous  underground  currents. 
Senator  Hamlin  had,  on  February  25th,  1870,  introduced  a  bill  in  the  Senate  : 

To  "  provide  a  Territorial  Government  for  the  District  of  Columbia,"  which  was  discussed  and 
passed  by  the  Senate  May  27th,  received  by  the  House  May  31st,  and  referred  to  the  District  Com- 
mittee June  29th,  1870,  where  it  apparently  died.  But,  quite  unexpectedly,  Mr.  Burton  C.  Cook,  of 
Illinois,  the  Chairman  of  the  House  Committee,  reported  back  a  substitute  for  Mr.  Hamlin's  bill 
on  January  20th,  1871,  and  in  advocating  it  said,"  There  are  131,000  people  in  this  District.  *  * 
*  The  cost  of  the  municipal  government  in  salaries  and  incidental  expenses  is  $179,000  a  year, 
or  one  dollar  and  a  half  for  every  man,  woman  and  child  in  the  District.  This  is  the  thing  which 
the  committee  have  endeavored  to  avoid.  The  proposed  government  is  intended  to  be  a  simple, 
harmonious,  economical  one,  with  a  conservative  element  m  it  which  should  be  the  element  repre- 
senting the  people  of  the  whole  United  States." 

After  a  short  discussion,  all  warning  voices  were  unheeded,  and  this  bill  was 

forced  through  by  a  vote  of  97  against  58.     On  the  same  day  the  Board  of  Trade 

of  Washington  held  a  meeting,   and  on  motion  of  Alexander  R.    Shepherd, 

adopted  the  following  resolution  : 

Resolved,  That  we  hail  with  joy  the  passage  of  the  bill  by  the  House  of  Representatives  this 
day,  believing  that  it  will  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  the  development  of  our  business  inter- 
ests. 

A  committee  of  five,  of  which  Alexander  R.   Shepherd  and  Hallet  Kilbourne 

were  two,  was  appointed  at  this  same  meeting  to  urge  the  Senate  to  adopt  the 

House  bill  unaltered. 

A  SATIRE  ON  FREE  GOVERNMENT. 

On  February  7th,  A.  B.  Mullett,  Supervising  Architect  of  the  Treasury,  headed  a 
petition  which  was  laid  before  the  Senate  by  William  M.  Stewart,  of  Emma  Mine 
fame,  praying  that  the  House  bill  might  be  passed  without  alteration.  The  Sen- 
ate having  moved  for  a  conference  committee,  a  bill  was  agreed  upon  and  passed 
both  Houses  on  February  14th,  and  approved  by  President  Grant  on  February 
21st,  amid  the  portentious  follies  of  the  carnival.  The  bill  was  not  perfected  in 
open  Congress,  but  was  riianipulated  for  four  weeks  in  conference  committee. 
It  provided  for  a  complicated  form  of  government— one  which  in  truth  was  the 
most  magnificent  satire  on  government  the  world  ever  saw.  A  more  severe  blow 
at  republican  institutions  was  never  struck  in  this  or  any  other  country.  A 
Radical  Congress  repudiated  the  people's  demand  and  laid  them  at  the  mercy  of 
an  irresponsible  one-man  power.  All  power  was  concentrated  in  the  hands  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  how  he  abused  that  power  by  filling  all 
the  offices  with  men  with  whom  he  and  his  friends  were  engaged  in  speculative 
ventures,  is  well  known  to  the  country.  The  Governor  of  the  miniature  princi- 
pality had  a  staff,  exercised  veto  power,  and  had  a  pocket  veto,  too,  granted 
pardons,  and  filled  all  the  executive  offices  of  any  importance  at  pleasure.  A  Sec- 
retary was  provided  and  a  council  which  was  a  caricature  on  the  House  of  Lords, 
a  Board  of  Health,  and  last  but  not  least  a  Board  of  Public  Works.  And  to  the 
people  was  vouchsafed  the  barren  privilege  of  voting  for  members  of  a  so-called 
House  of  Delegates,  and  a  Delegate  in  Congress  who  was  without  a  vote.  But 
even  this  turned  out  to  be  no  boon  at  all,  since  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  by 
holding  the  rod  of  discharge  over  every  poor  laborer  who  would  not  vote  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  the  ring,  elected  this  whole  mock  Legislature  and  the  Dele- 
gate to  Congress  besides.     As  a  natural  result  of  this  one-man  power  in  a  republi- 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RIXG    JLND    DE    GOYLEK    BRIBE.  89 

can  country,  a  shameful  mockery  of  legislation  was  witnessed.  There  was  scarcely 
a  single  respectable  citizen  of  the  District  elected  to  the  House  of  Delegates. 
This  honor  (?)  was  monopolized  by  the  illiterate  and  subservient  tools  of  the 
ring,  whose  only  occupation,  besides  registering  the  decrees  of  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lic Works,  was  to  put  through  a  few  bills  for  contractors,  who  paid  well  for  the 
same.  They  legislated  however,  with  a  will,  and  when  they  could  be  tolerated 
no  longer,  they  wound  up  their  official  existence  by  plundering  the  hall  iu  which 
they  sat — stealing  feather  dusters,  spittoons  and  desks — some  of  which  were  ac- 
tually pledged  with  bar-keepers  for  whisky  bills. 

THE  RULERS  OF  THIS  RADICAL   ISRAEL. 

M.  G.  Emery,  the  lately  elected  reform  Mayor,  a  vain  man,  had  been  flattered 
and  deluded  mto  the  support  of  the  territorial  scheme,  which  ousted  him  from 
the  office  he  had  just  assumed,  under  the  promise  of  the  newly  created  Govenor- 
ship  ;  but  after  using  him,  the  ring  discarded  him.  The  President  had  unlimited 
confidence  in  Henry  D.  Cooke,  who  was  in  charge  of  his  financial  affairs,  and 
through  him  the  ring  boldly  urged  Shepherd's  appointment  to  the  Governship.  To 
this  the  Rev,  J.  P.  Newman,  a  political  parson  of  the  Metropolitan  Church,  and 
spiritual  adviser  at  the  White  House,  objected  in  the  interest  of  Emery,  a 
vestryman  of  his  church.  The  Rev.  Doctor  set  forth  the  proofs,  pledges  made 
by  the  ring  to  Emery,  so  plainly  to  the  President  that  he  hesitated,  and  finally 
the  community  was  surprised  by  the  appointment  of  H.  D.  Cooke.  Mr.  Cooke, 
besides  his  connection  with  the  famous  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. ,  had  some  local 
notoriety  on  occount  of  his  zeal  for  Sunday-schools,  and  his  activity  as  a  member 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  for  which  last-named  institution  he 
evinced  his  firm  attachment,  by  engineering  a  heavy  loan  on  worthless  fiecond 
mortgage  bonds  from  the  Freedman's  Savings  Bank,  thus  robbing  the  poor  f reed- 
men  in  the  name  of  the  Founder  of  the  Christian  religion.  As  orthodox  mem- 
bers in  good  standing  in  the  Radical  party,  the  Cookes  could  venture  upon  many 
things  which  would  have  been  deemed  treasonable  in  others.  In  1867,  the  fol- 
lowing advertisement  appeared  in  the  Washington  and  many  Southern  news- 
papers : 

TRYING  TO  GET  A  CORNER  ON  C.  S.  A.  BONDS. 

CoNFEDEKATE  BoNDS  WANTED.— First  National  Bank,  Washington,  August  29,  1869.  We  have 
an  order  for  a  moderate  amount  of  8  per  cent,  bonds  of  the  C.  S.  A.,  and,  until  filled,  will  buy  ail- 
that  are  offered  at  the  best  rates. 

William  S.  Huntington,  Cashier. 

In  the  columns  of  the  same  Washington  paper  containing  the  above,  could  be 

seen  this  also  : 

First  National  Bank  of  Washington.— H.  D.  Cooke,  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  President  ;  W.  S. 
Huntington,  Cashier  ;  Government  depositary  and  financial  agent  of  the  United  States,  Fifteenth 
street,  opposite  the  Treasury  Department. 

Here  in  1867,  was  the  "  Government  depositary  and  financial  agent  of  the 
United  States,"  the  bank  controlled  by  the  Cookes,  openly  advertising  for  and 
buying  up  "at  the  best  rates  "  all  the  8  per  cent,  bonds  of  the  defunct  Confeder- 
acy in  existence.  It  was  then  their  scheme,  as  every  circumstance  shows,  to  make 
the  Confederate  debt  a  consideration  of  settlement  with  the  South  by  Federal 
assumption — a  scheme  which  was,  however,  baffled  and  put  at  rest  by  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Fourteenth  amendment  in  1868. 

H.  D.  Cooke,  as  Governor,  was  but  little  more  than  a  figure-head,  acting  simply 
as  the  hand  and  mouth-piece  of  Shepherd,  enjoying  however  the  luxury  of  a 
gaudy  uniform  and  a  full  staff  of  mihtia  officers.  He  believed  with  his  brother 
Jay  that,  "  A  national  debt  is  a  national  blessing,"  and  the  unfortunate  people  of 


90  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE'^OLYEK    BRIBE. 

the  District  of  Columbia  liave  liad  an  ample  opportunity  to  test  the  truth  of  this 
aphorism. 

THE  BOSS  AND  THE  SUPERVISING  ARCHITECT. 

Alexander  R.  Shepherd  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works, 
which  consisted  nominally  of  five  members,  including  the  Governor  as  President 
€X-officio.  His  associates  made  him  vice-president  and  executive  officer,  and  with 
him  all  the  powers  of  an  illy  defined  government  gravitated  rapidly  to  the  Board 
of  Public  Works,  so  that  imperceptibly  the  district  passed  under  the  control  of 
an  irresponsible  despotism.  The  title  of  the  "Boss"  bestowed  upon  Shepherd 
in  this  position  by  the  contractors,  soon  came  to  be  a  by-word  in  the  community, 
and  has  been  universally  recognized  as  an  appropriate  designation  of  the  man  who 
attempted  to  run  a  government,  as  an  overseer  does  a  gang  of  plantation  negroes. 
Shepherd's  colleagues  on  the  board  were  A.  B.  Mullett,  the  late  Supervising 
Architect  of  the  Treasury,  who  had  long  had  intimate,  personal  and  profitable 
business  relations  with  Shepherd,  in  connection  with  work  done  and  materials 
supplied  for  all  the  public  buildings  in  the  United  States  under  the  charge  of  the 
Treasury  Department.  Mullett's  appointment  was  a  master  stroke.  One  of  the 
most  important  things  to  be  done  was  to  engineer  members  of  Congress,  and  in 
this  business  Mullett  was  by  universal  consent  a  proficient.  Every  new  building 
that  was  built  or  determined  to  be  built,  secured  the  personal  devotion  to  the  ring 
of  from  one  to  half  a  dozen  Congressmen.  This  was  effected  in  several  ways. 
First,  the  recommendation  of  the  Supervising  Architect  for  the  building  of  the 
proposed  structure  must  be  had.  The  member  or  members  from  the  locality 
asking  for  the  appropriation  courted  Mr.  Mullett,  who  could  make  his  own  terms. 
If  he  asked  the  favor  that  they  encourage  improvement  at  the  National  Capital, 
they  could  not  refuse.  Then,  again,  as  a  new  post  office  or  custom  house  was 
to  be  built,  Congressmen  might  have  friends  whom  they  wished  to  be  taken  care 
of  by  Mr.  Mullett,  in  the  way  of  contracts.  Of  course,  he  in  his  turn  could  not 
refuse  any  reasonable  request  of  this  kind.  The  result  was  that  the  member  got 
Mullett's  recommendation  for  the  required  appropriation,  and  in  turn  aided  in 
the  grand  work  of  "regenerating,  transforming  and  beautifying  the  National 
Capital "  by  helping  the  Board  of  Public  Works  to  large  appropriations  when- 
ever they  needed  them. 

STUBB  MAGRUDER  AND  HIS  BOOK-KEEPING. 

James  A.  Magruder,  one  of  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  was  a 
man  alike  devoid  of  character  and  credit,  but  subsequently  became  famous  by  a 
system  of  book-keeping  he  invented,  which  enabled  him  as  treasurer  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works  to  keep  his  accounts  in  inextricable  confusion  to  the  great 
satisfaction  of  Shepherd,  for  thereby  he  was  enabled  at  any  time  to  challenge  the 
inspection  of  the  books,  well  knowing  that  they  could  be  made  to  show  figures 
as  they  were  wanted.  The  Board  of  Audit,  after  nearly  two  years'  labor,  has 
not  been  able  to  disentangle  Magruder's  accounts,  and  in  bringing  suit  against 
him  to  recover  money  alleged  to  be  still  unaccounted  for,  cannot  specify  the 
amount  any  more  definitely  than  "  from  $30,000  to  $60,000.''  The  criminal  suit 
on  the  charge  of  studiously  confusing  his  accounts  which  was  recommended  to 
be  brought,  has  not  been  instituted,  and  propably  will  not,  because  the  limit  of 
time  within  which  it  could  be  brought  has  neaily  expired.  The  ofiicial  report  of 
the  Board  of  Audit  nevertheless  shows  (vide  Mis.  doc.  No.  103,  part  3,  H.  R.  44, 
Cong.),  that  an  amount  exceeding  $1,000,000,  which  he  claimed  to  have  paid  out, 
had  never  been  entered  upon  bis  books,  but  which  lie  was  allowed  to  account  for 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  91 

by  producing  vouchers  not  on  file  among  the  public  records.  When  it  is  known 
that  he  intermingled  his  cash  with  all  the  various  certificates  of  indebtedness 
issued  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  he  could 
safely  speculate  in  these  depreciated  securities  with  the  public  money. 

ONE  OP  SECOR  ROBESON'S  PETS. 

S.  p.  Brown,  a  defaulting  Navy  Agent,  and  a  favorite  contractor  in  the  Navy 
Department,  completed  the  list  of  worthies  who  made  up  the  Board  of  Public 
Works.  Brown  is  a  native  of  Maine,  and  was  placed  in  the  Board  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Senator  Hamlin  and  Speaker  Blaine.  The  choice  of  the  ring  was  Hallet 
Kilbourn,  and  Brown  was  always  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  although  he  was  a. 
valuable  adjunct  on  account  of  his  connection  with  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.  He  was,  however,  obliged  after  a  season  to  retire — being^ 
caught  with  an  interest  in  a  contract  to  supply  lumber  to  contractors,  afforded 
the  pretext  for  his  dismissal. 

Two-thirds  of  the  "  Upper  Council"  were  ring  creatures,  and  the  other  third 
nonentities.  The  President  in  appointing  members  of  this  upper  branch  of  the 
Legislative  Assembly,  consulted  the  wishes  of  Boss  Shepherd,  who  always  had 
ready  access  to  the  Presidential  ear,  through  Gen.  Babcock,  whom  he  early  en- 
trapped into  real  estate  speculations  and  jobs  of  various  kinds. 

AN  UNSAVORY  SET  OF  JOBBERS. 

The  Board  of  Health  was  composed  of  two  quack  doctors,  one  reputable  phy- 
sician, a  colored  professor  of  law,  and  a  capable  business  man.  By  adroit  man- 
agement these  fellows  continued  to  get  an  annual  appropriation  from  Congress, 
amounting  to  about  $97,000,  and  when  the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives 
in  its  general  overhauling,  turned  over  the  Board  of  Health,  it  found  two  of  its 
members  interested  in  very  unsavory  jobbery — they  being  the  owners,  though  not 
the  holders  of  $10,000  a  piece  of  the  stock  of  an  odorless  excavating  company 
which  had  a  valuable  contract  from  the  Board  of  Health.  The  appointments  made 
by  Gov.  Cooke  were  really  dictated  by  Shepherd,  who  was  familiar  with  local  poli- 
tics and  knew  that  it  was  all-important  to  make  friends  of  the  same  men  who  had 
proved  useful  to  Mayor  Bowen  in  controlling  the  negro  vote.  Thus  the  very  men 
who  had  a  few  months  previous  been  denounced  by  Shepherd  and  his  ring  friends 
as  corrupt  jobbers  and  scoundrels  were  speedily  enlisted  under  the  reform  (?) 
regime.  It  is  sufficient  to  instance  two  of  Governor  Cooke's  appointments.  He 
made  William  A.  Cooke,  already  famous  for  his  latitudinarian  interpretation  of 
laws  under  Mayor  Bowen,  the  legal  advisor  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and 
to  cap  the  climax,  appointed  a  very  illiterate  coloredmannamed  Johnson,  District 
Treasurer.  '  Johnson  had  failed  as  a  barber  and  as  a  caterer — a  fine  preparatory 
schooling  to  fit  him  for  the  responsible  position  of  custodian  of  the  people's 
money — but  his  appointment  was  a  tub  to  the  negro  whale. 

THE  BEGGARS   ON  HORSEBACK. 

In  organizing  the  new  territorial  government.  Shepherd  and  his  ring  coadjutors 
had  but  little  regard  for  their  loud  professions  of  reform  and  economy  which 
they  indulged  in  while  denouncing  the  old  municipal  government  and  advocating 
a  change.  They  established  at  the  very  outset  a  score  of  bureaus,  with  chiefs 
thereof  drawing  high  salaries.  They  had  chiefs  of  contracts,  of  pay  rolls,  of 
assessments,  of  streets,  of  roads,  of  sewers,  of  buildings,  of  repairs,  of  materials 
and  of  property.  They  began  with  promises  to  do  all  work  for  20  per  cent,  lesp 
than  usual  prices  by  confining  themselves  to  cash  payments,  and  before  three 
years  had  so  encumbered  first,  the  city  of  Washington,  then  the  District  of  Co- 


S2  DISTRICT    OP    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

lumbia,  then  the  Board  of  Public  Works  itself,  with  debt,  that  they  all  sank  to- 
gether under  the  accumulated  weight,  and  left  the  general  government  to  redeem 
their  dishonored  illegal  securities,  which  they  had  issued  in  every  imaginable 
shape. 

As  a  necessary  adjunct  to  the  new  form  of  government,  Shepherd  had  culti- 
vated intimate  relations  with  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds 
— an  office  which  was  transferred  in  1867  from  the  civil  to  the  military  branch  of 
the  public  service,  on  the  theory  that  an  officer  of  the  regular  army  would  not  be 
likely  to  involve  himself  in  speculations  with  outside  parties.  General  N.  Mich- 
ler,  who  filled  the  office  under  assignment  of  March  3d,  1867,  was  an  honest,  up- 
right, genial  gentleman,  but  with  one  unfortunate  weakness,  which  the  ring  took 
advantage  of  and  catered  to,  until  they  had  well  nigh  ruined  him.  His  influence 
was  essential  to  the  success  of  the  ring  plans.  Shepherd  wined  and  dined  him, 
named  a  row  of  houses  after  him,  but  finding  that  a  more  serviceable  tool  could 
be  procured,  he  began  to  intrigue  for  his  displacement,  and  Michler  was  quite 
unexpectedly  ordered  to  the  Pacific  coast  in  June,  1871. 

SHEPHERD  AND  BABCOCK— CAPITAL  UNLIMITED. 

The  office  was  handed  over  to  Orville  E.  Babcock,  who  ruled  in  the  Executive 
Mansion  as  the  President's  Private  Secretary  and  conscience  keeper,  and  occupied 
his  leisure  moments  in  working  up  San  Domingo  and  other  jobs.  Babcock,  a 
few  years  before,  was  the  very  impersonation  of  genteel  poverty  ;  too  poor  to 
Tent  a  whole  house  for  the  use  of  his  family,  he  was  compelled  in  1868  to  form  a 
military  mess  with  the  families  of  other  officers  for  the  sake  of  economy,  at  a 
monthly  expense  of  about  $55  for  each  family  (see  testimony  of  Gen.  Horace 
Porter  in  the  New  York  Custom  House  investigation).  Since  that  time  he  had 
received  no  legacy,  nor  had  any  ships  of  his  "returned  from  the  South  Sea  ;  " 
l)ut  in  a  few  years  after  his  appointment  as  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildmgs 
and  Grounds  he  became  a  great  real  estate  speculator,  built  rows  of  houses  in 
connection  with  Shepherd,  and  grew  rich  at  a  time  when  every  outsider  lost 
heavily  in  real  estate  operations  in  Washington.  It  was,  therefore,  a  fortunate 
occurrence  for  the  ring  that  the  public  grounds  were  at  this  auspicious  time  con- 
fided to  the  care  of  Babcock,  and  not  placed  under  the  control  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Works,  since  subsequently  this  dual  system  enabled  Shepherd  and  Bab- 
<;ock  to  work  in  harmony  in  robbing  the  Public  Treasury,  while  ostensibly  acting 
as  a  check  on  each  other. 

THE  RING   STRENGTHENING   ITSELF. 

Here  we  have  to  record  another  intermezzo.  The  successful  alienation  of  the 
undivided  government  reservation  to  the  Washington  Market  Company  in  the 
spring  of  1870,  heretofore  alluded  to,  acted  as  an  appetizer,  and  before  long  the 
ring  schemers  had  to  throw  another  sop  to  Cerberus.  Thomas  A.  Scott  and  Simon 
Cameron  were  on  the  look-out  for  a  city  station  for  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac 
Railroad  Company  and  their  covetous  eyes  fell  upon  the  Public  Mali,  a  grand 
pleasure  park  stretching  from  the  Capitol  grounds  to  the  reservations  south  of  the 
President's  house,  and  including  the  grounds  about  the  Smithsonian  and  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture.  Here,  within  a  stone's  throw  of  Pennsylvania  avenue, 
these  railroad  kings  selected  a  slice  stretching  for  a  distance  of  eight  hundred  feet 
transversely  through  the  Mall,  so  as  to  mutilate  the  beautiful  plan  of  the  city,  and 
virlually  to  cut  the  splendid  walks  and  drives  of  the  pleasure-grounds  into  two 
disconnected  parks.  In  accordance  with  a  pre-arranged  programme,  a  bill  was 
introduced  in  Congress  to  confirm  the  action  of  the  City  Council,  which,  in  the 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  95 

very  act  of  death,  had  presumed  to  convey  this  ground  to  the  Railroad  Com- 
pany. 

Senator  J.  W.  Patterson,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  was  connected  with  Shep- 
herd in  real  estate  speculations,  in  advocating  this  measure,  said  : 

The  question  is  simply  this,  shall  the  action  of  the  city  government  he  confirmed  hy  Con- 
gress ?  I  have  here  a  line  from  one  of  the  Board  of  Works,  Mr.  Magruder,  saying,  "  The  property 
given  to  the  Potomac  Railroad  belongs  to  the  city  of  Washington." 

Senator  Thurman  retorted,  What  is  this  bill  doing  here  if  the  city  owns  the  land  ? 

Senator  Justin  S.  Morrill  added.  The  city  has  no  more  title  to  this  strip  of  public  park  then 
had  the  Devil  when  he  offered  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  This  was 
a  very  cheap  way  for  the  city  to  manifest  its  generosity. 

Senator  Cameron  said  :  To  think  of  confining  the  city  to  a  little  bit  of  a  park.  The  gentlemen 
who  now  ask  to  have  a  landing  place  for  their  traftic  and  passengers,  have  already  completed  ar- 
rangements by  which,  in  two  years  more,  a  freight  line  will  start  from  New  Orleans  with  cotton  or 
any  other  of  the  products  of  the  country,  and  reach  the  city  of  New  York  in  fifty-eight  hours,  car- 
rying freight  so  cheaply  that  no  water  communication  can  compete  with  the  railroad. 

Mr.  Chipman,  the  ring  delegate  of  the  District,  said  in  the  House,  in  advocating  the  same  mea- 
sure, March  22d,  1872,  The  question  was,  whether  the  prospective  park  west  of  the  Capitol, 
stretching  down  toward  the  Executive  Mansion,  was  of  more  importance  than  the  commercial  in- 
terest of  the  city  and  District  ? 

In  vain  the  citizens  protested  against  this  threatened  mutilation  of  the  public 
Mall;  the  arrangements  had  been  made  between  the  railroad  kings  and  the  Dis- 
trict ring.  The  action  of  the  City  Council  was  confirmed  by  Congress,  and  the 
alliance  between  the  railroad  jobbers  and  the  Board  of  Public  Works  was  com- 
plete. 

THE   RING   LEGISLATURE   IN   SESSION. 

The  first  Legislative  Assembly  of  the  Territorial  Government,  assembled  May 
15th,  1871,  and  Governor  Cooke  in  his  message  said,  that  the  funded  debt  of  the 
municipalities  of  Washington  and  Georgetown,  and  of  the  Levy  Court  of  the 
county,  was  about  $2,350,000.  He  estimated  the  floating  debt,  accrued  and  ac- 
cruing from  existing  contracts,  to  be  $1,000,000,  and  urged  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  to  ascertain  and  audit  the  same,  and  to  devise  a  plan  for  funding  it. 
He  set  down  the  receipts  of  the  Corporation  of  Washington,  from  general  taxa- 
tion, at  $1,500,000,  and  claimed  that  the  expenditures  of  the  same,  including 
schools,  police,  fire  department,  gas,  salaries  and  interest  on  the  debt,  would  be 
$800,000,  leaving  a  surplus  of  $700,000,  applicable  to  street  improvements  and 
the  reduction  of  the  debt. 

The  "  Union  Club"  had  been  established  across  the  street  from  the  hall  where 
the  Legislative  Assembly  met.  There  William  A.  Cooke  was  hidden  in  a  private 
room,  employed  night  and  day  drawing  up  bills  at  the  dictation  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Works,  and  the  Legislative  Assembly  was  simply  required  to  register  the 
decrees  of  this  autocratic  body. 

On  June  16th  the  House  of  Delegates  called  for  a  plan  of  improvements  deemed 
necessary  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and  the  estimated  cost  thereof. 

On  June  20th,  four  days  afterwards,  the  Board  submitted  an  elaborate,  "com- 
prehensive planj"  of  improvements,  "  for  every  portion  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia," accompanied  by  detailed  estimates.  Accompanying  this  comprehensive 
plan  was  a  statement  submitted  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  from  which  we 
extract  the  following  : 

The  Board  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  interests  of  the  District  imperatively  require  that  the 
necessary  appropriations  should  at  once  be  granted,  that  operations  may  be  commenced  without 
delay. 

THE  MILLIONS  BEGIN  TO  FLOW. 

Such  extraordinary  haste  excited  the  suspicion  that  the  greatest  possible  amount 
of  plundering  was  to  be  done  in  the  shortest  space  of  time.  The  estimated  cost 
of  the  proposed  improvements  was  $6,578,397,  of  which  one  third  was  held  to  be 
assessable  on  adjoining  private  property,  so  that  an  appropriation  of  $4,385,598 


$4  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AXD    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

was  asked  for;  and  on  July  lOtli  aa  act  was  passed  authorizing  the  Government 
to  contract  a  loan  by  issuing  $4,000,000  of  bonds,  the  whole  of  which  were  to  be 
placed  under  the  control  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  without  requiring  any 
of  the  guarantees  usually  imposed  upon  the  custodians  of  public  funds. 

The  remarkable  speed  which  the  new  government  displayed  in  contracting  in- 
debtedness startled  the  community,  and  numbers  of  citizens  sued  out  an  injunc- 
tion restraining  the  issue  of  the  bonds,  in  order  to  test  the  legality  of  the  law 
authorizing  the  $4,000,000  loan  ;  but  the  ring  Avas  not  to  be  baffled  in  this  way, 
and  at  the  instance  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  the  Legislative  Assem- 
bly, without  awaiting  the  action  of  the  courts,  passed  on  August  19th,  1871, 
another  law  authorizing  a  loan  of  $4,000,000,  which  was  to  be  submitted  to  the 
vote  of  the  people.  All  the  machinery  which  had  been  employed  under  the  cor- 
rupt Bowen  administration  to  manipulate  the  impecunious  voters  of  the  District 
was  brought  into  requisition  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and  a  large  majority 
obtained  for  the  proposed  loan  bill. 

FALSE  REPRESENTATION. 

A  prospectus  of  the  loan  was  published  in  the  leading  newspapers  of  Europe. 
Its  tenor  was  that  this  was  a  loan  guarantee  by  the  United  States,  and  contained 
absurdly  false  statements,  such  as  the  following  : 

"  Besides  the  guarantee  secured  to  the  creditor  by  this  exceptional  position,  the  state  of  the 
finances  of  the  District  of  Cohimbia  and  of  the  city  of  Washington  is  exceedingly  favorable,  as  it 
was  officially  ascertained  that  on  the  31st  of  May,  1871,  the  entire  indebtedness  of  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington and  Georgetown,  and  the  county  of  Washington,  amounted  only  to  $3,090,492.27,  against 
&  taxable  real  and  personal  property  valued  at  $190,000,000.  Of  this  $30,000,000  represents  taxable 
property  belonging  to  the  United  States  Government." 

This  statement  was  false,  for  the  taxable  real  and  personal  property  of  the 
District,  at  the  assessment  of  June  30th,  1872,  amounted  to  only  $86,215,337. 
The  United  States  has  no  taxable  property  in  the  District,  and  the  debt  of  the 
District  at  the  date  of  this  prospectus  was  in  reality  $4,381,297.37.  When  Gov- 
-ernor  Cooke  was  confronted- with  these  disgraceful  deceptions,  by  which  the 
credit  of  the  District  was  temporarily  inflated,  he  claimed  to  have  sold  the  bonds 
at  94  cents  net  to  the  First  National  Bank  of  New  York,  and  disclaimed  any 
knowledge  of  or  participation  in  the  negotiations  in  Europe.  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  that  the  notorious  prospectus  was  published  over  the  signature  of  Seligman 
&  Stettheimer,  and  that  the  Seligmans  are  the  successors  of  Jay  Cooke,  McCul- 
loch  &  Co.  as  the  financial  agents  of  the  United  States  in  Europe. 

THE  JUDICIARY  PROSTITUTED. 

The  temporary  injunction  on  the  issue  of  the  first  $4,030,000  of  bonds  was 
"dissolved,  the  judge  who  determined  the  cause  having  been  called  to  the  rescue 
from  his  Western  home,  and  given  a  fine  mansion  in  Georgetown  in  exchange 
for  a  piece  of  swamp  land  in  Arkansas.  Undoubtedly  the  Ring  originally  in- 
tended to  issue  the  bonds  authorized  by  each  separate  act  of  the  Legislative  As 
sembly,  but  they  were  prohibited  by  an  act  of  Congress  from  negotiating  more 
than  $4,000,000.  The  funded  debt  of  the  District  was  limited  by  the  organic  act 
to  5  per  centum  of  the  taxable  real  estate.  This  the  Ring  sought  to  evade,  by 
ignoring  the  funded  debt  of  the  old  municipalities ;  but  Congress  was  forced  by 
the  clamors  of  the  citizens  to  declare,  under  the  Act  of  May  8th,  1872,  that,  in 
the  meaning  of  the  organic  law,  the  debts  of  the  old  municipalities  were  to  be  inr 
eluded;  but,  inasmuch  as  the  old  funded  debt  and  the  new  $1,000,000  loan  would 
have  exceeded  the  5  per  cent,  limitation,  this  clause  was  repealed,  and  the  limit 
of  the  debt  of  the  District  was  fixed  at  the  round  sum  of  $10,000,000.  On  this 
$4,000,000  Loan  Act  as  a  basis,  the  Board  of  Public  Works  reared  a  colossal  debt, 


DISTlilCT    OF    COLUMBIA    EIXG    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  95 

which  now  rests  with  an  oppressive  weight  upon  the  people  of  the  District.  The 
means  by  which  this  gigantic  indebtedness  was  created  were  as  tortuous  as  the 
necessities  of  desperate  men  could  suggest.  The  charge  of  one-third  of  the  cost 
of  improvements  on  adjoining  property,  public  and  private,  was  legitimate,  but 
the  cost  of  improvements  were  swelled  purposely,  in  order  that  the  assessment 
on  private  property  might  be  increased,  and  false  measurements  were  resorted 
to,  with  the  connivance  and  participation  of  General  Babcock,  Commissioner  of 
Public  Buildings  and  Grounds,  in  order  to  increase  the  charges  made  against 
property  owned  by  the  government.  Being  unable  by  all  these  devices  to  keep 
up  their  sinking  credit,  the  Board  of  Public  Works  resorted  to  the  issue  of  certi- 
ficates of  indebtedness  in  every  imaginable  form,  thus  recklessly  increasing  the 
debt  of  the  District  in  the  face  of  the  plain  letter  of  the  law.  When  finally 
false  statements  of  the  financial  condition  of  the  District  would  no  longer  avail 
them,  the  insolent  legal  proposition  was  started  that  the  constitutional  limitation 
applied  simply  to  the  District  proper,  and  that  the  Board  of  Public  Works  was 
an  independent  corporation,  with  the  power  to  create  a  debt  without  limit. 

ARRANGING   SCHEMES  OP   PLUNDER. 

While  the  District  government  was  arranging  this  plan  and  preparing  for  its 
career  of  jobbery,  affiliated  Ring  speculators  were  devising  various  schemes  of 
plunder.  Chief  among  these  was  the  formation  of  the  Ileal  Estate  Pool,  with 
two  branches  acting  conjointly  and  separately  as  the  interests  of  the  master 
spirits  required.  As  a  tender  to  this,  a  contract  pool  was  made  which  was  de- 
signed to  monopolize  all  the  high-priced  paving  jobs.  •  Hallet  Kilbourne  was 
chosen  as  the  middleman  of  one  branch  of  the  Real  Estate  Pool,  while  his 
partner,  James  M.  Latta,  acted  for  the  other.  Kilbourne  had  in  his  combination 
five  parties,  one  being  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  District,  and  two 
others  being  Members  of  Congress,  while  the  remaining  two  are  unknown  to  the 
present  day.  Senator  William  M.  Stewart,  of  Navada,  and  two  Pacific  Coast 
speculators  were  the  principal  parties  interested  with  Latta  in  the  second  branch 
of  the  Real  Estate  Pool.  John  O.  Evans  and  Lewis  Clephane,  the  former  an  un- 
scrupulous contractor,  and  the  latter  a  trustee  of  the  Freedman's  Savings  Bank, 
deep  in  all  the  rascalities  by  which  the  poor  freedman  were  robbed,  stood  as  god- 
fathers for  most  of  the  operations  of  the  contract  pool.  Kilbourne,  a  sharp  un- 
scrupulous fellow,  who  had  formerly  been  the  chief  clerk  in  the  Interior 
Department,  was  set  up  in  the  real  estate  business  by  William  S.  Huntington, 
<'.ashier  of  the  First  National  Bank.  He  had  probably  been  useful  to  Hunting- 
ton in  his  official  capacity,  and  was  brought  out  of  obscurity  by  this  shrewd  and 
enterprising  gentleman,  who  doubtless  designed  to  use  him  in  a  more  enlarged 
field  of  operations.  Kilbourne  is  a  clever  talker,  earnest  and  impressive,  capable 
of  setting  forth  a  speculative  venture  in  its  most  attractive  form.  When  the 
Ring  was  fairly  organized,  the  part  assigned  him  to  play  wa^ 

TO  ENTICE  CONGRESSMEN,  JUDGES  AND  INFLUENTIAL  FEDERAL  OFFICE-HOLDERS 

to  invest  in  the  Real  Estate  Pool,  and  to  lend  their  influence  to  secure  from  Con- 
gress such  legislation  as  the  Board  of  Public  Works  desired.  One  of  the  objects 
which  Huntington  had  in  establishing  him  in  the  real  estate  business  was  to  have 
an  unscrupulous  man  who  might  be  used  to  appraise  property  on  which  it  was 
desired  to  procure  loans  from  the  Freedman's  Bank.  Henry  D.  Cooke,  Hunting- 
ton and  Lewis  Clephane,  constituted  the  majority  of  the  Finance  Committee  of 
that  concern,  and  virtually  controlled  the  accumulated  deposits,  amounting  to 
over  $4,000,000,  which  had  been  collected  from  the  poor  freedmen  of  the  South. 


96  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

Kilbourne's  duty,  as  appraiser  of  the  Freedman's  Bank,  was  to  act  as  a  go- 
between  for  the  Cookes  and  Huntington,  and  parties  who  desired  to  effect  loans 
on  their  real  estate.  If  Cooke  or  Huntington  was  applied  to  for  a  loan  of  the 
freedmen's  money  on  real  estate,  or  other  securities,  the  applicant  was  politely 
referred  to  Kilbourne,  just  as  subsequently  if  any  one  wanted  a  contract  he  was 
sent  to  the  same  source.  In  this  way  Kilbourne  got  a  fee  for  appraising  property 
for  the  Freedman's  Bank,  and  another  of  2^  per  cent,  for  negotiating  the  loan. 
In  a  short  time,  from  comparative  poverty  he  rose  to  affluence,  and  discarding 
the  modest  tenement  house  in  which  he  had  lived  for  many  years,  built  himself  a 
palatial  mansion  close  to  the  palace  of  Boss  Shepherd,  and  blossomed  out  into  a 
leader  of  the  shoddy  fashion  of  the  national  capital. 

A   USEFUL  JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES. 

Lewis  Clephane,  a  fussy,  lean  little  man  with  sharp  features,  fair  complexion, 
and  weasel  eyes,  protected  by  gold  spectacles,  had  figured  about  Washington  as 
a  Jack-of-all-trades  for  twenty  years  or  more,  without  making  a  reputation,  or 
accumulating  a  fortune.  He  began  his  career  in  the  office  of  Doctor  Bailey's 
National  Era,  an  anti-slavery  weekly,  where  he  made  himself  generally  useful  in 
the  dual  capacity  of  clerk  and  solicitor  of  advertising.  From  his  connection  with 
this  paper  he  obtained  a  bowing  acquaintance  with  the  anti-slavery  magnates  of 
the  olden  time.  This  slender  acquaintance  served  him  as  his  political  and  reli- 
gious stock  In  trade,  when  the  Republican  Party  came  into  power.  He  was 
made  city  postmaster,  and  afterwards  collector  of  internal  revenue  by  Mr, 
Lincoln.  Neither  of  these  offices  afforded  scope  for  his  genius,  which  was 
especially  adapted  to  jobbery.  As  Vice-president  and  member  of  the  Finance 
Committee  of  tlie  Freedman's  Savings  Bank,  Clephane  had  important  functions 
to  perform  for  the  Ring.  The  Metropolis  Paving  Company,  Lewis  Clephane, 
president,  and  the  Scharf  Concrete  Paving  Company,  John  O.  Evans,  president, 
while  struggling  for  recognition  at  the  hands  of  a  skeptic  community,  had  to  be 
sustained  by  loans  advanced  on  their  as  yet  worthless  stock  from  the  ever  con- 
venient savings  of  the  poor  freedmen.  These  two  worthies,  the  presidents  of  the 
two  principal  Ring  paving  companies  soon  proved  themselves  to  be  adepts  in  Bill 
Kemble's  art  of  "  addition,  division  and  silence." 

THE  boss's   "SQUAREST  CONTRACTOR." 

Evans  was  a  keen,  shrewd,  close-mouthed  operator,  who  kept  aloof  from  poli- 
tics, and  unlike  other  members  of  the  Ring,  eschewed  fashionable  life.  These 
qualities  fitted  him  admirably  for  the  part  which  he  was  at  a  later  date  to  play  as 
the  representative  of  the  Shepherd-Babcock-White-House  Ring,  which  fattened 
exclusively  on  government  pap  by  means  of  extortionate  prices  for  work  done 
on,  in  front  of,  and  through  government  reservations,  the  measurement  of  which 
was  confided  to  Babcock,  and  the  bills  certified  to  by  him  and  paid  by  Shepherd 
out  of  the  appropriations  made  by  Congress.  The  confidence  placed  in  Evans  is 
shown  by  the  following  testimony  of  Shepherd  before  the  Joint  Investigating 
Committee  : 

I  can  say  this  much  for  Mr.  John  O.  Evans,  that  he  in  one  of  the  best  business  men  lever  knew, 
and  as  a  contractor,  he  is  one  of  the  squarest  and  most  upright  men  I  ever  met;  that  the  work  done 
by  him  is  unsurpassed  by  that  done  by  any  other  person  in  this  city.  There  never  has  been  any 
difficulty  with  him  in  getting  him  to  make  his  work  right  (page  1936,  District  Investigation.) 

Of  course  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  men  of  a  low  standard  of  morality  would 
deal  with  each  other  honestly  except  when  compelled  so  to  do  by  the  cohesive 
power  of  public  plunder.  Huntington  died  in  1872,  and  his  Ring  associates,  true 
to  their  real  natures,  undertook  to  defraud  his  widow  of  the  proportion  of  spoils 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA.    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER   BRIBE.  91 

justly  due  her.  Determined  to  bring  her  husband's  unscrupulous  partners  to 
terras,  Mrs.  Huntington  gave  publicity  to  the  following  letter,  which  was  written 
by  Hallet  Kilbourne  to  Huntington  : 

A  VERY   SUGGESTIVE   LETTER. 

GiLSEY  HousB,  New  York,  "> 

Corner  Broadway  and  Twenty-ninth  streets,  1 

Bbbslin,  Gardner  &  Co.,  Proprietors,         f 
New  York,  Friday,  August  25, 1871.  J 
Mp  Dear  General :  Evans,  Clephane  and  mj'gelf  left  Washinjjton  last  night  to  visit  Pliiladelphia 
and  this  place,  and  "  gobble  up  "  all  the  asphalt  or  concrete  pavements  we  can.     In  Philadelphia, 
to-day,  we  secured  Filbert's  vulcanite  pavement,  which  is  being  used  quite  extensively  in  the  park, 
and  has  the  very  best  recommendations.     We  shall  close  up  the  business  to-morrow  In  black  and 
white.    We  bought  a  steam-roller  to-day  from  an  English  agent,  who  orders  it  from  Liverpool  by 
cable  to-night.    It  costs,  delivered,  about  $5,200.     We  shall  secure  another  stone-breaker  and  a  lot  of 
asi)halt  to-morrow.    The  Board  of  Public  Works  have  advertised   for  proposals  for  paving,  to  be 
opened  next  Friday,  the  1st  instant.     We   propose  to  be  prepared  for  them.    We  had  to  make  a 
email  King  of  about  seven  persons  in  order  to  accomplish  results.    In  this  Bmg  we  had  to  put  all  the 
concretes.    Evans,  Clephane,   yourself,  Kelley,  Kidwell,  and  myself  comprise  six  of  the  "  Ring." 
We  shall  pu  t  it  in  the  best  shape  possible.    We  shall  try  and  control  the  entire  Ick  of  asphalt  pave- 
ments.   We  will  go  home  Sunday  evening  and  get  all  things  in  readiness  for  1st  of  September. 
H.  D.  C.  tells  me  to  draw  on  him  for  $25,000  cash  for  Real  Estate  Pool. 
Hope  you  will  make  a  special  effort  in  Junction  Railroad  bonds. 

I  judge  fromyour  telegram  to  Frank  from  St.  Petersburgh  that  you  will  hardly  get  the  Perkins 
claim  through  in  time  to  return  on  steamer  of  16th  September;  hope,  however,  you  will,  as  it  is 
devilish  lonesome  and  quiet  here  during  your  absence. 

Let  me  hear  from  you.  Truly  yours,  HALLET  K. 

THEY  COME  DOWN  WITH  THE  CASH, 

The  publication  of  this  letter  was  notice  to  the  mean  scoundrels  who  would 
have  defrauded  the  widow  that  unless  they  came  down  with  the  cash  there  was 
more  ammunition  in  the  same  magazine  which  would  be  exploded  at  the  proper 
time,  and  accordingly  they  settled.  As  to  the  bearing  of  the  above  letter  on  the 
Real  Estate  Pool  it  was  proved  and  admitted,  before  the  Joint  Investigating  Com- 
mittee of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  that  H.  D.  C.  stood  for  Henry  D.  Cooke,  the 
governor  of  the  District,  who  subsequently  claimed  that  he  had  put  up  the  $25,000 
for  the  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. ;  and,  still  later,  Kilbourne  &  Latta,  acting  for 
thQ  Real  Estate  Pool,  to  prevent  further  exposures,  compromised  with  the  trustee 
of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  creditors  by  the  payment  of  $40,000  in  cash.  It  was  also 
admitted  that  besides  the  $25,000  advanced  by  H.  D.  Cooke,  five  other  parties  put 
up  $5,000  apiece,  making  a  pool  of  $50,000  for  the  Kilbourne  branch  of  the  Real 
Estate  Pool. 

Upon  the  trifling  capital  of  $50,000  this  Real  Estate  Pool  accomplished  wonders 
by  virtually  making  the  millions  spent  for  improvements  a  part  of  their  working 
capital  and  by  commanding  the  credit  of  the  then  solvent  house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. 

A  DEVICE   OF  THE  RING. 

On  June  20th,  1871,  two  months  before  Kilbourne's  letter  to  Huntington  above 
given  was  written,  the  Board  of  Public  Works  sent  the  schedule  and  estimates  of 
the  improvements  contemplated  under  their  "comprehensive  plan  "to  the  Dis- 
trict Legislature.  These  documents,  as  subsequent  events  have  demonstrated, 
were  framed  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  public,  as  well  as  contractors  not  in , 
the  Ring.     They  contain  the  official  declaration  that — 

The  board  is  satisfied,  upon  careful  consideratioe,  that  as  a  rule  the  value  of  property  in  the  Dis- 
trict will  not  warrant  the  general  introduction  of  wood  or  other  expensive  pavements,  and,  if  at  all  • 
used,  it  should  be  confined  to  a  few  of  the  principal  avenues  of  communication. 

The  estimates  included  but  231,000  square  yards  of  wood  pavement,  at  prices 
ranging  from  $3  to  $4  per  yard,  while  no  concretes  were  estimated  for.  There 
are  now  fully  2,000,000  square  yards  of  these  expensive  and  altogether  w^orthless 
pavements  in  this  city.  John  O.  Evans,  Kilbourne,  and  their  associates  were  so 
well  informed  of  the  real  intentions  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and  so  sure  of ' 
gobbling  up  "all  the  concretes,"  that  they  imported  a  steam  roller,  expensive; 


98  DISTRICT    OF    COLUiAIBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

stone  breakers,  and  other  machinery,  costing  over  $30,000,  and  purchased  "a  lot 
of  asphalt "  one  week  before  any  bids  were  opened.  This  false  declaration  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works  also  enabled  them  to  "gobble  up  "  the  right  to  use  in  the 
District,  on  very  favorable  terms,  the  most  profitable  patents  for  wood  and  con- 
crete pavements.  Thus  the  Contractors'  Ring  was  made  ready  for  the  carnival 
of  plunder. 

The  northwestern  and  the  northeastern  sections  of  the  city  slope  from  the 
boundary  down  to  North  L  and  G  streets,  and  were  then  vast  tracts  of  unim- 
proved land,  with 

LARGE   AREAS   COVERED   WITH   WATER 

during  a  portion  of  the  year.  The  first  named  locality  was  selected  as  the  theater 
of  the  Real  Estate  Pool's  operations.  Such  streets  in  both  of  these  quarters  as 
were  enumerated  in  the  board's  communication  to  the  District  Legislature  for  im- 
provement were  specified  for  graveling,  with  here  and  there  some  macadamizing. 
Speculation  in  real  estate  based  upon  information  open  to  all  of  course  was 
legitimate.  But  while  the  specifications  were,  so  far  as  the  northeastern  section 
was  concerned,  adhered  to  in  the  limited  amount  of  work  done  there,  the  pool 
district  was  paved  with  the  most  expensive  wood  and  concrete  pavements.  The 
avenues  and  streets  were  extended  through  this  section  and  graded,  paved,  parked 
and  bordered  with  shade  trees,  the  reservations  laid  out  and  improved  in  the  most 
extravagant  manner,  while  over  the  vast  expanse  there  were  dotted,  at  long  dis- 
tances apart,  only  a  few  scores  of  dwelling  houses.  This  locality  is  travereed  in 
every  direction  by  avenues,  and  the  general  government,  by  the  shrewd  manipu- 
lations of  the  Committees  on  Appropriations  in  the  Senate  and  House,  has  been 
made  to  pay  five-sixths  of  the  cost  of  improving  these,  while  two-thirds  of  the 
cost  of  the  streets,  by  the  organic  act  of  1871,  was  chargeable  to  the  general  fund 
of  the  District.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  vast 
expenditures  which  have  been  lavished  on  the  pool  property  came  out  of  fne 
pockets  of  the  speculators  who  profited  thereby. 

ADDITION,    DIVISION   AND   SILENCE. 

The  change  in  the  plan  which  was  sent  to  the  Legislature  was  kept  secret  for  a 
whole  year.  The  contracts  which  were  let  during  that  period  covered  the  cen- 
tral section  of  the  city  and  a  few  main  lines  of  travel  into  the  country,  and  thus 
the  public  was  led  to  believe  that  the  published  programme  was  to  be  carried  out 
in  good  faith.  The  first  contract  of  any  magnitude  for  work  to  be  done  in  the 
northwestern  section  was  let  August  Cth,  1872,  to  Chas.  E.  Evans  &  Co.,  for 
$290,875  worth  of  concrete  pavements  to  be  laid  on  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts avenues.  Eighteenth,  L  and  other  streets.  The  interval  between  the  publi- 
cation of  the  false  estimates  and  this  denouement  of  the  plot  gave  the  conspira- 
tors ample  time  to  buy  up  for  a  song  the  property  they  had  in  view,  and  when 
questioned  by  the  investigating  committee,  Kilbourne  could  insolently  reply, 
"We  had  faith." 

The  amount  of  cash  capital  with  which  this  huge  speculation  was  started  seems 
insignificant,  but  all  the  purchases  were  made  for  small  cash  payments,  notes 
running  a  long  time  being  given  for  the  balance,  and  secured  by  deeds  of  trust. 
The  pool  relied  on  the  great  profits  which  they  expected  to  make  from  sales  to 
meet  these  notes  as  they  fell  due.  They  expected  outsiders  to  be  inspired  with 
"  faith  "  as  soon  as  the  public  became  aware  of  the  extent  of  the  improvements  to 
be  made  in  the  pool  district.  The  following  transactions  show  that  these  expect- 
ations were  speedily  realized: 


DISTRICT   OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER   BRIBE.  99 

RING  PROFITS. 

September  23,  1871,  Hallet  Kilbourne,  trustee,  bought  of  W.  W.  Rapley  140,- 

406  square  feet  of  ground  in  square  203  for  $31,525,  of  which  $15,000  remained 

at  0  per  cent,  interest,  secured  by  deed  of  trust.    The  same  lots  were  sold  March 

32,  1873,  to  Charles  Payson,  for  $35,785,  subject  to  the  deed  of  trust  for  $15,000, 

or  in  toto  for  $50,875.     This  transaction  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

Outlay  of  Real  Estate  Pool ;  cash  paid  September,  1871 $6,525  00 

Interest  on  cost  and  incumbrance  for  eighteen  months 1,291  50 

Taxes  for  one  year  on  assessed  value  of  $19,888 400  OO 

Total  casb  outlay        $8,216  50 

On  this  expenditure  of  $8,216.50  they  received  within  eighteen  months  $35,875, 
a  net  profit  of  $27,658  cash,  which  is  equal  to  a  return  of  $436  for  an  invest- 
ment of  $100. 

Another  illustration.  Lot  4  in  square  157  was  bought  September  27,  1871,  and 
sold  May  3,  1873.  The  expenses,  calculated  as  above,  foot  up  about  $3,162  cash, 
and  a  net  profit  of  $5,443  was  realized  thereon.  In  this  instance  an  outlay  of 
$100  brought  back  $272. 

These  sales  were  made  at  a  time  when  the  pool  wanted  money  to  meet  deferred 
payments  on  other  property.  The  major  portion  of  their  purchases  were  made, 
however,  at  twenty-five  or  thirty  cents  per  square  foot,  and  all  this  property  is 
now  held  at  from  $1.50  to  $  2  per  foot. 

The  da-es  of  these  transactions  show  that  while  the  Board  of  Public  Works 
misled  outside  capitalists  by  false  official  statements,  Henry  D.  Cooke,  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  District  and  ex  officio  President  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  pros- 
tituted his  official  position  by  entering  into  a  conspiracy  to  deceive  the  public, 
and,  by 

fiPECDLATING  ON   INFORMATION   . 

known  to  him  only  as  a  sworn  officer,  thereby  enriched  himself  and  his  confed- 
erates. He  furnished  one  half  the  capital  of  this  cash  pool;  and  had  not  bank- 
ruptcy overtaken  his  firm,  the  secrets  of  this  conspiracy  would  in  all  probability 
have  been  unknown  to-day. 

The  other  branch  of  the  Real  Estate  Pool  which  was  ostensibly  headed  by  Wil- 
liam M.  Stewart,  and  for  which  Latta,  Kil bourne's  partner  acted  as  trustee,  un- 
doubtedly acted  in  harmony  with  the  Kilbourne-Cooke  branch. 

Curtis  J.  Hillyer  and  Thomas  Sunderland,  two  Pacific  coast  speculators,  were 
associated  at  different  dates — the  f'^)rmer  in  May,  1871,  and  the  latter  about  May, 
1872 — with  Stewart.  The  operations  of  Stewart  in  mining  stocks  had  so  crip- 
pled him  that  in  December,  1872,  he  was  compelled  to  retire  from  the  Real 
Estate  Pool;  but  he  received  a  bonus  of  $18,000  for  his  interest  in  the  profits  to 
be  realized.  Hillyer  and  Sunderland  remained,  and  Latta  conducted  all  their 
operations  as  trustee  in  the  same  secret  manner  which  Kilbourne  originated  for 
his  CO  conspirators. 

All  the  best  tracts  of  land  held  by  the  trustees  could  be  sold  by  them  in  fee 

simple  or  mortgaged  without  the  interference  of  the  parties  for  whom  they  were 

acting,  as  will  appear  by  the  following,  which  formed  the  habendum  clause  in 

every  dc<  d  by  which  property  was  conveyed  to  them: 

"To  have  and  to  hold  the  same  pieces  or  parcels  of  prronnds,  premises,  and  appurtenances  nnto 
and  to  tlic  use  of  the  said  party  of  the  second  part,  his  heirs  and  assigns  in  and  upon  the  trusts, 
and  for  tlie  purposes  particularly  set  forth  in  a  printed  paper  bearing  even  date  with  these  presents, 
and  signed  by  the  said  pirty  of  the  second  part  with  full  power,  however,  in  the  said  party  of  the 
second  part  to  pell  and  convey  said  property  in  fee  simple,  or  by  wav  of  mortgage,  or  deed  of  trust, 
to  secure  payment  of  money  at  such  time  and  place,  or  such  sums  of  money,  upon  such  terms  and 
m  such  manner  as  in  his  judgment  may  be  proper,  without  any  liability^  on  the  part  of  the  pur 


100  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    KING    A^D    DE    GOLYEE    BRIBE, 

chaser  or  inortgaisror  to  see  to  the  application  of  the  purchase  money,  or  money  advanced  on  mort- 
gcige  or  deed  of  trust  as  aforesaid." 

The  "  printed  paper"  referred  to  in  the  above  quoted  habendum  clause  was  a 
skillfully  drawn  instrument  of  concealment.  The  following  is  a  copy  of  the 
form  used  by  the  Kilbourne  branch  of  the  pool : 

THE  INSTRUMENT  OF  CONCEALMENT. 

"  Whereas,  The  following  real  estate  in  the  city  of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  has,  by 
the  parties  hereinafter  named,  and  by  deeds  bearing  dates  as  stated  (property  described  by  squares 
and  lots),  been  conveyed  to  me  in  fee  simple; 

"  To  have  and  to  hold  the  same  upon  trusts  and  for  the  purposes  set  forth  in  this  paper  signed 
and  sealed  by  me,  bearing  even  date  with  the  said  deeds.  And  whereas,  the  cash  payment  of  the 
purcha  e  money  for  said  property  and  other  was  advanced  by  the  following  named  persons,  in  re- 
spective bums  set  opposite  their  names,  to  wit: 

Jay  Cooke  &  Co ^25,000  00 

Five  other  parties,  each  $5,000 25,000  00 

Total $50,00000 

And  Wliereas,  Promissory  notes  for  the  deferred  payment  of  the  said  purcha>se  money  have 
been  given  for  the  said  parties  respectively  as  follows:  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  one-half  ;  five  other 
parties,  each  one-tenth. 

Now,  therefore,  this  is  to  declare  that  I  hold  said  real  estate  in  trust,  to  be  held,  managed  and 
sold  for  the  above-named  parties  in  fee  simple  as  tenants  in  common  ;  the  interest  of  said  parties 
in  said  real  estate  bein^^  in  proportion  to  the  sums  paid  by  them  respectively.  It  l>einir  understood 
that  upon  the  failure  or  any  of  the  said  parties  to  pay  their  proportion  of  said  notes  or  interests  or 
taxes,  as  the  baine  become  due  (first  havmg  been  notified  of  the  amount  require  d  and  time  of  pay- 
ment), then  the  same  may  be  paid  by  the  remaining  parties  in  interest  and,  at  their  option, 
refund  to  such  delinquent  party  or  parties  the  sum  of  money  previously  advanced  without  interest, 
and  such  delinquent's  interest  in  said  property  shall  revert  to  the  remaining  parties  in  proportion 
to  amounts  severally  advanced  by  them  to  make  good  said  delinquent's  interest. 
Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  this  2d  day  of  October,  A.  D.,  1S72. 

(Signed)  HALLET  KILBOURNE,  Trustee.        {x..  s.] 

We  acknowledge  the  above  statement  to  be  correct,  and  agree  to  the  same. 

(Signed)  JAY  COOKE  «fc  CO., 

And  by  five  others. 

TRYING  TO  DEFRAUD  CREDITORS. 

On  September  18, 1873,  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  failed,  and  six  days  later  the  conspira- 
tors interested  in  the  Real  Estate  Pool,  with  the  assistance  of  the  members  of  the 
firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  undertook  to  defraud  the  creditors  of  that  concern  by 
ayailing  themselves  of  the  clause  in  the  "  printed  paper  "  to  call  in  an  assessment. 
This,  of  course,  Henry  D.  Cooke  declared  himself  unable  to  pay,  in  order  that 
there  might  be  an  opportunity  to  forfeit  his  interest  and  thus  prevent  the  affairs 
of  the  pool  from  being  overhauled  in  the  bankruptcy  proceedings.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  action  of  the  Ring  a  suit  was  entered  in  1875  by  the  trustee  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Co. 's  creditors  to  compel  Kilbourne  &  Latta,  as  the  trustees  of  the 
Real  Estate  Pool,  to  state  an  account.  This  frightened  all  the  men  who  were 
interested  in  the  pool,  and  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on  Mr.  Lewis,  the  trustee 
of  Cooke's  creditors,  who  finally  compromised  the  matter  on  the  payment  of 
$40,000  by  Kilbourne  «&  Latta — a  sum  altogether  inadequate,  since  the  profits  of 
the  Ring,  as  has  already  been  shown,  were  very  much  larger. 

The  intimate  connection  of  the  two  branches  of  the  Real  Estate  Pool  is  evi- 
denced by  a  transaction  recorded  October  2,  1872,  when  James  M.  Latta,  the 
trustee  of  the  Pacific  coast  pool,  conveyed  273,000  square  feet  of  valuable  ground 
iu  the  northwestern  section,  on  which,  according  to  the  records,  cash  payments 
to  the  amount  of  nearly  $50,000  had  been  made  to  Hallet  Kilbourne,  trustee  of 
the  Cooke  pool,  for  a  consideration  of  one  dollar!  Latta,  when  examined  before 
the  joint  select  committee  in  1874,  in  vain  attempted  to  explain  this  transaction, 
Jiut  the  most  he  claimed  was  that  he  had  received  from  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.'s  bank 
about  $6,000  on  the  order  of  Kilbourne  to  make  the  purchase.  On  the  other 
side,  Kilbourne,  trustee,  conveyed  in  May,  1872,  square  150,  for  which  his  pool 
had  paid  $13,748  cash,  and  gave  a  deed  of  trust  for  $52,000  (total  $65,748),  to 
iames  M.  Latta,  trustee,  for  $90,429,  subject  to  the  above-mentioned  deed  of 
trust,  making  a  total  of  $143,177. 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    ANf>    i)K  'GK^LrKK  iBCI^i-:.  101 

TO  MISLEAD  FUTURE  CUSTOMERS, 

and  settle  with  their  secret  allies,  numerous  bogus  transactions  were  put  on 
record.  For  instance,  Stewart  and  Hilly er  purchased  in  June,  1871,  squares  66 
and  93  for  $64,700.  After  Hillyer  bought  out  Stewart  he  kept  a  piece  of  land 
from  the  above,  which  was  proportionately  worth  $6,500,  and  conveyed  the  rest 
in  March,  1873,  for  a  consideration  of  $125,000,  subject  to  a  deed  of  trust  for 
$51,700,  to  James  M.  Latta  as  trustee. 

The  titles  to  the  rest  of  the  pool  purchases  oscillated  between  the  three  mem- 
bers of  the  firm  of  Kilbourno  &  Latta  (John  F.  Olmstead  being  the  third  mem- 
ber), as  tlie  necessities  of  covering  their  transactions  seemed  to  dictate.  The 
aggregate  purchases  of  the  two  pools  from  July,  1871,  to  July,  1873,  were  2,456,- 
046  square  feet  of  ground,  for  which  they  paid  $704,267. 30— about  one-fourth  in  cash 
and  the  balance  in  long  notes.  This  shows  an  average  of  about  29  cents  per  foot. 
There  were  in  1873  bona  fide  sales  of  pool  property  recorded,  amounting  to  307,- 
614  square  feet,  yielding  over  $217,000,  or  an  average  of  nearly  70  cents  per  foot, 
and  75,223  square  feet  were  withdrawn  as  sites  for  the  palaces  of  Messrs.  Stew- 
art and  Hillyer.  At  this  date  there  are  2,063,219  square  feet  standing  in  the 
names  of  Kilbourne,  Latta  and  Olmstead,  trustees,  which,  at  the  prices  aslied, 
aggregate  fully  $2,500,000,  They  are  assessed,  however,  even  now  under  the 
revised  assessment  at  only  $617,253,  or  29|  cents  per  foot,  which  simply  repre- 
sents the  cost  price  of  the  ground  when  it  was  unimproved  and  some  of  it  under 
water. 

THE  PEOPLE   HAVE  TO  FOOT   THE  BILLS. 

The  improvements  in  this  pool  district,  which  were  paid  for  out  of  the  United 
States  treasury,  and  from  the  general  fund  of  the  District,  aggregate  fully 
$4,000,000.  The  profits  on  these  Ring  transactions  must  amount  to  fully  $1,500,- 
000  ;  but,  notwithstanding  this  fact,  Kilbourn  avers  that  of  the  2,000,000  square 
feet  held  by  himself  and  Latta  and  Olmstead,  only  257,123  square  feet  belong  to 
the  Cooke  pool,  and  proposed  to  settle  with  the  trustees  of  Cooke's  creditors  for 
$40,000,  and  this  proposition  was  accepted. 

Besides  the  direct  pool  operations,  the  most  trusted  friends  of  the  Ring  in  and 
out  of  Congress  speculated  largely  in  property  situated  in  the  pool  district  on 
their  own  account,  in  addition  to  their  secret  interests  in  the  pool  connections. 

HOW  SOME  ROGUES  WERE   PAID. 

Secor  Robeson,  in  the  name  of  Augustus  S.  Campbell  of  Chicago,  bought  in  May,  1872,  square 
193,  containing  155,526  square  feet  for  $79,841,  subject  to  the  payment  of  a  heavy  mortgage.  Part 
of  this  square  he  has  sim  e  exchanged  for  Little  Emma  Stewart's  old  brown  stone  house  fronting 
on  the  Fourteenth  street  circle. 

Secor  Robeson's  bosom  friend,  A.  G.  Cattell,  bought  in  August,  1871,  about  35,000  square  feet 
of  ground  in  square  195  for  $23,000.  He  was  Boss  Shepherd's  first  choice  for  District  Commia- 
sioner,  but  failing  to  get  him,  Ketchum  was  taken  as  second  best. 

Stewart's  pal  in  the  Little  Emma  Mine  swindle,  Robert  C.  Schenck,  bought  in  April,  1871, 
square  135,  containing  35,918  square  feet.    This  is  adjacent  to  Stewart's  new  mansion. 

E.  C.  IngersoU,  ex-member  of  Congress  from  Illinois,  formerly  Chairman  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia Committee  of  the  House,  and  now  a  notorious  lobbyist  and  dabbler  in  street  contracts,  boughtin 
the  spring  of  1873  square  137,  containing  163,440  square  feet,  for  $80,000,  subject  to  a  heavy  mort- 
gage. This  thriving  statesman  owns  besides  over  20,000  square  feet  in  smaller  parcels  throughout 
the  pool  district. 

Ex-Senator  Joshua  Hill,  of  Georgia,  owns  square  137,  containing  83,780  square  feet. 

Ex- Attorney -General  Williams  purchased  the  larger  portion  of  square  159,  and  has  advantage- 
ously disposed  of  the  greater  part  of  it. 

JohnO.  Evans,  the  Boss's  "squarest  contractor."  owns  square  190,  containing  159,264  square 
feet,  besides  numerous  parcels,  and  has  lots  in  various  parts  of  the  pool  district. 

Ex-Senator  Patterson  speculated  largely  in  connection  with  Boss  Shepherd  in  property  situated 
in  the  pool  district,  but  this  is  now  in  the  name  of  either  Kilbourne  or  Latta,  trustees,  perhaps  to 
cover  up  interests  which  the  honorable  gentlemen  do  not  desire  the  public  to  know  about. 

These  facts  make  it  clear  that  the  Real  Estate  Pool  was  designed  not  only  to  en- 
rich the  master  spirits  of  the  District  Ring  proper,  but  also  to  afford  a  means  of 


102  DISTBTCT    OF    COLUMBIA    KING    AND   DE    GOLYEB    BRIBE. 

securing  the  assistance  of  influential  Federal  officeholders  and  Congressmen,  and 
a  perfectly  safe  way  of  paying  these  corrupt  men  for  their  services. 

A  FEW   SPECIMEN  FRAUDS. 

The  first  step  taken  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works  after  their  induction 
into  ofl3ce  presaged  dire  results.  To  the  suspicion  of  corruption  and  jobbery 
which  attached  to  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  were  added  grave  doubts  of  their 
competency  for  the  performance  of  the  work  confided  to  them.  We  adduce  a 
few  instances.  On  July  15th,  1870,  Congress  appropriated  at  the  instance  of  the 
speculators  we  have  outlined  above,  $50,000,  "for  the  purpose  of  dredging,  nar- 
rowing or  arching  over  the  city  canal,"  under  the  supervision  of  the  Board  of 
Commissioners,  of  which  General  M.  Michler,  then  Commissioner  of  Public 
Buildings  and  Grounds,  was  the  expert  member,  on  condition  that  the  city  of 
Washington  should  raise  by  taxation  $100,000  for  the  same  purpose.  In  ISTovem- 
ber,  1870,  these  commissioners,  Hallet  Kilbourne  being  one,  entered  into  a  con- 
tract with  John  O.  Evans,  under  the  firm  name  of  Teemyer  &  Co.,  "to  dredge, 
clean  out  and  narrow,"  according  to  General  Michler's  plans  and  specifications. 
Before  any  work  was  done  on  this  contract  the  same  unscrupulous  operators 
procured  a  clause  to  be  inserted  in  the  appropriation  act,  approved  April  20,  1871, 
by  which  all  the  powers  of  the  Canal  Commissioners  were  transferred  to  the 
Board  of  Public  Works,  so  that  the  board,  with  A.  B.  Mullett  as  its  Civil  Engi- 
neer, became  responsible  for  this  work.  First,  under  pretence  of  narrowing  the 
canal,  worthless  walls  were  built  upon  shaky  pile  foundations,  which  soon  gave 
way.  To  hide  this  jobbery,  the  Board  of  Public  Works  decided  to  fill  up  the  canal, 
but  before  this  decision  was  made  the  $50,000  appropriated  by  Congress  had  been 
squandered,  and  in  addition,  as  is  admitted  by  Shepherd  in  his  report,  dated  Feb- 
ruary 28, 1874,  to  the  Joint  Investigating  Committee,  $109,221.61,  making  a  total 
of  $159,221.61  actually  thrown  into  the  old  canal.  Then  for  filling  the  canal,  fa- 
vorite contractors  were  paid  in  addition  to  the  regular  price  allowed  for  grading 
on  the  streets  in  August,  1872,  and  January,  1873,  upon  measurements  made  by 
Babcock,  $122,216.80.  And  again  in  January  and  August,  1873,  another  sum  of 
$213,550.70  was  paid  for  arching  (or  making  a  sewer  of)  i.his  same  canal.  And 
further  still,  Babcock  diverted  additional  sums  for  grading  reservation  No.  2,  to 
pay  for  filling  the  canal.  This  same  imbecile  policy  of  doing  and  undoing  this 
work  has  been,  and  is  being  continued  up  to  the  present  day  by  means  of  bonds 
and  cash  derived  from  District  sources  at  a  total  cost  so  far  of  about  $600,000. 

-THB  TWEED  RING  OUTDONE. 

North  Capitol  street  was  put  under  contract  by  the  old  corporation  to  be  paved 
and  improved  with  a  park  laid  out  in  the  center  of  the  street  :  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lic Works  continued  this  contract  and  finished  the  street  at  a  cost  of  $66,245.11; 
but  while  the  contractor  was  still  at  work  under  the  contract  let  by  the  old  cor- 
poration, another  having  a  contract  from  the  Board  of  Public  Works  followed, 
tearing  up  the  work  just  finished.  The  object  of  this  last  improvement  (?)  of 
North  Capitol  street  was  to  make  property  which  had  been  purchased  by  Shep- 
herd, A.  R.  Corbin— Grant's  brother-in-law— Huntington  and  others  more  valua- 
ble, by  diverting  a  natural  water  course  which  ran  through  it  to  the  center  of  the 
above  named  street. 

In  November,  1871,  before  the  special  election  took  place  on  the  second  $4,000,- 
000  loan  bill,  various  streets  and  roads  were  in  process  of  improvement.  Among 
others,  the  Seventh  street  road,  a  country  thoroughfare  nearly  three  miles  in  length, 
and  leading  to  Shepherd's  country  seat,  was  included  in  the  schedule  of  the  so 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    IIING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  103 

called  "Comprehensive  Plan  of  Improvements"  authorized  by  the  Legislative 
Assembly.  The  work  to  be  done  on  this  road  was  estimated,  under  the  head  of 
"repairs,"  at  $3,500.  Subsequently  Shepherd  claimed  before  a  committee  of 
Congress  that  this  was  a  typographical  error,  and  that  the  figures  should  have 
been  $35,000,  aad  that  the  repairs  were  to  consist  of  a  ne;?  macadamizing  of  the 
whole  road.  The  footings  of  the  figures  in  the  columns  of  which  the  estimated 
cost  of  the  various  improvements  were  carried  out,  branded  this  sworn  statement 
of  Shepherd's  as  a  deliberate  falsehood,  but  still  the  Committee  accepted  it  as  a 
truth,  and  it  was  three  years  before  the  entire  cost  of  improving  the  Seventh 
street  road  was  discovered.  The  official  figures  submitted  to  Congress  in  the 
.spring  of  1875  show  that  the  enormous  sum  of  $300,339.39  were  squandered  oa 
this  imperfectly  constructed  road.  It  cost  $70,000  per  mile — more  than  is  re- 
quired to  build  and  equip  a  railroad  the  same  distance.  The  direct  expenses  of 
registration,  advertising,  &c.,  for  the  two  elections  in  1871,  exceeded  $100,000. 

LETTING   CONTRACTS  AND  FIXING   PRICES. 

On  August  31st  and  35th,  1871,  bids  were  invited  for  laying  wood,  tar,  Maca> 
dam  and  Belgian  pavements,  for  curbs,  sewers,  &c.,  on  certain  specified  streets. 
The  bidders  were  required  to  deposit  with  the  Collector  of  the  District  $1,000  on 
each  item  bid  for,  as  a  guarantee  that  they  would  conform  with  any  award  made. 
On  September  13th  Shepherd  moved  in  the  Board  meeting,  that  the  Collector  re- 
port the  amount  of  the  guarantee  fund  then  received,  from  whom,  and  at  what 
date.  In  this  way  it  was  found  that  responsible  contractorj  outside  the  Ring  had 
made  bona  fide  bids.  Thereupon  all  bids  received  were  rejected,  notwithstanding 
the  plighted  faith  of  the  government  to  av*'ard  the  contracts  to  the  lowest  respon 
sible  bidder.  All  the  profitable  work  was  then  arbitrarily  awarded  to  favor- 
ite contractors,  at  prices  established  by  the  Board,  which  were  arrived  at  by 
averaging  the  bids  of  contractors  who  were  decided  by  the  Board  to  be  responsi 
ble.  To  keep  up  appearances,  outsiders  got  small  contracts  for  less  desirable 
work  at  less  remunerative  rates.  Simultaneously  it  was  determined  to  establish 
a  Property  Bureau  under  the  philanthropio  pretext  of  aiding  contractors  having 
limited  capital.  The  real  object  of  this  system  was  to  enable  the  ring  jobbers  to 
get  the  benefit  of  the  wide  margin  between  nominal  or  card  prices  and  the  heavy 
discounts  allowed  to  wholesale  customers.  By  these  bold  moves,  successfully 
carried  out,  the  ball  opened  and  the  jobbing  began  in  real  earnest. 

In  October,  1871,  the  great  Chicago  fire  occurred,  and  Governor  Cooke  called 
an  extra  session  of  the  liCgislative  Assembly  for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  voting 
$100,000  for  the  relief  of  the  suffering  people  of  that  afflicted  city.  The  issue  of 
five-year  bonds  was  accordingly  authorized  and  negotiated,  but  it  took  more  than 
a  year's  begging  to  get  $07,500  into  the  hands  of  the  Relief  Committee  ;  the  bal- 
ance was  swallowed  up  by  commissions  and  otherwise  absorbed. 

A   WHITEWASHING   INVESTIGATION. 

By  December,  1871,  the  opposition  to  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  on  the  part 
of  the  citizens,  had  assumed  formidable  proportions.  Petitions  signed  by  great 
numbers  were  presented  to  the  House  of  Representatives  demanding  an  investi- 
gation. After  much  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Ring,  the  House,  on  January 
33,  1873,  directed  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia  to  investigate  the 
Board  of  Public  Works.  The  Republican  majority  of  the  Committee  threw  every 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  citizens  who  were  prosecuting  the  inquiry.  Witnesses 
were  bullied,  badgered  and  browbeaten  by  attorneys  employed  by  Shepherd  to 
conduct  the  defense  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works.     But  notwithstanding  all  this 


104  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AXD    DE    GOLYKR    BRIBK. 

opposition,  the  most  damaging  revelations  of  Ring  rascalities  were  made.  The 
Republican  majority,  however,  undertook  to  vindicate  the  Board  of  Public  Works. 
We  quote  extracts  from  their  report  as  follows  : 

The  Committee  find  great  cause  of  commendation  for  the  ener^'.  liberality  and  gonerou? 
desire  to  improve  and  beautify  the  National  Capital.  *  *  They  also" find  the  ordinary  and  usual 
errors  attendant  upon  the  establishment  of  a  new  system  of  government  ;  there  was  inexperience 
on  the  part  of  the  many.  *  *  There  was  a  lack  of  careful  and  cool  legislation.  *  *  The  new 
authorities  became  somewhat  intoxicated  with  the  spirit  of  the  movement;  *  =•=  more  work  w».» 
undertaken  at  once  than  was  wise.  Tlie  District  authorities  at  the  outset  were  not  sufricicntly 
mindful  of  the  small  extent  of  their  oflicial  jurisdiction  and  the  slend'T  consistency  on  which  all 
the  public  burdens  were  to  rest,  and  th' refore  sufficient  care  was  not  taken  to  have  rigid  economy 
prevail  in  every  department.  The:?e  errors  were  such  as  time  and  experience  would  soon  demon- 
strate, and  the  Committee  find  that  many  of  these  expenditures  have  already  been  curtailed,  and  a 
more  stringent  economy  now  prevails  in  the  conduct  of  those  public  officers.  *  "  The  defects 
in  some  of  the  pavements  resulted  from  the  great  haste  during  bad  weather.  It  does  not  appear  in 
any  case  that  the  contractors  intentionally  laid  inferior  pavement:*.  All  defects  are  to  be  remedied 
by  the  contractors,  who  are  bound  by  contract  and  by  bond  in  every  case  to  keep  the  pavement 
in  good  repair  for  three  years.  *     Concrete  and  wooden  pavements  are  somewhat  experi- 

mental.   Time  alone  can  determine  the  wisdom  of  their  adoption. 

In  concluding  their  report  the  Committee  extol  the  governor  and  the  members  of  the  Board 
of  Public  Worlis  for  "the  zeal,  energy  and  wisdom  with  which  they  have  started  the  District  upon 
a  new  career  of  improvement  and  prosperity." 

A  letter  of  Governor  Cooke,  dated  February  7,  1873,  was  published  with  the 
report,  in  which  he  reiterated  former  pledges  by  saying,  "the  $4,000,000  author- 
ized by  the  first  act  of  the  Legislature  are  all  that  is  deemed  necessary  to  carry 
out  and  perfect  the  general  plan  of  improvement  adopted  b}^  the  Board  of  Pub- 
lic Works  and  the  Legislature." 

AN  HONEST  MINORITY   TELL   THE   TRUTH. 

The  minority  of  the  committee,  Messrs.  Roosevelt  and  Crebs,  in  a  dissenting 
report  boldly  exposed  the  attempt  of  the  majority  to  palliate  the  glaring  frauds 
committed  by  the  Ring,  and  foretold  the  bankruptcy  impending  over  the  District. 
They  pointed  out  the  fact  that  the  local  press  of  the  District  had  been  subsidized 
by  the  Ring  ;  that  during  the  few  month's  existence  of  the  territorial  govern- 
ment $143,035. G2  had  been  paid  to  a  few  newspapers  Avith  a  limited  circulation 
for  advertising.  They  denounced  the  excuse  which  the  governor  and  Board  of 
Public  Works  had  put  forward  for  his  reckless  and  profligateexpenditurc  of  the 
public  money,  which  was  that  by  thil  means  the  newspapers  had  been  brought 
to  support  the  $4,000,000  loan  bill,  and  had  by  their  advocacy  of  the  measures  of 
the  new  government  created  a  favorable  sentiment  on  the  part  of  the  people,  and 
thereby  brought  up  the  credit  of  the  District  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  In 
concluding  their  report  the  minority  say,  "that  the  powers  assumed  and  exer- 
cised by  the  Board  of  Public  Works  arc  dangerous  to  the  best  interest  of  the 
District  and  the  reckless  extravagance  of  all  departments  of  the  District  govern- 
ment ought  to  be  checked."  But  the  warning  voice  of  the  honest  men  who 
composed  the  minority  of  this  committee  was  not  heeded  by  the  administration 
or  by  Congress,  They  were  maligned  and  vilified  by  the  subsidized  Ring  organs 
of  the  District.  On  the  other  hand  the  Board  of  Public  Works  accepted 
the  invitation  tendered  it  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  not  only  as  an  in- 
dorsement of  all  their  past  acts,  but  as  a  broad  license  to  do  in  the  future  what- 
ever their  sweet  will  might  dictate. 

THE    RING    CAPTUUE    GARFIELD. 

It  was  necessary,  in  order  to  accomplish  the  design  of  the  ring,  in  ob  aining 
enormous  appropriations  from  Congress  to  pay  for  these  improvements  about 
imaginary  reservations,  that  it  should  have  serviceable  friends  on  the  Committee 
of  Appropriations.  James  A,  Garfield  was  chairman  of  that  committee.  In  the 
spring  of  1873  a  needy  adventurer  named  Chittenden  came  to  Washington  as  the 
agent  of  De  Golyer  &  McClellan,  a  firm  of  Chicago  contractors,  who  wanted  a 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  105 

contract  to  lay  a  patent  wood  pavement.  He  made  his  first  overtures  to  "W.  S. 
Huntington,  but  death  interfered.  A  decayed  parson,  the  Rev.  Wm.  Colvin 
Brown,  introduced  Chittenden  to  Henry  D.  Cooke.  Richard  C.  Parsons,  Marshal 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  who  had  converted  that  respectable  office  into  a  head- 
quarters for  the  lobby,  where  venal  schemes  were  canvassed  and  concocted, 
was  the  intimate  friend  of  Gen.  Garfield,  and  was  employed  by  Chittenden  to 
secure  his  influence.  H.  D.  Cooke,  the  Governor  of  the  District  and  mernber  of 
the  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  had  been  the  medium  through  whom  the  delicate 
negotiations  were  made  by  Avhich  the  empty  pockets  of  honorable  patriots  in 
Congress  were  stuffed  with  Northern  Pacific  bonds  and  other  "  securities,"  the 
value  of  which  depended  upon  legislation.  Cooke  and  Parsons  were  intimate 
friends.  Shepherd  was  President  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works.  Cooke  con- 
senting, a  word  from  Shepherd  put  millions  into  the  contractor's  pockets.  Par- 
sons was  examined  before  the  Joint  Investigating  Committee  of  the  Forty-third 
Congress  in  relation  to  his  employment  by  Chittenden  and  the  services  he 
rendered. 

DICK    parson's    TESTIMONY. 

In  the  spring  of  1872  (I  think  in  April),  I  was  retained  by  Mr.  Chittenden,  as  a  lawyer,  on  behalf  of 
the  firm  of  De  Golyer  «fe  McClellan,  of  Chicago,  to  argue  before  the  Board  of  Public  Works  at 
Washington  the  question  of  the  superiority  of  their  patent  for  cured  wood  pavement. 
*  *  *  *  At  the  time  I  was  retained  in  this  case  I  scarcely  km-w  Shepherd  by 

sight.  *  *  *  *  With  Cooke,  who  was  an  old  and  intimate  friend,  I  never 

spoke  but  once,  to  my  recollection,   on  the  subject.  *  *  *  *  With  the 

other  members  of  the  Board  I  had  no  acquaintance,  and  never  to  my  knowledge  spoke  to  one  of 
them. 

I  was  called  homo  to  Clevelaiid  by  mittors  of  a  pressin:^  private  nature,  and  feeling  great 
solicitude  as  to  the  result  of  my  labors,  and  of  course  of  securing  my  fees,  I  called  upon  Gen.  Gar- 
field and  gave  hun  a  his^tory  of  the  case  as  it  then  stood,  and  asked  him,  as  Congress  would  adjourn 
in  ft  few  days,  if  he  would  act  for  me  in  my  absence,  and  give  the  subject  a  careful  investigation. 
He  at  first  d  clined  (m  the  ground  of  pressing  business,  but  finally  assented  to  have  me  send  the^ 
modol,  books,  papers,  &c.,  to  his  house  for  examination.  After  a  day  or  two  I  called  upon  him 
and  he  said  he  would  prepare  an  opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  patent  and  attend  to  tlie  case  fo^ 
me.  I  said  to  him  I  hud  a  fee  in  the  case  of  importance  to  me,  and  would  be  glad  to  share  it  with 
him.  The  same  dav,  or  day  after,  I  left  for  Cleveland,  and  when  I  received  my  fee  some  consid- 
erable time  after  from  my  clients  at  Chicago,  I  deposited  Gen.  Garfield's  to  his  credit  in  bank,  and 
so  wrote  liim. 

Q.  Do  you  know  a  Mr.  Brown  in  connection  with  this  De  Golyer  and  McClellan  matter  ?  A.  I 
do;  Mr.  Brown  was  the  brother  of  Mr.  Thomas  Brown,  who  was  for  some  time  acting  as  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  He  was  six  years  consul  at  Hamburg.  He  was  an  Episcopal  clergy- 
man. 

Q.  The  reason  I  inquire  is  this:  Mr.  Cook,  the  book-keeper  of  De  Golyer  and  McClellan,  stated 
th>it  a  Mr.  Brown  liad  nceived  $10,000  ?  A.  So  I  afterward  heard,  but  I  know  nothing  of  it  and  I 
liave  no  pergonal  knowledge. 

Q.  Have  you  any  obj*  ction  to  stating  the  amount  received  by  you  ?    A.  Not  at  nil,  sir. 

Q.  State  the  amount  received  ?  A.  I  received  from  Mr.  Chittenden  at  the  lime  I  was  retained, 
or  within  a  few  days  afterward,  I  think,  his  check  for  $5,000,  with  the  understanding  that  if  an 
award  was  made  covering  the  amount  of  his  contract  that  I  should  recover  a  contingent  fee  of 
$10,000,  which  some  time  afterward  was  sent  to  me  from  Chicago.  The  total  amount  received  by 
me  was  $1.5,000.  ***** 

Q.  When  was  Gen,  Garfield  retained?  A.  He  was  retained  by  me  afterwards,  as  I  stated  to  the 
Committee,  to  prt-pare  an  argument  to  present  to  the  Board  upon  the  superiority  of  the  patent  and 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  best  jjavement. 

Q.  Was  your  argument  on  the  jegal  question  ?  A.  No,  sir;  there  was  no  dispute  as  to  the 
patent,  but  there  was  an  important  question  as  to  which,  of  all  the  patents  presented,  was  the  best 
one.  My  irgument  related  entirely— absolutely  covering  the  ground  of  the  patent,  and  of  all 
patents  before  the  board;  it  was  claimed  that  this  patent  had  a  peculiar  virtue  in  curing  the  wood. 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  MCCLELLAN  AND   COOK. 

Robert  McClellan,  one  of  the  contractors,  testified  as  to  what  they  understood 

they  were  paying  Parsons  and  others  for. 

Q.  Now  when  Mr.  Chittenden  came  tp  Chicago,— I  want  yon  to  state  now,  as  nearly  as  you  can 
Avhat  he  said  to  you  with  reference  to  furnishing  money  ?  I  would  be  glad  to  have  you  now,  in  a 
connected  form,  state  the  conversation  betwteu  you  and  Mr.  Chittenden  on  that  subject  A. 
When  Mr.  Chittenden  came  to  Chicago,  he  said  he  wanted  $100,L0(),  imt  that  he  had  arranged  so 
that  he  could  get  along  with  $97,000.  I  asked  him  what  ho  wanted  v/ith  $97,000.  Ue  said  he; 
wanted  to  pay  his  expenses  and  part  of  the  national  debt. 

J.    S.    Cooke,    the  attorney  and  business    man  of  De  Golyer  &  McClellan, 

through  whose  hands  the  accounts  passed,  testified  as  follows  : 


106  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

My  transit  account  showed  a  disbursement  of  $97,000  as  follows  :  "May  20  Col.  P.."  meaning 
Col.  Parsons,  "  S5,000  ;  Jxily  12,  Bills  payable,  $72,000,"  no  explanation;  'July  12,12th  R.  C. 
P.,"  meaniiig  Richard  C.  Parsons,  "$10,C00  ;  July  I2lh,  W.  C.  B.,"  meaning  the  Rev.  Wm.  Colvin 
Brown,  "$10,iXK)." 

Q.  Does  that  show  the  date  of  this  transaction  ?    A.  It  shows  it  as  it  was  represented  to  me, 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF   E.  C.  JENKINS. 

De  Golyer  died,  and  his  interest  in  tlic  firm  of  De  Golyer  &  McClellaix 
passed  into  the  hands  of  C.  E.  Jenkins  of  Chicago,  with  all  the  papers  and  cor- 
respondence relating  to  the  contract  at  Washington.  The  ring  after  squeezing 
$97,000  out  of  the  contractors  stopped  their  work  without  notice.  The  purpose 
evidently  was  to  squeeze  more  money  for  the  benefit  of  the  friends  of  the  ring. 

Mr.  Jenkins  came  to  Washington  armed  with  some  of  Chittenden's  letters  to 
De  Golyer  and  notified  Shepherd  that  unless  their  contract  was  renewed  an  ex- 
posure would  follow.  lie  exhibited  some  of  these  letters  to  the  correspondent  of 
the  New  York  Sun,  who  when  he  was  examined  by  the  Investigating  Committee 
repeated  the  substance  of  Chittenden's  letter  to  De  Golyer,  wherein  he  speaks  of 
the  employment  of  Garfield.  A  copy  of  this  letter  has  since  been  sworn  to  by 
McClcUan  as  an  exhibit  in  a  suit  brought  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  Cooke  Co.,  111., 
by  Chittenden  against  McClellan  to  recover  money  claimed  to  -be  still  due  him. 
The  part  of  this  letter  which  relates  to  Garfield  is  as  follows  : 

The  influence  of  Gf^n.  Garfield  has  been  secured  by  yesterday,  last  night,  and  to-day's  labors, 
lie  carries  the  purt-e  of  the  United  States— the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations— and 
is  the  strongest  man  in  Congress,  and  with  our  friends  my  demand  is  to-day,  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand  more— two'hundred  in  all.  Everything  is  in  the  best  shape,  the  connections 
complete,  and,  I  have  r<'as«in  to  believe,  satisfactorj'.  *  *  *  i   can   hardly  re- 

lize  that  we  have  (Jeu.  Garfield  with  us.    It  is  rare  and  very  gratifying.    All  the  appropriations  of 
the  District  come  through  him. 

31r.  Jenkins  was  examined  by  the  Joint  Investigating  Committee,  and  testified 
as  follows : 

Q.  ISfr  Jenkins,  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  some  quotations  here.  I  will  refer  to  a  letter 
dated  about  the  1st  of  June,  1872,  written  by  Mr.  Chittenden  to  De  Golyer  &  McClellan.  Do  you 
remt-mber  any  sucti  letter?  A.  I  remember  reading  a  letter  written  about  that  time,  and  addressed 
to  the  Unn.     It  w.is  written  by  George  R.  Chittenden;  I  know  his  handwriting. 

Q,.  Can  you  state  the  substance  of  it?  A.  I  can  state  borae  portions  of  it.  *  *  *•  All 
those  Utters  bear  date  bt-fore  the  let  of  June,  1S72;  they  run  along,  say  fro  u  the  middle  of  January, 
or  perhaps  th-i  1st  of  February,  up  to  the  1st  of  Mav,  which  I  think  was  the  last  date;  after  that  I 
have  seen  n  -  correspondence  whatever.  This  award  was  made  on  the  25th  of  June  following  that  last 
lett  r  of  the  30t:i  of  May.  In  that  letter  of  tlie  30th  of  May  he  commenced  by  stating  that  Col.  Par- 
sons had  arrived,  and  goes  on  to  say  that  things  are  looking  better;  that  he  is  sw»'e  he  will  get  one 
hundred  I housand  square  jards,  and  very  probably  anotiier  hundred  thousand,  making  two  hun- 
dred thousand  in  all.  He  writes  in  a  jubilant  vein.  He  says  that  (he  mfluence  of  Generml  Garfield 
has  letn,  t-ecured,  and  goes  on  to  make  some  slatemenU  in  regard  to  his  position  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  and  then  passes  off  to  other  matters.    Now,  that  is  about  all  I  recollect  of  that  letter.  * 

*  * 

The  day  following  the  time  when  I  showed  that  letter  to  Mr.  Gibson,  I  left  for  Chicago  the  fol- 
lowing evening.  I  saw  him  in  the  evening,  and  he  requested  me  to  let  him  have  a  copy  of  the  let- 
ters. I  told  him  that  I  had  had  copies  of  those  letters  myself,  but  that  they  were  safe  in  my  keep- 
ing. *  *  * 

Afterward,  on  thinking  the  matter  over,  I  concluded  that  a  great  many  wrong  inferences  might 
be  drawn  Irom  statements  made  in  those  letters  in  connection  with  parties  in  Washington.  &c.,  in 
connection  with  (J(Aond  Farsons  and  General  Oarfidd,  and  I  destroyed  them.  I  destroyed  the  letters 
artd  cojnes  which  I  had. 

Jenkins  did  not  tell  all  he  knew;  he  had  something  in  reserve,  a"nd  shortly 
afterwards  Shepherd  renewed  the  contract  to  the  extent  of  $120,000. 

THE   DE   GOLYER  BRIBE   INVESTIGATED   IN   1877. 

General  Garfield  made  no  statement  at  that  time  in  regard  to  his  connection 
with  the  De  Golyer  &  McClellan  job.  In  1877  the  subject  of  his  connection  with 
the  District  Ring  was  inquired  into  by  the  Ileal  Estate  Pool  Committee  of  the 
House.  Boss  Shepherd  was  examined.  He  testified  in  regard  to  the  contract 
given  to  Do  Golyer  &  McClellan  as  follows: 

Q.  How  was  their  contract  procured;  was  it  through  them  in  person,  or  their  agents  and  attor- 
neys? A.  Tliere  w  is  a  man  named  Chittenden  who  came  here  and  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  lobby- 
ing—a  man  that  I  did  not  have  much  to  do  with,  and  did  not  think  much  of,  because  my  policy  was 
to  deal  directly  with  principals  and  not  their  agents;  he  was  very  persistent,  however,  and  brought 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    KIXG    AND    DE    GOLYEK    BEIBH.  107 

a  good  many  influences  to  bear.  I  think  by  importunity  as  much  us  anything  else,  ho  secured  his 
contract,  rcpresen tin":  thai  the  firm  had  large  facilities  for  doing  work;  "had  been  very  large  con- 
tractors in  Chicago  and  the  Northwest,  ancThad  done  a  great  deal  of  work  satisfactorily. 

Q.  You  speak  of  influences  that  he  brought  to  bear;  explain  what  they  were.  A.  Well,  he  used 
a  good  many  social  appliances;  friends  of  the  different  members  of  the  board  and  Governor  Cooke 
especially.  Governor  Cooke  was  very  anxious  that  they  should  have  a  trial;  I  think  Mr.  Parsons 
was  a  very  great  friend  of  Governor  Cooke.  Mr.  Parsons  was  at  that  time  marshal  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  an  Ohio  man,  and  state  influences,  I  suppose,  hud  something  to  do  with  it.  Mr.  Par- 
sons was  quite  persistent  that  they  should  have  a  trial,  and  I  tliink  asked  Mr.  Garfield  to  speak  to 
certain  members  of  the  Board  in  regard  to  it.  *  *  * 

d.  You  say  that  Mr.  Parsons  spoke  to  Mr.  Garfield?  A,  I  presume  so,  from  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Garhcld  spoke  to  me.  Mr.  Garfield  said  that  Parsons  was  very  anxious  that  these  people  should 
have  work,  and  that  we  had  not  given  the  Western  men  a  show.  He  thonglit  it  would  be  well  t* 
do  it;  he  said  he  had  examined  into  the  pavement,  and  was  satisfied  that  it  was  a  good  thing. 

Q.  Was  that  all  that  was  said  by  Mr.  Garfield?  A..  Yes,  sir;  he  said  he  had  examined  into  the 
pavement— I  do  not  know  whether  at  that  time  or  before — and  into  their  manner  of  treating  the 
wood,  and  was  satisfied  that  it  was  a  good  pavement.  I  think  ho  stated  that  ho  had  been  employed 
some  years  before  to  look  into  the  matter,  or  something  of  the  kind. 

THE  TESTIMONY   OF  NICKERSON. 

Benjamin  R  Nickerson,  who  was  associated  with  De  Golyer  &  McClellan,  and 
was  the  owner  of  the  patent  process  for  treating  the  wood,  testified  at  this  time, 
lie  read  first  from  the  award  of  De  Golyer  &  McClellan  : 

June  25,  1874,  Chief  Engineer  was  directed  to  prepare  contract  with  DeGolyer  &  McClellan,  of 
Chicago,  for  laying  150,000  square  yards  of  DeGolyer  pavement  No.  2,  treated  by  the  Samuels'  pro- 
cess, and  to  be  laid  on  such  streets  as  may  be  designated  by  the  Board,  and  to  be  completed  in  five 
months,  and  an  additional  50,000  square  yards  as  soon  as  the  Board  are  reimbursed  by  the  general 
government  on  account  of  the  expenditures  around  public  buildings  and  grounds,  and  tht^y  will 
be  allowed  to  lay  it  this  season  if  they  will  wait  for  an  appropriation,  at  $3.50  per  square  yard. 

Q.  Do  you  know  what  appropriation  is  referred  to  there;  is  it  an  appropriation  by  Congress  ? 
A.  Yes,  sir  ;  I  know  that  fact,  and  there  was  afterwards  an  appropriation. 

Q,.  State  anything  further  that  you  know  in  reference  to  this  transaction.  A.  I  know  all  about 
the  matter  in  all  its  phases  ;  through  Chittenden  &  Parsons  I  know  of  the  employment  of  Garfield, 
and  what  Jie  was  employed  for;  I  was  in  their  confidence;  I  was  a  party  to  the  transaction;  I  was 
interested  in  the  contract  itself. 

O.  State  the  facts  themselves  as  concisely  as  you  can.  A.  In  the  progress  of  the  affair  Chittenden 
employed  Mr.  Parsons,  with  the  understanding  that  Parsons  would  go  to  the  Board  and  make  an 
argument ;  I  regarded  him  at  the  time  as  a  kind  of  curbstone  attorney  ;  I  did  not  take  much  stock 
in  him,  but  I  was  informed  by  McClellan  and  by  Chittenden,  as  m^ar  as  he  ever  gets  to  tell- 
ing a  man  anything,  why  they  employed  him;  Chittenden  said  that  he  employed  Parsons  to 
"  reach  the  man,"  or  that  he  was  "  able  to  reach  "  the  man  who  was  perfectly  and  entirely  power- 
ful in  obtaining  for  him  the  contract;  this  was  after  Huntingdon's  death.  First  he  employed 
Huntingdon  and  afterward  employed  Parsons,  assuring  me  that  Parsons  could  "reach  the  man;" 
I  did  not  ask  who  the  mau  was;  I  knew  perfectly  well  whom  he  referred  to. 

GEN.    GARFIELD'S  STATEMENT. 

Gen.  Garfield  came  before  the  Real  Estate  Pool  Committee  and  made  a  state- 
ment.    He  said  : 

•'  I  never  saw  this  contract  before,  and  I  want  to  Bay  a  word  in  regard  to  the  word  "  appropria- 
tion" used  in  it.  It  has  no  more  reference  to  Congress,  than  it  has  to  Great  Britain.  The  Board 
of  Public  Works  under  the  general  law  of  legislation  for  the  District  government  made  appropria- 
tions themselves,  and  taxed  the  people  along  the  streets  where  those  improvements  were  made,  by 
the  front  foot.  *  *    Tlie  only  connection  that  the  United  States  had  with  it  in  reference  to 

appropriations  was  this:  Whenever  the  Board  of  Public  Works  laid  a  pavement  on  a  street  upon 
which  any  United  States  building  was  situated,  Congress  as  a  matter  of  comity,  as  it  does  in  every 
other  city  in  the  Union,  paid  its  quota  of  the  assessment  per  front  foot.  That  is  the  only  relation 
that  Congress  had  to  auy  of  these  improvements.  *  *    I  cannot  be  e-xpected  to  explain  the 

languageof  this  contract,  which  I  have  never  seen  before,  but  if  the  chairman  will  look  at  the  ap- 
propriation bills,  especially  in  1873,  he  w  ill  find  that  there  were  several  appropriations  made  :  one 
($180,0(X)  I  think)  to  reimburse  the  old  Washington  corporation,  previous  to  the  creation  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works,  for  work  that  was  done  around  the  government  reserva  ions.  The  old 
canal  had  been  filled,  and  the  Smithsonian  grounds  had  been  bettered  by  that  improvement,  and 
there  was  an  appropriation  to  reimburse  the  old  corporation  for  that  part  of  the  improvement 
which  lay  beside  the  public  grounds  of  the  United  States;  m  that  same  bill  there  was  al^o  an  ap- 
propriation made  to  reimburse  the  Board  of  Public  Works  for  the  government  share  of  the  im- 
provements in  front  of  the  public  buildings  and  grounds.  A  day  or  two  before  the  adjournmint  of 
the  Congre-=8  which  adjourned  in  the  latter  part  of  May,  or  the  first  part  of  June,  I87:!i,  liichard  C. 
Parsons,  who  was  a  practicing  lawyer  in  Cleveland,  b  t  was  then  the  Marshal  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  and  an  old  acquaintance  of  mine,  came  to  my  house  and  said  thit  he  was  called  away  sum- 
marily by  important  business;  that  he  was  retained  in  a  case  upon  which  he  had  spirit  a  great  deal 
of  time,  and  that  there  was  but  one  thing  remaining  to  be  done:  to  make  a  brief  of  the  rektive 
merits  of  a  large  number  of  wooden  pavements;  that  the  Board  of  Puhlic  Works  had  agreed  that 
they  would  put  down  a  certain  amount  of  wooden  pavement  in  the  city,  a  certain  amount  of  con- 
crete and  a  certain  amount  of  other  kinds  of  pavement;  that  they  had  fixed  the  price  an  which  they 
would  put  down  each  of  the  different  kinds,  and  that  the  only  thing  remaining  was  to  determine 
which  was  the  best  pavement  of  each  of  these  several  kinds.  He  said  he  would  lose  bis  fee  uidess 
the  brief  and  the  merits  of  these  pavements  were  made,  aud  that  he  was  suddenly  and  necessarily 
called  away;  aud  he  asked  me  to  prepare  the  brief u.    He  brought  Uia  papers  to  luy  house  auol 


108  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

models  of  the  pavements.  I  told  him  I  could  not  look  at  the  case  until  the  end  of  the  session. 
When  Congress  adjourned  1  sat  down  to  the  case  in  the  most  open  manner  as  I  would  prepare  a 
brief  for  che  Supreme  Court  and  worked  upon  this  matter.  There  were  perhaps  forty  kinds  of 
wood  pavements  and  several  chemical  analyses  of  the  ingredients  of  the  different  pavements;  I 
went  over  the  whole  trronnd  carefully  and  th- 'roughly, and  prepared  a  brief  upon  the  relative  claims 
of  these  pavements  for  the  consideration  of  the  Board.  This  was  all  I  did.  I  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  terms  of  the  contract;  I  knew  nothing  of  its  conditions,  and  I  never  had  a  word  to  Bar 
about  the  price  of  the  pavement.  I  knew  nothing  about  it.  I  simply  made  a  brief  upon  the  relative 
merits  of  the  various  patent  pavemeuts. 

GEN.    GARFIELD'S  STATEMENT   TOO   THIN.  { 

The  weakness  of  Gen.  Garfield's  statement  is  three-fold. 

First,  he  says  that  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  under  the  general  law  and  the 
legislation  of  the  District  Government,  made  the  appropriations  themselves. 
The  award  to  DeGolycr  &  McClellan  gives  them  an  additional  50,000  square 
yards  contingent  upon  the  reimbursement  of  the  District  by  the  general  govern- 
ment. They  could  go  on  and  put  down  the  pavement  at  $3.50  per  yard,  provided 
they  would  wait  for  an  appropriation.  Language  could  not  make  it  plainer. 
The  District  Ring  claimed  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  should  pay 
them  a  large  sum  of  money.  DcGolyer  &  McClellan  were  to  have  50,000  square 
yards  more,  at  $3.50  a  3''ard,  provided  an  appropriation  was  made  by  Congress. 
It  will  be  shown  hereafter  that  through  General  Garfield's  influence  this  appro- 
priation was  obtained. 

Second,  he  says  that  all  he  did  was  to  prepare  a  brief  on  the  relative  merits  of 
the  various  patent  pavements.  When  examined  in  regard  to  this  he  could  not 
remember  that  he  had  ever  filed  such  a  brief  with  the  Board  of  Public  Works  : 

O.  I  understand  you  to  say,  Mr.  Garfield,  that  j'ou  prepared  a  brief  after  Mr.  Parsons  went  away, 
and  that  you  filed  it  with  the  Board  of  Public  Works  ,  is  there  such  a  brief  on  file  ?  A.  My 
impression  is  that  I  filed  it,  though  I  am  not  certain.  I  know  that  I  stated  to  the  Board  of  Public 
Works  the  points  of  the  case. 

Q,  Are  you  certain  that  you  filed  it  with  anybody  ?  A.  I  think  I  did,  but  I  would  not  say  posi- 
tively that  I  did. 

Q.  Did  you  make  an  argument  ?  A.  I  made  a  careful  study  of  the  case,  and  I  stated  the  points 
to  the  members  of  the  Board. 

Q.  Did  yo;i  ever  meet  the  Board  collectively  together  as  a  Board  and  ever  make  a  statement  or 
argument  upon  the  subject  ?  A.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  members  of  the  Board  were  all  there 
or  not. 

Governor  Shepherd,  when  examined  in  regard  to   General  Garfield's  part  of 

this  transaction,  did  not  remember  that  he  had  made  any  argument  to  the  Board. 

He  said : 

Mr.  Garfield  spoke  to  me.  Mr.  Garfield  said  that  Parsons  was  very  anxious  that  these  people 
should  have  work,  and  that  we  did  not  give  Western  men  a  show,  and  he  thought  it  would  be  well 
to  do  it. 

His  brief,  or  argument,  therefore,  seems  to  have  been  made  to  Boss  Shepherd, 
and  it  was  that  "Western  men  ought  to  have  a  show." 

Third,  General  Garfield  says  that  what  he  did  was  after  Congress  adjourned, 
after  the  first  of  June.  Shepherd  testified  that  Garfield  spoke  to  him  in  regard 
to  the  DcGolyer  &  McClellan  contract  in  the  spring  of  1872.  His  language  is, 
"  It  must  have  been  in  the  spring  of  1872." 

The  patent  pavement  known  as  De  Golyer  No.  2,  which  General  Garfield  says 
he  examined  so  carefully,  was  well  known  at  that  time  to  be  worthless.  A 
large  quantity  of  it  had  been  put  down  in  Chicago  only  the  year  previous,  and 
had  already  been  condemned  by  the  general  inspector  of  pavements  for  the  Board 
of  Public  Works  of  Chicago.  Moreover,  an  advisory  board,  consisting  of  Gene- 
ral Meigs,  General  Humphries,  J.  K.  Barnes,  O.  E.  Babcock  and  Fredlaw  01m- 
stead,  had  in  February,  1872,  reported  that,  in  their  opinion,  only  one  process  of 
treating  wood— the  Seeley — gave  promise  of  success,  and  recommended  that 
wood  pavements  be  laid  only  when  some  exceptional  reason  demanded  them. 

HISTORY   OP  THE   SERVICES   GARFIELD   RENDERED   THE   RING. 

'    The  appropriation  which  the  District  ring  wanted  Congress  to  make,   and 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  109 

which  is  mentioned  in  the  award  to  De  Golyer  and  McClellan  was  for  $193,620.30, 
and  not  $180,000,  as  General  GarScld  states.  This  claim  which  had  been  cooked 
up  against  the  general  government  was  without  any  warrant  of  law  whatever. 
The  Board  of  Public  Works  had  submitted  to  the  territorial  legislature  in  May, 
1872,  a  statement  "of  amounts  expended  for  improvements  abutting  on  property 
of  the  United  States."  They  based  this  claim  upon  the  act  of  Congress  May  5, 
1861,  entitled,  "An  Act  to  amend  an  Act  to  incorporate  the  Inhabitants  of  the 
City  of  Washington."    This  act  provided  that — 

In  all  cases  iii  which  the  streets,   avenues  or  alleys  of  said   city  passed  through  or  by  any 

Sroperty  of  the  United  States,  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds  shill  pay  to  the 
uly  authorized  officers  of  the  corporation  the  just  proportion  of  the  expense  incurred  in  improv- 
ing such  avenue,  street  or  alley,  which  said  property  bears  to  the  whole  cost  thereof,  to  be  as- 
certained in  the  same  u.ar  ner  as  the  same  is  apportioned  among  the  individual  proprietors  of  the 
property  improved  thereby. 

The  statement  made  to  the  Territorial  Legislature  of  the  indebtedness  of  the 
United  States  was  reported  to  be  $192,020.31.  This  amount  was  obtained  by  a 
plain  violation  of  the  above  quoted  law,  which  says  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  shall  pay  the  same  proportion  of  the  cost  of  the  improvements  as 
the  owners  of  private  property.  Private  property  was  assessed  by  the  Board  of 
Public  Works  one-third  of  the  whole  cost  of  the  street  improved.  To  swell  their 
claim  against  the  Uiuted  States  the  Board  of  Public  Works  charged  it  five  sixths 
of  the  cost  of  the  street  improvements.  Two-thirds  of  the  cost  of  improvements, 
where  private  property  alone  was  benefited,  was  charged  to  the  general  fund  of  the 
District,  and  paid  out  of  the  $4,000,003  loan,  as  was  also  the  one-sixth  of  the  cost 
where  government  property  bordered  on  one  side  of  the  street  or  avenue  im- 
proved. By  means  of  this  five-sixths  charged  against  the  United  States  the  Ring 
was  enabled  to  assess  the  general  government,  the  property  holders  and  the  gen- 
oral  fund  of  the  District  about  twice  the  cost  of  all  improvements. 

GENEllAIi   GARFIELD,    THE  RING's  MOUTHPIECE. 

General  Garfield,  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  included 
in  the  Sundry  Civil  Bill,  an  item  to  pay  this  bill  of  $192,020.30,  which  the  Dis- 
trict Bing  had  cooked  up  against  the  United  States.  When  the  bill  came  up  in 
the  House,  on  May  20th,  for  discussion.  General  Garfield,  on  being  questioned 
in  regard  to  the  appropriation,  said  : 

The  Board  made  certain  improvements       *  *  ♦  #        opposite  reservations  and 

property  owned  by  the  United  States.  In  every  such  case  they  have  made  out  a  full  and  accurate 
statement  of  the  expense  of  grading,  paving  and  other  work  done  on  the  streets  oppposite  such 
government  property,  and  have  forwarded  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  a  complete  state- 
ment of  such  expenses,  ahd  an  estimate  of  what  the  government  of  the  United  States  ought  to 
pay,  if  it  placed  itself  exactly  in  the  place  of  ihe  government  of  the  District  when  the  work  is 
done  opposite  the  District  property.  The  President  has  forwarded  this  paper  to  the  House  of 
Representatives,  and  it  has  been  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Appropriations.  The  paper  gives 
a  detailed  and  specific  statement  of  work  done,  and  the  number  of  square  yards  of  paving,  the 
number  of  cubic  yards  of  grading,  or  any  other  work  done,  naming  the  square  *  *  * 

The  government,  of  course,  is  not  bound  at  all  to  pay  anything  *  *  *  # 

the  only  question  is  whether  the  United  States  will  pay  ics  equal  share. 

Mr.  Randall,  of  Pennsylvania,  pointedly  inquired  : 

Why  should  we  donate  a  sum  amounting  in  the  gross  to  nearly  $200,000,  to  a  board  which  has 
shown  itself  to  be  reckless  and  extravagant  in  ics  operations  ? 

This  was  an  inconvenient  question  to  answer,  and  General  Garfield  did  not 

attempt  a  reply.     This  item  of  $192,020.30  was  voted  down  in  Committee  of  the 

Whole.     General  Garfield  then  brought  up  another  item  for  $68,365. 

For  the  proportion  of  cost  properly  payable  by  the  United  States  for  filling  up  the  canal  and 
building  an  intercept  ng  sewer  along  the  side  of  the  canal,  adjoining  the  property  of  the  United 
States,  payments  to  be  made  only  upon  the  voucher  approved  by  the  officer  in  charge  of  Public 
Buildings  and  Grounds. 

This  appropriation  he  got  through,  although  he  must  have  known  at  that 
time  that  two  years  previous  Congress  had  appropriated  $50,000  for  dredging 
and  cleaning  out  this  same  canal. 


110  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    BING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

.  THE   ring's  SENATORIAL  FRIENDS  HELP  GARFIELD. 

The  item  of  $192,620.30  having  been  struck  out  of  the  Sundry  Civil  Bill  by 
the  Committee  of  the  Whole  ;  it  was  renewed  in  the  Senate  by  the  Committee 
ton  Appropriations  of  that  body  ;  reduced,  however,  to  $150,000,  with  a  pro- 
viso : 

That  only  so  much  of  the  curbins:  and  paving  of  sidewalks  as  is  necessary  for  the  side  of  the 
street  adjoining  the  jiroperty  of  the  IJnited  States  shall  be  chargeable  to  the  United  States,  and 
not  more  than  one-third  of  the  legitimate  cost  of  repairing  roadways  and  putting  in  sewering  shall 
be  paid  by  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

The  item  of  $68,365,  which  had  been  agreed  to  by  the  House  was  recom- 
mended to  be  stricken  out  by  the  Senate  Committee  on  Aopropriations.  It  was 
renewed  in  the  Senate  by  Frederick  A.  Sawyer,  Carpct-Bag  Senator  for  South 
Carolina.  He  said  he  had  learned  from  good  authority  that  this  money  was  not 
to  be  spent  for  what  it  was  claimed  to  be  on  the  face  of  the  bill,  namely,  for  fill- 
ing up  the  canal. 

The  appropriation,  he  said,  is  for  quite  another  work  ;  it  is  for  building  a  sewer  through  the 
President's  grounds  and  reservation,  south  of  North  B  street,  between  Tenth  and  Eleventh  streets, 
the  District  j)aying  all  balance,  which  largely  exceeds  the  amount  asked  for  from  the  government. 
When  this  whole  work  of  fliliiig  up  the  canal  is  done,  which  was  provided  for  by  the  appropriation 
of  $150,000,  tiiere  will  be  about  2.5,000  acres  of  lanrl  reclaimed  belonging  to  the  government,  and 
worth  §500,000.  The  present  appropriation  is  not  for  this  work.  I  have  had  a  conference  with 
the  Commi8>ioner  of  Public  Buildings  and  Gronnds  (General  Babcock),  and  he  says  the  work  was 
done  economically,  and  he  regards  it  aa  an  entirely  proper  expense  to  be  made  by  the  govern- 
ment. 

GARFIELD  SERVES  THE   RING  ON   A   CONFERENCE  COMMITTEE. 

Upon  this  misrepresentation  the  appropriation  was  voted  by  the  Senate.  The 
Sundry  Civil  Bill  containing  the  above  item  was  referred  to  a  conference 
committee.  The  report  of  this  conference  committee,  dated  June  the  10th,  signed 
by  only  four  Hepublicans,  Messrs.  Garfield  and  Palmer  on  the  part  of  the  House 
and  Messrs.  Cole  and  Edmunds  on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  restored  $192,020.30 
for  improvements  in  front  of  the  government  reservations,  and  left  the  $68,365 
for  the  intercepting  sewer  intact  {fiee  Globe,  par/e  4,495). 

The  filling  of  the  canal  was  an  outrageous  swindle  on  the  general  government. 
Boss  Shepherd  when  asked  by  the  Chairman  of  the  Joint  Investigating  Com- 
mittee, May  7th,  1874,  what  the  cost  to  the  Board  of  Public  Works  for  filling  the 
canal  was,  replied,  "It  was  simply  a  dumping  ground  to  get  rid  of  dirt  that  we 
carted  off  from  various  streets  which  we  were  improving;"  the  earth  was 
dumped  there,  and  yet,  as  has  been  previously  shown,  the  United  States  was 
called  upon,  first  and  last,  to  pay  nearly  $600,000  for  the  dirt  the  contractors,  for 
their  our  convenience,  were  allowed  to  dump  in  the  old  canal. 

THE  CITIZENS  OF  THE  DISTRICT  APPEAL  TO  GARFIELD. 

Towards  the  close  of  November,  1872,  the  outcry  of  the  citizens  of  the  District 
against  the  arbitary  and  oppressive  manner  in  which  the  Ring  was  prosecuting 
improvements  became  very  loud  and  bitter.  Congressmen  returning  to  the  cap- 
ital in  advance  of  the  meeting  of  Congress  were  called  upon  by  outraged  property 
holders  and  besought  to  interfere.  A  great  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon 
Gen.  Garfield  to  use  liis  influence  to  restrain  the  power  and  recklessness  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works.  He  listened  for  a  time  to  the  complaints  of  the  tax- 
payers and  even  promised  them  his  assistance ;  in  a  few  days  it  was  noised 
abroad  that  Garfield  would  take  a  stand  at  the  approaching  session  of  Congress 
against  the  District  Ring,  and  of  course  this  news  soon  came  to  the  ears  of  Boss 
Shepherd.  According  to  the  account  of  one  of  Shepherd's  associates  who  was 
present  when  this  information  was  conveyed  to  him,  he  simply  remarked  that  he 
had  a  paper  in  his  drawer  which  would  Keep  Garfield  straight,  and  thereupon 
drew  out  the  award  to  De  Golyer  &  McClellan. 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  Ill 

MORE   SUIJSERVIENT   THAN  EVER  TO  THE  RING. 

The  services  rendered  by  General  Garfield  to  the  District  Ring  at  the  succeed- 
ing session  of  Congress  were  as  follows  :  On  the  16th  of  December  he  reported 
the  Deficiency  Bill,  which  contained  an  item  appropriating  nearly  a  million  and 
a  quarter  of  dollars  for  the  benefit  of  the  District  Ring.     General  Garfield  said  : 

In  order  to  protect  the  United  States  in  its  expenditure  of  moncj%  the  committee  has  put  the 
appropriation  in  the  following  form  :  To  enable  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  pay  the  expendi- 
tures made  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  the  District  of  Columbia  for  pavinc  roadway  and 
curbing  and  pavin<;:  sidewalks,  grading,  sewerage,  and  other  improvements  upon  and  adjoming  the 
property  of  the  Uiiied  States  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  $1,241,920.92,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may 
be  necessary;  Provided,  That  all  payments  under  this  appropriation  shall  be  made  only  upon 
vouchers  approved  by  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  public  buildings  and  grounds  of  the  District, 
after  full  examination  and  measurement  oi  the  said  improvements. 

The  Deficiency  Bill,  as  originally  prepared  by  General  Garfield,  contained  no 
proviso  in  regard  to  the  expenditure  of  the  million  and  a  quarter.  He  was  forced 
to  put  in  this  proviso  in  this  way:  It  had  already  been  charged  that  the  measure- 
ments on  which  the  government  had  paid  large  sums  to  the  Board  of  Public 
Works  were  false.  The  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Marshall,  of  Illinois,  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations  when  the  item  abov/r  quoted  was  under  considera- 
tion, moved  that  General  Humphreys,  Chief  of  the  Engineer  Corps,  should  cause 
all  woik  adjoining  public  property  to  be  measured,  and  that  payments  should  be 
made  upon  his  certificate  alone,  which  would  be  a  guarantee  for  their  correct- 
ness. This  was  too  fair  to  be  opposed.  General  Garfield,  therefore,  adjourned 
the  committee,  consulted  with  the  Ring,  and  at  the  next  meejting  brought  in  the 
proviso  as  above  quoted,  conferring  upon  General  Babcock  the  exclusive  power 
to  sign  the  vouchers.  He  argued  in  the  committee  that  it  would  be  a  reflection 
upon  Babcock,  who  had  charge  of  the  public  buildings  and  grounds,  to  assign 
the  task  to  any  one  else,  and  that  his  certificate  would  be  an  equal  guarantee. 

On  December  16th  General  Garfield  made  an  ingenious  argument  in  explanati(5n 

of  the  item  appropriating  $1,241,920.93.     In  closing  he  said: 

"  The  committee  have  come  to  the  conclusion  to  recommend  an  appropriation  in  gross  cover- 
ing sums  set  dow-  in  detail  on  pages  47-51  of  the  Report  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works.  Gentle- 
men will  find  further  the  detailed  statement  of  the  number  of  lineal  feet  of  curb,  cubical  feet  of 
grading,  and  square  yards  of  pavement,  and  so  on,  with  the  rate  and  total  cost  of  each.  The 
commiitee  have  come  to  the  conclu:?ion  that  it  is  their  duty  to  ask  the  Hou-e  to  appropriate  the 
sum  total  as  the  proper  share  that  the  United  States  ought  to  pay  for  the  work  done. 

Mr.  Holman,  of  Indiana,  said : 

I  have  searched  every  avenue  of  information  about  this  Capitol,  your  document  room,  your 
folding  room  and  everywhere  else  to  ascertain  data  upon  which  it  is  proposed  to  appropriate  this 
million  and  a  half,  and  I  cannot  find  any  scrap  of  information  bearing  upon  the  subject.  It  may 
be  that  the  Coiiimitlee  on  Appropriations  are  possessed  of  certain  private  information  of  their  own, 
but  the  public  sources  of  information  al)out  this  Capitol  furnish  no  data.  I  have  seen  upon  the  desk 
of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Garfield)  a  blue  covered  book  which  si  ems  to  be  a  public  docu- 
ment, but  I  venture  to  say  that  up  to  this  hour  not  a  dozen  members  upon  this  floor  have  had  access 
to  this  document  to  which  the  gentleman  has  reference.  Will  the  gt-ntleman  say  that  that  report  is 
one  of  the  public  documents  within  the  reach  of  every  member  of  this  House  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  suppose  it  to  be  a  report  made  to  the  president  and  by  him  submitted  to 
Congress. 

Mr.  Holman:  Does  not  the  gentleman  know  that  it  is  not  a  public  document  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  It  is  a  document  submitted  to  Congress  ])y  the  president,  and  one  to  which  he  calls 
attention  in  his  message.    There  can  be  no  more  public  document  than  that. 

Mr.  Holman:  Will  the  gentleman  tell  us  where  we  can  get  a  copy  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  suppose  it  can  bi;  obtained  at  the  folding  room. 

Mr.  Holman:  It  is  not  at  the  folding  room. 

This  document  known  as  the  report  of  the  Board  of  Public  "Works,  was  pri- 
vately printed.  The  detailed  statement  of  the  work  around  government  property 
for  whicli  this  money  was  asked  was  subsequently  proved  before  the  Joint  In- 
vestigating Committee  of  the  Forty-third  Congress  to  be  false  in  every  item. 
The  Ring  knew  this  and  therefore  had  printed  only  a  few  copies  for  use  of  the 
appropriation  committees  of  the  two  Houses. 

This  proviso  was  intended  to  shut  the  gates  down,  and  framed  precisely  with 


112  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    KING    A.ND    DE    GOLTER    RRIBE. 

tbe  sentiment  expressed  by  Mr.  Garfield  only  the  day  before.     Wbat  did  he  do  ? 
Let  the  Globe  answer. 

MAKES   A   POINT    OP   ORDER. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  make  the  point  of  order  on  that  amendment,  tJtat  it  changes  the  law  in  regard 
to  the  board. 

Mr.  Holman:  It  is  exactly  in  accordance  with  what  I  understood  the  gentleman  to  Btate  was  the 
law. 

Mr.  Famsworth:  It  certainly  does  not  change  the  law. 

Mr.  Holman:  It  simply  prohibits  expenditures  hereafter  beyond  the  appropriations  made. 

Members  could  not  stultify  themselves  in  presence  of  what  had  occurred,  and 

Mr.  Holman's  amendment  was  carried  by  a  majority  of  thirteen.     Still  Grcneral 

Garfield  did  not  give  it  up,  and  when  the  bill  went  into  the  House,  he  tried  to 

rally  his  forces  again  to  defeat  the  proviso. 

The  Speaker:  The  amendments  are  reported.    Is  a  separate  vote  demanded  on  each  ? 
Mr.  Garfield:   Only  on  that  adopted  in  committee  on  the  motion  of  the  gentleman  from  Indiana 
(Mr.  Holman). 

The  question  being  taken  on  Mr.  Holman's  amendment,  it  was  agreed  to — yeas 
77,  nays  53. 

That  was  the  great  entering  wedge  of  the  Washington  Ring's  plunder,  so  far 
as  the  public  treasury  was  concerned.  Mr.  Garfield  engineered  the  scheme  from 
first  to  last,  with  all  the  power  which  his  position  gave  him  as  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  House  in  shaping  legislation,  and  as  chairman  of  the  committee  holding 
the  purse  strings  of  the  nation,  to  be  tightened  or  loosened  by  his  will.  Chittenden, 
the  lobbyist  of  the  corrupt  contract,  did  not  misjudge  his  character  or  his 
strength,  when  he  "  retained  "  him  through  Parsons,  and  wrote  rejoicingly  to 
De  Golycr  that  success  was  certain  after  Garfield's  "  influence  ''  had  been  made 
certain.  And  Shepherd,  who  gave  out  the  contract  for  this  and  other  considera- 
tions, knew  well  how  good  a  bargain  he  had  driven. 

rN    THE    SENATE. 

The  foundition  being  thus  laid,  the  Ring  next  turned  to  the  Senate  for  the  pros, 
ecution  of  their  venal  plans.  In  that  body  they  had  powerful  support  in  the 
Senators  who  were  partners  in  the  *  Real  Estate  Pool,"  like  W.  M.  Stewart  of 
Nevada,  and  others  linked  in  with  various  forms  of  speculations.  The  Commit- 
tee on  Appropriations  was  absolutely  in  their  hands,  as  was  that  on  the  District 
of  Columbia,  then  headed  by  Patterson  of  New  Hampshire,  who  vras  repudiated 
and  disgraced  because  of  his  connection  with  these  robbers. 

After  the  amendment  of  the  House  forbidding  any  further  expenditures  with- 
out previous  appropriation,  it  was  necessary  to  change  the  tactics,  as  the  fact  was 
too  fresh  in  the  mind  of  Congress  and  of  the  public  to  be  treated  with  open  de- 
fiance. Discussion  was  also  to  be  avoided,  for  that  would  attract  notice  and  com- 
ment, with  the  certainty  of  being  fatal.  Whenever  the  lobby  are  harassed  and 
threatened  with  this  sort  of  danger,  they  carry  their  job  to  the  Senate,  get  it  at- 
tached to  an  appropriation  bill  which  is  held  back  to  the  closing  days,  or 
smuggle  it  into  a  conference  committee  packed  to  order,  cut  off  debate  by  the 
previous  question,  and  then  threaten  an  extra  session,  unless  their  corrupt  legisla- 
tion is  adopted. 

BACK  IN   THE   HOUSE. 

The  Ring  adopted  this  game  and  knew  how  to  play  it  to  perfection  from  long 
familiarity.  They  had  the  advantage,  too,  of  stocked  cards.  The  Sundry  Civil 
Appropriation  Bill  was  then  pending.  There  was  a  disagreement  on  some  of  the 
items,  and  the  usual  conference  committees  were  appointed.  A.  A.  Sargent,  a 
sort  of  lieutenant  of  Garfield,  was  chairman  on  the  part  of  the  House.     On  tlia 


DISTRICT    OP    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  113 

Ist  of  March — one  day  before  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  as  Sunday  inter- 
vened— this  bill  was  reported  from  the  conference  committee.  In  presenting  it 
Sargent  said : 

The  important  amendments  put  on  by  the  Senate  are  those  relating  to  District  appropriations. 

They  were  composed  of  four  items  and  footed  up  $2,199,533,  in  addition  to 
the  $1,241,920.92  which  had  been  granted  only  six  weeks  before.  Great  indigna- 
tion was  excited  in  the  House  by  this  daring  imposition.  Mr.  Beck,  Mr. 
Burchard,  Mr.  Crebs,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  others  denounced  it  in  fitting  terms. 
The  bill  was  then  postponed  until  the  3d  of  March,  the  last  day  of  the  Forty-sec- 
ond Congress. 

It  was  shown  by  a  report  from  the  District  of  Columbia  Committee,  in  reply  to 
questions  addressed  to  the  Board  of  Public  Works  only  four  weeks  previously, 
that  "no  further  sum  will  be  required  to  complete  the  work  undertaken,  and  for 
which  liabilities  have  been  incurred."  But  that  positive  declaration,  like  the  re- 
strictive proviso  of  the  House  on  the  former  appropriation,  produced  no  effect 
whatever.  The  screw  was  turned  and  opposition  was  useless.  Mr.  Holman 
made  a  last  endeavor,  by  a  parliamentary  motion,  to  reject  the  report  and  reopen 
the  question.     It  was  answered  by  a  rally  of  the  party,  with  the  following  result: 

THE  RECORD  THAT  DAMNS. 

The  question  being  taken  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Holman  to  reconsider  the  vote 
ordering  the  main  question,  there  were  yeas  67,  nays  129,  not  voting  44. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD   VOTED  NO. 

That  test  vote  substantially  decided  the  question,  though  another  attempt  was 

made  in  behalf  of  honesty  before  the  final  formalities  were  completed.     Mr. 

Beck  earnestly  appealed  to  the  House,  but  in  vain. 

We  ought  now  to  reject  this  conference  report,  in  order  that  all  the  «ew  legislation  may  be 
stricken  out  of  it,  and  all  items  rejected  which  wo  have  not  a  chance  of  considering  in  this 
House.  Let  us  order  our  committee  to  go  back  to  the  Senate  and  say  to  them  that  if  there  be  new 
legislation,  the  champiom  of  which  do  not  dare  to  come  here  and  ask  us  to  consider  it,  we  cannot  al- 
low them  to  put  it  on  in  the  expiring  hours  of  the  session  by  amendments  stated  only  by  numbers  ; 
the  members  of  the  House  not  having  a  chance  of  saying  anything  against  or  knowing  anything 
of  the  legislation  they  are  called  upon  to  pass. 

General  Garfield  is  directly  responsible  for  thus  voting  away  thfee  and  a  half 
millions  of  the  people's  money  between  the  8tli  of  January  and  the  third  of 
March,  1873,  the  bulk  of  which  was  distributed  among  the  chiefs  and  confeder- 
ates of  the  "Washington  Ring.  He  initiated  this  infamous  system.  He  certified 
the  acts  of  Shepherd  as  in  accordance  with  law.  He  advocated  the  claims  of 
these  plunderers  as  just  and  meritorious.  He  abused  his  trust  to  help  their  ras- 
cality, and  he  falsified  the  record  in  order  to  mislead  the  House. 

"BABCOCK'S  LIGHTNING   CALCULATIONS." 

The  Deficiency  Bill  passed  on  December  19th.     Mr.  Holman,  of  Indiana,  after 

repeated  efforts  finally  succeeded  in  having  a  proviso  inserted,  that  the  Board  of 

Public  Works  : 

Be  and  the  same  are  hereby  prohibited  from  incurring  or  contracting  further  liabilities  on 
behalf  of  the  United  States  in  the  improvement  of  streets,  alleys,  avenues  and  reservations 
beyond  the  amount  of  appropriations  previously  made  by  Congress,  and  from  entering  into  any 
contracts  touching  said  improvement  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  except  in  pursuance  of 
appropriations  made  by  Congress. 

Gen.  Babcock  made  quick  work  of  the  measurements  he  was  directed  to  make 

by  Congress.     The  deficiency  bill  did  not  become  a  law  until  Jan.  8,  but  on  Jan. 

10,  two  days  later,  an  account  footing  up  to  $2,340,920.84,  with  the  approval  of 

Gen.  Babcock  attached,  certifying  that  he  had  had  the  proper  examination  made, 

the  measurements  verified  and  prices  approved,  was  presented  at  the  Treasury  De- 


114  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RIXG    Al^D    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

partment.  It  Avas  a  voluminous  document,  containing  several  thousand  items 
of  measurement,  but  nevertheless  it  passed  the  first  auditor  and  first  comptroller, 
and  reached  the  warrant  division  on  the  same  day.  The  next  day,  Jan.  11,  the 
assistant  secretary  issued  three  warrants  for  that  sum  of  money,  which  were 
registered  by  the  register  of  the  treasury,  and  handed  over  to  Gov.  Cooke. 

The  Hon.  Robt.  B.  Roosevelt,  of  New  York,  who  was  prevented  by  sickness 
from  attending  the  session  of  the  House  during  the  debate  on  this  appropriation, 
made  on  Jan.  24,  a  vigorous  onslaught  on  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and  he 
charged  and  proved  by  irrefutable  facts,  that  their  detailed  statement  of  the  cost 
of  the  work  alleged  to  have  been  done  around  government  property  was  false  ia 
detail  and  in  gross. 

SAWYER   AND    SARGENT   REWARDED. 

For  the  services  that  Senator  Sawyer  had  rendered  to  the  Ring,  his  appoint- 
ment as  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  secured  b}'^  Shepherd's  and  Bab- 
cock's  influence  with  the  President.  In  the  following  year,  however,  he  was, 
after  having  been  detected  in  procuring  the  payment  of  several  fraudulent 
claims,  forced  to  resign  by  Secretary  Bristow.  On  the  15th  of  March,  the  treas- 
urer of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  presented  at  the  Treasury  Department  the 
first  batch  of  Babcock's  measurements  under  the  new  appropriation,  amounting 
to  $1,113,598.73.  On  the  same  day,  Hallet  Kilbourne,  the  trustee  of  the  Cooke 
branch  of  the  Real  Estate  Pool  and  the  middle  man  of  the  contract  pool,  made 
the  following  deed,  as  per  record:  "  Hallet  Kilbourne,  trustee  to  Aaron  A.  Sar- 
gent; deed  executed  March  15th,  1873;  recorded  March  22d,  1873,  in  Liber  713, 
folio  333,  lots  1  and  2  in  square  13G;  consideration  of  $22,000."  These  lots  front 
on  the  square  at  the  intersection  of  Connecticut  and  IMassachusetts  avenues, 
which  was  christened  "Pacific  Place"  by  Babcock,  to  tickle  the  fancy  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Ring,  who  were  about  to  colonize  the  vacant  land 
thereabouts  under  the  lead  of  "Emma  Mine"  Stewart,  who  was  then  erecting  on 
the  north  side  of  the  circle  a  proud  castle,  which  soon  came  to  be  known  as 
"Honest  Miner's  Camp."  The  modest  homestead  conveyed  to  Sargent  contained 
24,521  squarq  feet;  $5,500  were  to  be  paid  in  cash;  the  rest  was  secured  by 
notes  running  one ,  two  and  three  years.  These  notes  were  never  paid,  and  in 
the  summer  of  1875  Shepherd  gave  him  in  exchange  for  the  same  a  house  and 
lot  at  the  corner  of  Connecticut  avenue  and  De  Sales  street. 

Garfield's  services  could  not  save  the  ring. 
The  District  government  was  bankrupt.  The  vast  appropriations  which  they 
had  received  through  the  influence  of  Garfield  and  Sargent  in  the  House,  and 
Sawyer  in  the  Senate,  brought  but  temporary  relief.  The  District  legislature 
authorized  the  issuance  of  two  millions  of  dollars  of  assessment  certificates.  The 
First  National  Bank  of  New  York,  in  which  the  Cookes  were  interested,  took 
$800,000  of  these  securities  at  97  cents.  John  O.  Evans,  and  some  favorite  con- 
tractors, made  an  arrangement  with  this  bank,  by  which  the  auditor's  certifi- 
cates, which  were  given  for  work  done,  were  iurned  in  to  the  treasurer  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works,  who  issued  to  the  bank  for  them  certificates  of  assess- 
ment. But  even  these  two  millions  of  illegal  securities,  thus  floated,  were  insuf- 
ficient to  meet  the  pressing  d.mands  of  the  Ring.  The  subservient  District  legis- 
lature was  directed  to  authorize  the  issuance  of  sewer  bonds,  and  an  act  to  this 
effect  was  passed.  It  divided  the  city  into  sections,  without  any  regard  to  the 
topographical  features  of  the  ground  within  the  corporate  limits,  and  notwithstand- 
ing mam  sewers ,  providmg  ample  dramage  for  all  of  these  sections,  had  been 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AXD    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  115 

nearly  completed,  and  the  cost  for  the  same  charged  against  private  property,  and 
the  United  States.  It  a\  as  proposed  under  this  act  to  levy  a  general  tax  to  pay 
for  work  already  done  and  nearly  paid  for.  The  act  was  iniquitous.  Whole 
squares  of  ground,  submerged  at  low  tide,  were  assessed  at  double  and  treble 
their  actual  value,  while  the  vast  tracts  of  land  traversed  by  splendid  avenues  and 
partly  paved  streets,  which  had  been  gobbled  up  by  the  Real  Estate  Pool,  escaped 
with  a  nominal  assessment.  The  total  cost  of  these  main  sewers  had  not  exceeded 
$2,500,000,  yet  it  vvas  deliberately  proposed,  in  addition  to  levying  a  general  tax 
upon  all  private  property,  to  charge  up  against  the  United  States,  as  its  propor- 
tion of  the  taxes,  $2,740,681.83. 

THE   RING   FRAUDS  INVESTIGATED. 

The  passage  of  this  act  by  the  Legislative  Assembly  was  the  last  feather  that 
broke  the  camel's  back.  The  citizens  began  to  organize  and  collect  evidence  of 
the  misdoings  of  the  ring.  The  measurements  which  General  Babcock  had  certi- 
fied to  be  correct,  were  remeasured  by  competent  engineers,  and  found  to  be 
glaringly  false  in  every  instance.  When  Congress  reassembled  in  December,  a 
memorial  was  presented  to  both  Houses,  demanding  an  investigation.  Every 
effort  was  made  to  prevent  it,  but  public  sentiment  was  too  strong  to  be  resisted, 
and  the  investigation  was  ordered.  Prior  to  this,  however,  the  Board  of  Public 
Works  had  cooked  up  another  claim  against  the  United  States,  for  work  done 
about  government  reservations,  the  avenues  and  for  main  sewers,  and  coolly 
demanded  $4,370,427.94.  This  demand  was  made  in  defiance  of  the  provision 
which  Mr.  Holman  had  succeeded  in  placing  upon  the  deficiency  bill,  heretofore 
referred  to,  forbidding  the  Board  of  Public  Works  to  incur  or  contract  further 
liabilities  against  the  United  States,  unless  authorized  by  act  of  Congress. 

The  investigation  was  made  by  a  joint  committee  of  the  two  Houses.  Not- 
withstanding every  obstacle  was  placed  in  the  way  by  the  Ring,  the  exposures 
threatened  to  be  so  damning  that  they  resorted  to  a  desperate  expedient 
intended  to  blacken  the  character  of  those  who  were  prosecuting  them.  To 
accomplish  this,  one  of  the  darkest  crimes  of  the  age  was  deliberately  plan- 
ned by  members  of  the  Ring,  and  perpetrated  by  criminals  employed  by  them 
through  the  secret  service  division  of  the  Treasury  Department.  It  occur- 
red on  the  night  of  the  very  day  upon  which  the  counsel  for  the  citizens 
announced  to  the  committee  tlmt  they  had  closed  their  case.  Briefly  stated  the 
prominent  facts  connected  with  this  damnable  villany,  are  as  follows:  A  number 
of  the  principal  citizens  were  in  the  habit  of  meeting  nightly  at  the  house  of  Mr. 
Columbus  Alexander,  to  hold  consultations  among  themselves  and  with  their  at- 
torneys. An  operative  in  the  Secret  Service  force  was  detailed  by  the  chief  at  the 
special  request  of  Gen.  Babcock  and  Richard  Harrington,  to  concoct  a  plot  by 
which  he  could  entrap  Mr.  Alexander  and  the  gentlemen  who  were  in  the  habit 
of  meeting  with  him  at  his  house,  into  receiving  books  and  papers  which  were 
without  the  knowledge  of  the  gentlemen  to  be  stolen  from  the  office  of  the  District 
Attorney.  The  detective  managed,  after  trying  several  weeks,  to  make  the 
acquaintance  of  Mr.  Alexander,  and  represented  himself  as  a  former  book- 
keeper of  John  O.  Evans.  In  the  interview  which  he  had  with  Mr.  Alexan- 
der he  stated  that  the  books  of  Mr.  Evans  which  had  been  produced  before 
the  committee  wera  forgeries,  and  that  the  real  books  were  in  his  possession, 
and  would  show  that  enormous  frauds  had  been  perpetrated  by  Evans  with 
the  consent  and  connivance  of  Shepherd.  These  books  he  offered  to  produce 
and  turn  over  to  the  citizens.  At  first  he  demanded  money;  but  this  was 
sternly  refused,  whereupon  he  said  he  was  an  honest  man  and  desired  to  ex- 


116  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA   RING    AND   DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

pose  the  frauds,  and  would  turn  oyer  the  true  books  of  Evans  without  any  com- 
pensation. This  proffer  was  accepted,  and  Mr.  Alexander  immediately  notified 
two  members  of  the  Investigating  Committee  of  the  proposition  that  had  been 
made  to  him. 

PUTTING  UP  THE  SAFE  BURGARLY  JOB. 

On  Wednesday,  the  21st  of  April,  Harrington,  accompanied  by  John  O.  Evans, 
carried  the  account  books  from  his  office  on  Pennsylvania  avenue,  to  the  District 
Attorney's  office  and  locked  them  up  in  his  safe.  On  Thursday  night,  April  22d, 
a  professional  burglar  named  George  E.  Miles,  with  an  assistant,  entered  the 
District  Attorney's  office,  blew  open  the  safe,  took  out  the  books  of  Evans,  which 
were  carried  to  Mr.  Alexander's  house  by  the  assistant  burglar.  Harrington,  on 
Thursday,  had  notified  the  police  authorities  that  he  had  reason  to  fear  that  a  burg- 
lar}^ was  going  to  be  committed  in  the  District  Attorney's  office,  and  had  the  entire 
detective  force  of  the  city  stationed  about  the  building  in  which  the  ofiice  was 
located.  The  superintendent  of  police  was  there  in  person,  and  also  the  chief  of 
the  detectives.  The  burglars  entered  the  building  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing, and  carried  with  them  the  tools  to  be  used  in  breaking  open  the  safe.  They 
were  seen  to  enter  and  the  superintendent  of  police  wanted  to  arrest  them  at  that 
time,  but  Harrington  objected.  They  passed  out  and  returned  later,  and  after 
hammering  away  at  the  safe  for  several  minutes,  finally  blew  it  open,  the  report 
being  so  loud  that  it  attracted  the  attention  of  the  people  living  in  the  neighbor- 
hood. The  two  burglars  walked  boldly  out  of  the  front  entrance  of  the  building 
and  one  of  them  was  suffered  to  slip  quietly  away  while  the  detectives  accom- 
panied by  Harrington,  a  brother  of  Shepherd  and  a  fellow  named  A.  B.  Williams, 
an  intimate  associate  of  Harrington,  followed  the  other  who  carried  the  books  to 
Mr.  Alexander's  house.  On  the  way  thither,  the  burglar  lost  his  way  and  Williams 
pointed  out  the  road  and  directed  him  to  the  house.  Mr.  Alexander  and  his  en- 
tire family  were  in  bed  sound  asleep,  and  providentially,  all  the  noise  of  pound- 
ing at  the  door  and  ringing  of  the  bell  by  the  burglar  did  not  awaken  a  single  one 
of  the  inmates.  After  he  had  been  suffered  to  continue  his  efforts  to  awaken  the 
inmates  for  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes,  the  superintendent  of  police  finally  arrest- 
ed him  and  took  him  to  police  headquarters,  where  he  was  locked  up.  A  few 
days  later  this  villian  was,  through  a  fellow  named  Sommerville,  with  whom 
Harrington  had  made  the  arrangement,  procured  to  make  an  affidavit  in  which 
he  asserted  that  he  had  been  employed  by  Mr.  Alexander  to  blow  open  the  safe  in 
the  Di&trict  Attorney's  oflSce,  and  bring  the  books  of  Evans  to  his  house.  This 
affair  w^as  subsequently  investigated  by  the  Joint  Committee,  and  after  Harring- 
ton, Williams  and  the  oflBcers  of  the  Secret  Service  division  had  committed  per- 
jury over  and  over  again,  the  detective  who  had  been  instructed  to  put  up  the  job 
came  forward  and  made  a  clean  breast  of  the  whole  transaction. 

GRANT  INVITES  THE  CRIMINAL   FROM   THE   DOCK. 

The  Hon.  Benjamin  H.  Bristow  having  been  made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
the  whole  matter  was  referred  to  him  by  the  committee  for  further  investigation, 
and  he  turned  it  over  to  Hon.  Bluford  Wilson,  who  was  afterward  appointed 
Solicitor  of  the  Treasury.  Mr  Wilson  succeeded,  after  a  patient  investigation,  in 
discovering  the  most  complete  and  irrefutable  proofs  of  the  connection  of  Col. 
Whitney,  chief  of  the  Secret  Service  Division,  his  first  assistant  I.  C.  Nettleship, 
Richard  Harrington  and  A.  B.  Williams,  with  this  damnable  conspiracy  to  ruin 
an  innocent  man.  The  Hon.  A.  G.  Riddle  was  appointed  a  special  assistant  at- 
torney-general to  prosecute  these  parties  in  the  criminal  court  of  the  District 


DISTRICT    OF   COLUMBIA    RING    AND   DE    GOLTBR    BRIBE.  117 

They  were  indicted,  and  after  some  delay  brought  to  trial,  when  the  most  desper- 
ate efforts  were  made  by  the  Ring,  assisted  by  the  United  States  Marshal,  Alexan- 
der Sharp,  a  brother-in-law  of  the  President,  to  secure  their  acquital.  The 
President  himself  lent  his  influence  to  secure  the  same  result.  During  the  pro- 
gress of  the  trial  he  invited  Harrington  to  a  reception  given  at  the  White  House, 
thus  giving  notice  to  both  court  and  jury  that  he  considered  the  criminal  in  the 
dock  had  not  been  guilty  of  any  offence  which  deserved  public  condemnation. 
Although  the  jury  had  been,  as  far  as  possible,  packed  by  the  marshal,  it  failed 
to  acquit  the  conspirators.  At  the  begining  of  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-fourth 
Congress,  Col.  Whitney,  Nettleship,  Somerville  and  all  the  other  parties,  includ- 
ing the  burglar  came  forward  and  confessed  their  connection  with  this  crime  and 
furnished  still  further  evidence  implicating  Harrington,  and  also  connecting  Gen. 
Babcock  directly  with  this  infernal  conspiracy. 

Gen.  Babcock  was  indicted  and  tried  but  through  the  influence  which  domi- 
nated the  court  of  the  District,  he  was  acquitted.  Harrington  is  still  a  fugitive 
from  justice,  and  has  never  dared  to  stand  a  second  trial. 

THE   REPORT  OP  THE   JOINT   INVESTIGATING   COMMITTEE. 

Every  conceiveable  influence  was  exerted  to  operate  on  the  joint  committee,  in 
order  to  protect  the  Ring  from  full  exposure  and  punishment.  To  save  them  it 
was  first  indispensible  to  whitewash  their  associates,  or  at  least  to  withhold 
censure. 

Mr.  Allison,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  had  been  tainted  darkly  with 
Credit  Mobilier,  as  one  of  Oakes  Ames'  beneficiaries.  They  knew  how  to  touch 
his  sympathies  and  his  interests.  He  was  won  over.  Other  Republican  mem- 
bers were  implored,  on  account  of  the  injury  to  the  party  at  the  fall  elections,  to 
moderate  their  just  resentment  at  these  enormities,  and  be  content  with  dismiss- 
ing the  whole  concern.  A  promise  was  given  that  the  President,  under  no  cir- 
cumstances, would  appoint  Shepherd  to  any  new  oflBce  that  might  be  created. 

Under  this  and  other  pressure,  combined  with  the  fear  of  some  that  a  division 
in  the  committee  would  prolong  the  misrule  and  prevent  any  legislation,  the 
original  report  was  materially  modified  in  its  stern  expression.  But  that  did  not 
alter  the  facts  or  change  the  crushing  testimony.  Yet,  with  all  these  sinister 
causes  operating,  that  report  says : 

FAVORITISM   IN    CITY    CONTRACTS. 

This  opened  the  way  for  favoritism  in  the  letting  of  contracts,  and  for  a  system  of  brokerage  in 
contracts  which  was  demoralizing  in  its  results,  bnnging  into  the  list  of  contractors  a  class  of  peo- 
ple unaccustomed  to  perform  the  work  required,  and  enabling  legitimate  contractors  to  pay  large 
prices  in  order  to  secure  contracts,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  was  the  beginning  of 
nearly  all  the  irregularities  disclosed  in  the  testimony  in  the  letting  of  contracts.  Any  system 
which  would  enable  an  adventurer  to  come  from  a  distant  city,  and  in  the  name  of  a  contracting 
firm  make  proffers  of  50  cents  per  yard  to  any  person  having  or  supposed  to  have  influence  with 
the  board,  wher.  by  a  paving  contract  could  be  secured,  and  after  persistent  effort  succeed  in  secur- 
ing a  contract,  and  actually  binding  his  principals,  the  contractors,  to  pay  $97,000  for  a  contract  of 
200,000  yards  of  pavement,  after  an  effort  of  five  months  to  secure  it.  the  gross  amount  to  be  re- 
ceived being  only  about  $700,000,  in  its  nature  must  be  vicious,  and  ought  to  be  condemned. 

BOSS    SHEPHERD    THE    BOARD     OP    PUBLIC    WORKS. 

Again  the  report  says : 

Pursuant  to  this  authority,  for  no  other  seems  to  have  been  relied  upon,  the  Vice-President 
(Shephenl)  ultimately  came  to  be,  practically,  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  and  exercised  the  power 
of  the  board  almost  as  absolutely  as  iJwugh  no  one  else  had  been  associated  with  him. 

During  a  considerable  portion  of  the  succeeding  time,  notwithstanding  the  most  extensive 
operations  were  bein^  carried  on,  and  expenditures  were  being  made  by  the  millions,  there  were  no 
stated  times  for  board  meetings,  and  but  comparatively  few  board  meetings  were  in  fact  held,  but 
entries  were  made  in  the  record  purporting  to  contain  the  proceedings  of  the  board,  which  were,  in 
fact,  made  up  by  the  Secretary  from  letters  and  papers  that  came  to  the  office,  and  from  directions 
made  bvthe  Vice-President  (Shepherd).  Some  of  these  were  entries  made  of  business  transacted 
by  the  Vice-President  (Shepherd)  at  his  private  office,  and  afterwards  placed  on  the  records  as  hav. 
ing  been  business  transacted  by  the  board. 

These  minutes  were  rarely,  if  ever,  read  and  approved. 


118  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    RING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE. 

FALSE    CLALMS    AGAINST    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

Of  the  claim  of  $4,500,000,  which  the  Board  of  Public  Works  presented  to 
to  Congress  against  the  United  States,  the  report  says: 

It  was  undoubtedly  widely  wrongr,  and  whether  thei-e  is  anything  that  appears  in  it  that  can  be, 
with  any  propriety,  charged  to  the  United  States,  is  exceedingly  doubtful,  excepting  it  may  be  the 
amount  of  15248,340.72,  and  the  accuracy  of  that  can  only  be  ascertained  by  a  remeasurement. 

Of  the  item  for  $3,740,681.83,  as  the  government's  proportion  of  the  cost  of 

the  main  sewerage,  the  report  says: 

All  the  main  sewerage  of  the  city,  when  completer!,  will  cost  $2,435,835.23,  so  that  this  charge 
against  the  government  for  main  sewerage  is  $304,826.60  more  than  the  whole  cost. 

In  speaking  of  the  manner  in  which  the  accounts   against  the  United  States 

were  manufactured,  tlie  committee  instanced  the  acts  of  January  8  and  March  3, 

1873,  which  Gen.  Garfield,  aided  by  Sargent  of  Ohio,  and  Sawyer  in  the  Senate, 

had  engineered  through,  whereby  $3,448,933  were  obtained  from  the  national 

treasury.     The  report  say 3: 

These  acts  were  founded  on  accounts  presented  by  the  District  for  work  said  to  be  done,  and 
for  which  it  was  alleged  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  was  equitably  liable.  The  tes- 
timony taken  by  your  committee,  and  a  scrutiny  of  the  reports-of  the  Boaril  of  Public  Works,  con- 
vinces your  committee  that  those  accounts  were  unreliable  and  inaccurate,  and  that  the  provisions 
of  the  law  requiring  theit  verification  were  not  complied  with  according  to  their  letter  and  spirit. 

RING     BOOKKEEPING. 

Again  the  report  says : 

The  treasurer  was  made  the  sole  custodian  of  all  the  moneys  received  and  securities  issued,  and 
the  sole  disbursing  officer  of  the  same,  without  any  check  upon  hiiu  whatsoever.  He  could  draw 
his  checks  upon  the  public  moneys  in  favor  of  whomsoever  and  for  any  amount  he  chose,  and  on 
any  account  he  might  think  proper,  without  any  other  member  of  the  board  or  officer  thereof,  liav- 
ing  any  knowledge  of  it  whatever.  He  has  kept  no  cash  account,  and  the^checks  he  has  issued  do 
not  correspond  with  the  several  amounts  reported  by  him  to  have  been  paid;  so  that  there  is,  as  he 
himself  concedes,  no  means  of  ascertaining  whether  his  accounts  are  correct,  other  than  by  exam- 
inmg  hi.s  books  and  papers  in  detail,  which  would  have  required  more  time  than  the  committee 
could  devote  to  it,  besides  requiring  the  services  of  a  skillful  accountant.  From  the  organization 
of  this  board,  June,  1871,  to  this  time,  the  board  has  not  examined  these  accounts. 

The  mode  Ox  doing  business  in  this  office  was  as  follows:  Upon  the  presentation  to  the  auditor 
of  an  account  or  estimate  purporting  to  be  approved  by  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  the  auditor  is- 
sued a  certificate  of  indebtedness,  and  filed  the  approval,  account,  or  estimate  as  his  voucher  for 
the  issuance  of  the  certificate.  But  no  record  or  register  of  such  auditing  by  the  board  was  kept  by 
the  board,  and  it  would  seem  to  have  been  common  for  a  (?ingle  member  (Shepherd),  to  direct  ac- 
counts to  be  auditedin  the  name  of  the  board;  consequently,  there  are  no  books  that  serve  as  a 
check  upon  the  auditor,  and  by  the  comparison  of  which  with  his  own  books,  it  can  be  seen  whether 
he  has  improperly  Issued  certificates. 

Notwithstanding  the  powers  of  the  auditor  and  of  the  treasurer,  the  board  during  the  three  years 
it  has  been  in  exi.stence,  has  done  nothing  in  the  way  of  verifying  the  accounts  of  these  two  ofB- 
cers.  This  is  a  negligence  not  to  be  excused  in  those  in  whom  such  important  trusts  were  con- 
fided. 

Whether  moneys  have  been  paid  out  on  false  accounts,  or  diverted  to  improper  purposes,  can 
only  be  determined  from  a  careful  scrutiny  of  the  accounts  in  detail. 

THE   LEGACY  THE  RING  LEFT  THE   DISTRICT   OF   COLUMBIA. 

The  legacy  of  debt  which  the  Ring  left  the  citizens  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
is  one  that  will  burden  their  descendants  to  the  latest  posterity,  and  will  continu- 
ally drain  the  federal  treasury.  The  organic  act  establishing  the  territorial  form 
of  government  for  the  District,  limited  the  debt  to  $10,000,000.  The  joint  in- 
vestigating committee  of  the  forty-third  Congress,  found  from  the  best  data  then 
attainable  that  the  Ring  had  exceeded  this  by  $8,000,000,  and  in  addition,  left  a 
floating  debt  which  has  been  found  to  be  $11,497,961.13.  During  a  period  of  five 
years  from  July  1,  1871,  to  July,  1,  1876,  there  has  been  collected  in  taxes  from 
the  people  of  the  District,  and  in  money  realized  on  bonds  issued,  $31,593,981.75. 
In  addition  to  this,  there  has  been  received  from  the  federal  treasury 
$11,247,608.46,  making  a  grand  total  expended  in  five  years  of  $42,841,590.21. 

The  present  debt  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  according  to  the  report  of  the 
Sinking  Fund  Commission  of  Nov.  29,  1879,  is  $21,723,712.91. 

A  DEMOCRATIC  PRESIDENT    THE   PEOPLE'S  ONLY  HOPE. 

Congress,  startled  by  the  exhibit  of  Ring  rascality,  made  by  the  joint  investi- 


DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA    KING    AND    DE    GOLYER    BRIBE.  119 

gating  committee  in  1874,  wiped  out  the  Ring  government  and  established  a  new 
one.  Three  commissioners  nominated  by  the  President,  and  confirmed  by  the 
Senate,  are  the  autocrats  who  rule  tlie  people  of  the  District  of  Columbia. 
Their  administration  has  been  an  improvement  upon  that  of  the  old  Ring,  but  it 
is  far  from  being  efficient  and  economical.  It  has  been  more  or  less  under  the 
old  Ring  influence.  The  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  has  accused  them  of 
various  shortcomings,  and  an  investigation  l^y  the  District  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  last  winter  developed  grave  scandals.  The  Ring  gov- 
ernment had  made  excessive  assessments  for  street  improvements,  and  Congress 
provided  that  they  should  be  reimbursed.  In  executing  this  law,  the  commission- 
ers issued  what  were  known  as  drawback  certificates.  It  appears  from  the  tes- 
timony taken  last  winter  by  the  House  committee  that  almost  every  kind  of 
crime  was  committed  by  the  employees  of  the  District  commissioners. 

If  there  is  ever  to  be  a  reformation  in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  it  must  come  either  by  Congress  establishing  a  new  form 
of  government,  or  by  the  election  of  a  President  of  the  United  States  who  will 
appoint  honest  men  as  commissioners. 

The  New  York  Independent,  the  leading  religious  paper  of  the  United  States, 
said,  in  1874,  of  Gen.  Garfield's  connection  with  the  District  of  Columbia 
frauds  : 

The  teslimony  taken  in  the  investigation  of  the  District  of  Cohimbia  frauds,  shows  that  Mr. 
Garfield  received  $5,000  for  his  aid  insetting  through  a  pavin'jc  contract  accepted  bj' the  District 
government.  A  Mr.  Parsons,  a  notorious  jobber,  made  an  argument  for  the  paving  company  and 
then  got  Mr.  Garfield  to  malie  a  further  argument,  and  to  U!<e  his  personal  influence  in  its  favor. 

Of  course  Mr.  Garfield's  argument  was  successful.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  He  was 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations.  Every  cent  of  moufy  voted  to  tlie  District  had  to 
come  througli  him.  Shepherd  could  not  afford  to  refuse  him  anything  he  asked.  Mr.  Garfield 
knew  it  when  he,  asked  and  receive^  for  his  services  a  fee  which  would  have  been  grossly  extrava- 
gant but  for  his  official  position. 

MR.   GARFIELD  DENOUNCED  BY  HIS   REPUBLICAN   CONSTITUENTS. 

(Resolutions  passed  by  Republican  voters  of  the  Nineteenth  Congressional 
District  of  Ohio,  in  convention  assembled,  at  Warren,  Ohio,  on  the  7th  day  of 
September,  1876.) 

Resolmd,  That  we  arraign  and  denounce  him  [Garfield]  for  his  corrupt  connec- 
tion with  the  Credit  Mobilier  ;  for  his  false  denials  thereof  before  his  constituents; 
for  his  perjured  denial  thereof  before  a  committee  of  his  peers  in  Congress  ;  for 
fraud  upon  his  constituents  in  circulating  among  them  a  pamphlet  purporting  to 
set  forth  the  finding  of  said  committee  and  the  evidence  against  him,  when,  in 
fact,  material  portions  thereof  were  omitted  and  garbled. 
*********** 

Besolved,  That  we  further  arraign  and  charge  him  with  corrupt  bribery  in  selling 
his  official  influence  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  for  $5,000 
to  the  De  Golyer  pavement  ring,  to  aid  them  in  securing  a  contract  from  the  Board 
of  Public  Works  of  the  District  of  Colambia  ;  selling  his  influence  to  aid  sail  ring 
in  imposing  upon  the  people  of  said  District  a  pavement  which  is  almost  worth- 
less at  a  price  three  times  its  cost,  as  sworn  to  by  one  of  the  contractors  ;  selling 
his  influence  to  aid  said  ring  in  procuring  a  contract  to  procure  which  it  corruptly 
paid  $97,000  "for  influence  ;"  selling  his  influence  in  a  matter  that  involved  no 
question  of  law,  upon  the  shallow  pretext  that  he  was  acting  as  a  lawyer  ;  selling 
his  influence  in  a  manner  so  palpable  and  clear  as  to  be  so  found  and  declared  by 
an  impartial  and  competent  court  upon  an  issue  solemnly  tried. 


120  THE   DE    GOLTEK   FEE. 


THE  DE  GOLYER  FEE. 


THE  RECORD   OP  THE   CASE  IN   THE   CHICAGO   COURTS.      THE  CONTRACT  DECLARED 
ILLEGAL  AS  AGAINST  PUBLIC  MORALS,  BY    JUDGE   FARWELL. 


The  following  is  substantially  a  true  abstract  of  the  case,  so  far  as  it  bears  upon 
the  action  of  General  Garfield. 

May  Term,  1875— Before  Farwell,  Circuit  Judge.— No.  12,181. 
State  of  Illinois,  Cook  County  Circuit  Court. 
George  R.  Chittenden  m.  Robert  McClellan,  et  al. 

The  plaintiff,  b}'-  E.  A.  Storrs,  Esq. ,  brought  suit  against  the  defendants,  upon 
a  contract  by  •which  they  agreed  to  pay  him  one  third  of  all  the  profits  upon  all 
paving  contracts,  which  he  would  obtain  for  De  Golyer  &  McClellan,  from 
boards  of  public  works,  in  Eastern  cities.  The  declaration  alleged  that  he  ob- 
tained a  contract  for  paving  200,000  square  yards  from  the  Board  of  Public 
Works  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  at  $3.50  per  yard,  when  it  would  cost  only 
$1.50  to  lay  it  down.  That  the  profits  would  be  $400,000,  and  the  plaintiff 
claimed  the  defendants  should  pay  him  $100,000,  at  least,  and  he  claimed  a  judg- 
ment for  that  sum.     Besides  the  general  issue — 

The  defendants  pleaded  in  substance  the  following  special  pleas  : 

1st.  That  the  contract  was  void  on  its  face. 

2d.  That  it  was  obtained  by  the  plaintiff  by  impropar  influences — against  public 
policy,  and  therefore  was  void.  Amongst  other  things  the  second  special  plea  set 
out  "that  then  and  there,  and  while  the  matter  was  pending  aud  undetermin^^d 
before  the  said  board,  he  (the  plaintiff)  did  pay  to  one  Richard  C.  Parsons  a  large 
sum  of  money,  to  wit :  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  he  then  and  there  being 
an  officer  of  the  United  States,  to  wit :  Marshal  of  the  Supreme  Court,  to  apply  to 
said  board,  and  the  individual  members  of  said  board,  to  obtain  the  award  of 
said  contract ;  and  also  then  and  there  did  employ,  or  caused  to  be  employed,  J. 
A.  Garfield,  then  and  there  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  said  House,  to  appear  before  the  said 
Board,  and  before  the  individuals  composing  the  same,  to  solicit  and  urge  upon 
said  board  the  award  of  said  contract,  and  in  consideration  of  his  said  employ- 
ment and  services  and  official  influence  then  and  there  rendered,  the  said  plaintiff 
did  pay,  or  cause  to  be  paid,  illegally,  improperly  and  against  public  policy,  a 
large  sum  of  money,  to  wit  :  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  ;  and  then  and 
there,  and  in  part  by  means  thereof,  the  said  Board  of  Public  Works  were  moved 
and  induced,  illegally,  improperly  and  against  public  policy,  to  make  the  said 
award,  which  said  award,  amongst  other  things,  contained  the  following  clause 
or  condition,  viz. : 


THE    DE    GOLYER    PEE.  121 

"  'An  additional  amount  of  fifty  thousand  square  yards  will  be  awarded  you,' 
[the  defendants  meaning]  *  so  soon  as  the  Board  are  reimbursed  by  the  general 
government  on  account  of  expenditures  around  the  public  buildings  and  grounds, 
or  you, '  [the  defendants  meaning]  '  will  be  allowed  to  lay  it  this  season  if  you  can 
wait  until  an  appropriation  is  made  for  this  purpose,'  [meaning  an  appropriation 
by  Congress],  'at  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  square  yard.'  And  the  defend- 
ants aver  that,  then  and  there,  and  by  the  terms  of  the  said  award  of  said  contract, 
fifty  out  of  the  two  hundred  thousand  yards  so  awarded  were  made  to  depend 
upon  a  future  appropriation  of  money  to  be  made  by  Congress  ;  that  then  and 
there,  by  the  usual  course  and  practice  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  all  bills 
for  such  appropriations  would  be  referred  to,  and  reported  from,  the  Committee 
of  Appropriations,  of  which  the  said  Garfield  was  a  member,  and  the  chairman 
thereof,— the  said  plaintiff,  and  the  said  J.  A.  Garfield  and  the  said  Board  of 
Public  Works,  severally,  then  and  there  well  knowing  that  the  said  J.  A.  Garfield 
did,  could  and  would,  from  his  ofiicial  position,  exert  a  potent  influence  in 
procuring  such  appropriations  by  Congress  for  the  purpose  mentioned  in  said 
award  ;  and  the  defendants  say,  that  by  means  of  the  said  premises,  the  said 
award  of  contract  mentioned  in  the  said  declaration  was  then  and  there  illegal, 
improper,  against  public  policy  and  void.  And  this  the  said  defendants  are 
ready  to  verify  ;  wherefore  they  pray  judgment  if  the  said  plaintiff  ought  to  have 
or  maintain  his  aforesaid  action  thereof  against  them." 

3d.  In  another  and  further  special  plea,  the  defendants,  amongst  other  things, 
alleged  as  follows  : 

"That  sometime  in  the  latter  part  of  May,  1873,  and  while  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  was  in  session,  and  before  any  appropriation  for  that  year  had  been 
made  by  that  body  for  improvements  to  be  made  in  the  streets  of  Washington,  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  the  plaintiff  then  and  there  represented  to  the  said  De 
Golyer  and  McClellan,  that  through  one  R.  C.  Parsons  (then  marshal  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States),  he  had  secured  the  influence  of  General  James 
A.  Garfield  (then  a  Representative  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  and  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of 
the  said  House  of  Representatives),  to  be  used  in  behalf  of  the  said  De  Golyer  & 
McClellan  in  the  application  for  pavement  contracts  from  the  Board  of  Public 
Works  of  the  District  of  Columbia  ;  that  by  letter  dated  at  the  Arlington  flouse, 
Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  addressed  to  said  De  Golyer  &  McClellan  at 
Chicago  aforesaid,  he  stated  among  other  things  that  Col.  Parsons  had  arrived  ; 
that  '  the  influence  of  General  Garfield  had  been  secured  by  yesterday,  last  night, 
and  to-day's  labors  ;  he  carries  the  purse  of  the  United  States — the  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  and  is  the  strongest  man  in  Congress  and  with 
our  friends.  My  demand  is  to-day  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  more — two 
hundred  thousand  in  all.  Every  thing  is  in  the  best  of  shape — the  connections 
complete,  and  I  have  reason  to  believe  satisfactory. 

"  'The  model  is  in  Gen. Garfield's  house — sent  there  last  night; — note,  you  will 
be  ready  to  leave  on  the  first  train  when  telegraphed  to.  I  can  hardly  realize  that 
we  have  Gen.  Garfield  with  us.  It  is  rare,  and  very  gratifying.  Ail  appropria- 
tions of  the  district  come  from  him.  " 

The  plea  then  avers  that  Garfield  appeared  before  said  board  as  set  out  in 
former  plea,  that  the  award  of  said  contract  with  the  conditions  as  set  out  in  the 
other  plea,  was  made,  and  goes  on  to  aver  : 

"  That  then  and  there  the  said  J.  A.  Garfield  was  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  in  which  all  bills  to  appropriate  money  originate  ;    that  he  was 


122  THE    DE    GOLYER    FEE. 

then  and  there  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  to  which  committee,  by  the  rules  and  practice  of  said  House, 
all  bills  to  appropriate  money  to  be  expended  in  the  said  District  of  Columbia 
must  be  and  are  referred  ;  that  then  and  there  it  was  well  known  to  the  said 
Richard  C.  Parsons,  James  A.  Garfield,  Alexander  R.  Shepherd,  the  plaintiff, 
and  the  said  De  Golyer  &  McClellan,  that  the  said  J.  A.  Garfield  then  and  there, 
and  thereafter,  in  his  official  character  as  a  member  of  said  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  as  chairman  of  the  said  committee,  did,  could  and  would  exert  and 
exercise  a  potent  influence  in  and  upon  the  said  committee,  and  upon  tlie  said 
House  of  Representatives,  in  reporting  to  and  passing  through  said  House  bills 
to  appropriate  moneys  to  be  expended  in  the  said  District  of  Columbia,  in  and 
upon  the  said  pavements  to  be  awarded  by  the  said  Board  of  Public  Works. 

"The  defendants  aver  that  then  and  thereby,  and  by  means  thereof,  the  said 
A.  R.  Shepherd,  as  a  member  of  said  board,  and  the  said  Board  of  Public  Works 
was  moved  and  induced  to  make,  and,  in  fact,  did  make  the  said  award  and  con- 
tract above  set  out  and  described  in  the  declaration,  and  not  otherwise. 

"And  these  defendants  further  say:  that  afterwards,  to  wit,  on  the  10th  day  of 
July,  1872,  at  Chicago  aforesaid,  in  consideration  thereof,  and  of  the  services  and 
official  influence  rendered  and  given  as  aforesaid  by  the  said  James  A.  Garfield, 
and  the  said  R.  C.  Parsons,  the  said  De  Golyer  &  McClellan  made  their  certain 
draft  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  delivered  the  same  to  the  said  Parsons,  at 
Cleveland,  which  said  draft  was  duly  paid,  that  then  and  there  the  one  half,  or 
the  sum  of  $5,000,  was  paid  to  the  said  J.  A.  Garfield  for  his  services  and  official 
influence  &c. ;  that  it  was  to  be  paid  as  a  contingent  fee,  and  was  to  be  paid  only 
upon  the  condition  that  the  said  award  should  be  granted  by  the  said  Board  of 
Public  Works,  and  not  otherwise,  as  was  then  and  there  agreed  between  the  said 
plaintiff  and  the  said  Parsons  for  himself  and  for  the  said  Garfield. 

"And  these  defendants  further  say,  that  afterwards,  at  Washington  aforesaid, 
the  said  Committee  on  Appropriations  did  recommend  the  passage,  and  the  House 
of  Representatives  did  pass,  a  bill  appropriating  large  sums  of' money,  which  said 
bill  passed  Congress,  and  was  approved  January  8,  1873,  for  the  sum  of  $1,241,- 
920.92,  out  of  which  said  sum  the  said  Board  of  Public  Works  were  authorized 
to  pay  the  said  sum  of  money  agreed  to  be  paid  by  said  contract  and  award, 

"And  the  said  defendants  further  aver  that  the  award  was,  in  fact,  mainly  pro- 
cured by  the  official  influence  of  the  said  Garfield  alone. 

"And  the  defendants  say  that  by  means  of  the  premises  the  said  award  and 
contract  were  then  and  there  illegal,  improper,  against  public  policy,  and  void, 
&c. — And  this  the  said  defendants  are  ready  to  verify,  &c.,  wherefore,  they  pray 
judgment,"  &c. 

STATEMENT  OF  DEFENDANT'S  COUNSEL. 

When  the  matter  came  on  to  be  heard,  I,  as  counsel  for  the  defendants,  sub- 
mitted a  brief  in  writing,  of  which  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  points  are  as 
follows,  viz. : 

4th.  The  pleas  are  good.  They  set  out  in  substance  that  the  contract  was 
obtained  by  the  plaintiff  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia by  improper  influences.  That  the  contract  was  in  part  to  the  amount  of 
50,000  square  yards,  upon  its  face,  contingent  upon  a  future  appropriation  to  be 
made  by  Congress ;  that  the  plaintiff  employed  James  A.  Garfield,  then  being  a 
member  of  Congress  and  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  agreeing  to  pay  him  a  contingent  fee  of  $5,000,  pro- 
vided he  would  obtain  the  said  contract  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works;  that  by 
his  influence  and  persuasion  he  did  procure  the  same,  for  which  he  received  the 


THE    DE    GOLYER    FEE.  123 

sum  of  $5,000;  that  afterwards  a  bill  was  reported  from  the  committee  of  which 
he  was  chairman,  and  did  pass  the  house,  and  passed  Congress  and  became  a 
law,  appropriating  the  sum  of  $1,241,000.  out  of  which  the  pavement  under  said 
contract  could  be  paid  for  by  said  Board  of  Public  Works;  that  the  plaintiff  and 
the  defendant,  and  the  said  Garfield  and  the  members  ot  the  said  Board  of  Public 
Works,  well  knew  at  the  time  of  his  said  employment,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
service  in  procuring  said  contract,  that  said  Garfield,  from  his  official  position, 
did  and  would  have  a  potent  influence  in  procuring  the  passage  of  such  appro- 
priation to  carry  such  contract  into  effect  by  said  Board  of  Public  Works ;  and 
that  by  means  of  the  premises  the  said  contract  was,  in  fact,  obtained  by  im- 
proper influences,  against  public  policy,  and  is  void. 

5th.  It  is  no  sufficient  answer  to  say  that  Garfield  was  at  the  same  time  a 
member  of  the  legal  profession.  His  being  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  same 
time,  any  employment  as  counsel  upon  a  contingent  fee  or  otherwise  to  obtain 
a  contract  from  a  board  of  public  officers,  dependent  upon  the  future  action  of 
Congress  to  fulfill,  is  against  public  policy,  and  is  void. 

6th.  That  the  plaintiff  Chittenden  well  knew,  and  intended,  that  the  inflm  nee 
of  General  Garfield  as  a  member  of  Congress  was  to  be  used  in  procuring  the 
contract  rather  than  his  arguments  as  a  counsellor-at-law,  is  evident  from  his 
letter  to  the  defendants,  set  out  in  their  special  plea,  in  which  he  says:  "The  in- 
fluence of  General  Garfield  has  been  secured  by  yesterday,  last  night  and  to-day's 
Jabors.  He  carries  the  purse  of  the  United  States — the  chairman  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  Appropriations — and  is  the  strongest  man  in  Congress  and  with  our  friends. 
My  demand  is  to-day  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand  more— two  hundred  in 
all.  Everything  is  in  the  best  shape,  the  connections  complete,  and  I  have  reason 
to  believe  satisfactory.  *  *  *  j  can  hardly  realize  that  we  have  General 
Garfield  with  us.  It  is  rare,  and  very  gratifying.  All  the  appropriations  of  the 
District  come  from  him. " 

In  the  recent  case  of  Burke  1)8.  Child,  not  yet  reported  (May,  1875),  decided 
at  the  last  October  Term  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Justice 
Swayne,  in  a  very  able  opinion,  reviews  all  the  cases,  and  holds:  That  a  contract, 
express  or  implied,  for  purely  professional  services  is  valid.  Within  this  category 
he  includes  drafting  a  petition,  attendance  on  taking  testimony,  collecting  facts, 
preparing  arguments  and  submitting  them,  orally  or  in  writing,  to  a  committee 
or  other  proper  authority. 

But  such  services  are  separated  by  a  broad  line  from  i)€rsonal  solicitation  and 
from  official  influence. 

The  agreement  with  Gen.  Garfield,  a  member  of  Congress,  to  pay  him  $5,000 
as  a  contingent  fee,  for  procuring  a  contract  which  was  itself  made  to  depend 
upon  a  future  appropriation  by  Congress,  which  appropriation  could  only  come 
from  a  committee  of  which  he  was  chairman,  was  a  sale  of  official  influence, 
which  no  veil  can  cover,  against  the  plainest  principles  of  public  policy.  No 
counselor-at  law,  while  holding  high  office,  has  a  right  to  put  himself  in  a  posi- 
tion of  temptation  ;  and,  under  pretense  of  making  a  legal  argument,  exert  his 
official  influence  upon  public  officers  dependent  upon  his  future  action. 

Certainly  the  courts  of  justice  will  never  lend  themselves  to  enforce  contracts 
obtained  by  such  influences. 

The  court  [Judge  Farwell  presiding]  overruled  the  demurrer  ;  held  the  spe- 
cial pleas  to  be  good  ;  and,  that  the  contract  was  void  as  against  public  policy. 
That  ended  the  case. 

Respectfully  yours, 

J.  R.  DOOLITTLE. 


124  THE   SANBOBN   FliAUDS. 


THE  SANBOM  FRAUDS. 


A  Republican  Congress  passed  an  act  approved  June  31st,  1870,  which  author- 
ized the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  make  contracts  with  persons  having  knowl- 
edge of  money  due  to  the  United  States  for  its  collection.  This  law  turned  loose 
upon  the  country  a  swarm  of  informers  and  spies.  Blackmailing  was  legalized. 
The  oldest  and  most  respectable  business  men  in  the  country  became  the  prey  of 
disreputable  creatures  who  made  use  of  some  private  peccadillo  to  extort  money 
from  them  under  the  pretence  of  collecting  money  due  the  government,  on  ac- 
count of  a  failure,  in  the  past,  to  comply  exactly  with  the  terms  of  the  revenue 
laws.  Very  little  of  the  money  thus  obtained  ever  found  its  way  into  the  Federal 
treasury.  This  system  of  extortion  and  blackmail  became  so  odious  that 
both  Houses  of  Congress  in  May,  1872,  voted  to  repeal  the  law  creating  the  moiety 
system. 

This  disreputable  business  under  the  law  of  1870  was  open  to  any  depraved 
characters  who  might  engage  in  it.  Two  men,  W.  H.  Kelsey,  an  ex-member  of 
Congress  from  New  York,  and  John  D.  Sanborn,  of  Massachusetts,  a  friend  of 
Secretaries  Boutwell  and  Richardson,  appear  to  have  conceived  the  idea  of  having 
an  act  of  Congress  passed  which  would  give  them  and  their  tools  a  wide  field  in 
which  to  practice  their  nefarious  business.  It  is  pretty  clear  that  at  least  one  of 
the  Assistant  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  was  a  partner  in  this  jobbery.  He 
made  his  official  position  so  subservient  to  that  obiect  that  Sanborn  was  allowed 
$173,390  for  three  months'work  between, October  1st,  1873,  and  January  9th,  1874, 
and  this  too,  after  the  House  of  Representatives  had  taken  the  initiative  step 
towards  investigating  the  business. 

It  was  the  intention  at  first  of  Kelsey  and  Sanborn  to  introduce  their  proposed 
measure  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  but  some  of  the  members  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Appropriations  were  known  to  be  hostile  to  the  system  of  moieties  in 
any  form.  They  therefore  determined  to  begin  in  the  Senate.  Frederick  A.  Saw- 
yer, afterwards  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasur}-,  was  then  in  the  Senate. 
He  had  placed  upon  the  Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill  an 
amendment  in  these  words : 

And  from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  have  power  to 
employ  not  more  than  three  persons  to  assist  the  proper  officers  of  the  government  in  discovering 
and  collecting  any  money  belonjiing  to  the  United  States,  whenever  the  same  shall  be  withheld  by 
any  person  or  corporations,  upon  such  terms  and  conditions  as  he  shall  deem  best  for  the  interest 
of  the  United  States;  but  no  compensation  shall  be  paid  to  such  persons,  except  out  of  the  money 
and  property  so  secured. 

GEN.    GARFIELD  AS  USUAL   SUBSERVIENT. 

There  was  no  discussion  whatever  in  the  Senate.  This  amendment  was  adopted 
upon  the  assurance  that  large  sums  of  money  were  withheld  improperly  from  the 
treasury  which  could  be  collected  by  this  means.     The  Legislative,   Executive 


THE    SANBORN    FRAUDS.  125 

and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill,  as  amended  by  the  Senate,  was  reported  to  the 
House  of  Representatives  April  8th,  1872.  Instead  of  concurring  in  the  Senate, 
amendment  above  quoted,  the  House  not  only  rejected  it,  but  passed  an  act 
repealing  the  moiety  act  of  June  21st,  1870.  This  sharp  reply  of  the  House  to 
the  Senate  was  not  decisive.  On  the  12th  of  April  when  the  House  had  com- 
pleted the  consideration  of  the  bill,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appro- 
priations, General  Garfield  said : 

I  rise  to  a  question  of  privilege.  It  will  quicken  action  apon  the  Legislative  Appropriation  Bill 
if  the  House  asks  for  u  conference  on  the  disagreeing  votes,  and  let  it  go  back  to  the  Senate  again. 
I  ask  that  the  bill  be  returned  to  the  Senate,  with  the  amendments  that  we  have  concurred  in,  and 
that  a  conference  be  asked  upon  the  disagreeing  votes  of  the  two  Houses. 

Gen.  Garfield  was  evidently  in  a  hurry  to  get  the  bill  into  the  Conference  Com- 
mittee. He  was  not  willing  to  wait  for  the  Senate  to  accept  or  reject  the  action 
of  the  House.  His  motion  to  ask  for  a  Committee  of  Conference  was  adopted, 
and  the  Speaker  appointed  as  conferees  on  the  part  of  the  House  Mr.  Garfield, 
Mr.  Freeman  Clark  and  Mr.  Niblack.  On  the  19th  of  April,  the  Senate  appointed 
Mr.  Cole,  Mr.  Morrill  of  Vermont,  and  Mr.  Sawyer  on  their  side.  On  the  22d  of 
April,  three  days  later,  the  bill  was  reported  from  these  conferees  to  the  Senate,  but 
was  not  acted  upon  at  that  time.  Senator  Cole,  however,  took  occasion  to  in- 
form that  body  that  Gen.  Garfield  was  very  urgent  to  get  it  through,  or  to  use  his 
own  words — 

I  have  information  from  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the  House  that  it 
is  very  desirable  for  the  Senate  to  act  upon  this  report  at  an  early  hour  to-day  in  order  that  it  may 
be  disposed  of  in  thai  body.    It  has  to  he  reported  here  first  under  the  orders  of  the  two  Houses. 

On  April  24th,  the  report  of  the  Conference  Committee  was  read  in  the  Senate. 
The  House  conferees  had  receded  from  the  disagreement  to  the  Senate  amend- 
ment in  regard  to  moieties.  Mr.  Cole,  in  explaining  the  action  of  the  Conference 
Committee,  said  : 

The  conferees  on  the  part  of  the  House  agree  to  the  next  amendment,  the  34th,  authorizing  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  employ  not  exceeding  three  persons  to  assist  the  regular  officers  in 
collecting  taxes  and  dues  which  are  withheld  from  the  treasury. 

Gen.  Garfield  made  the  Conference  report  to  the  House  on  the  26th  of  April  and 
endeavored  to  drive  it  through  without  debate.     "We  quote  from  the  Globe  : 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  If  I  can  have  the  attention  of  the  House  for  a  few  minutes- 
Mr.  Randall  :  Allow  me  to  make  a  suggestion.  It  is  now  twenty  minutes  to  five  o'clock.  We 
cannot  understand  this  report  from  its  reading  by  the  clerk  and  shall  have  to  listen  to  a  long  ex- 
planation from  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations.  There  are  some  features  of 
this  report  to  which  there  undoubtedly  will  be  objection.  I  therefore  suggest  that  it  be  allowed  to 
go  over  until  Monday. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  I  would  cheerfully  do  that,  but  for  one  thing.  This  is  a  very  long  bill, 
and  the  enrolling  clerks  ought  to  have  to-morrow  to  prepare  it  for  signature.  I  think  the  gentle- 
man will  find  that  the  points  to  which  objection  will  bo  made  are  very  few,  and  they  can  be  stated 
in  a  very  few  minutes. 

Mr.  Speer  of  Pennsylvania  :  This  bill  will  not  go  into  efEect  until  the  Ist  of  July  next.  What  is 
the  great  necessity  for  this  hurry  about  it  ? 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  I  believe  I  can  state  in  six  minutes  all  that  is  needed  in  the  way  of  ex- 
planation. 

Mr.  Dickey  :  The  House  is  not  full ;  and  if  in  a  full  House  this  report  should  be  rejected,  then 
all  the  labor  of  the  enrolling  clerks  will  be  lost. 

Mr.  Randall  :  It  would  be  very  satisfactory  to  have  more  time  for  consideration. 

Mr.  Famsworth  :  Some  of  these  amendments  will  give  rise  to  discussion. 

Mr.  Hale  :  There  will  be  some  opposition  to  portions  of  this  Conference  report.  TJndonbtedly 
the  explanation  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  will  be  satisfactory  as  far  as 
it  goes,  but  this  report  is  an  Important  one,  and  there  has  been  no  opportunity  to  examine  it  in 
detail.  In  view  of  that  fact,  and  also  that  there  may  not  be  a  quorum  here  now,  I  suggest  whether 
it  would  not  be  better  to  let  this  report  go  over  until  next  week. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  If  my  colleague  on  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  (Hale)  desires  a  post- 
ponement of  this  report,  I  certainly  liave  no  personal  preferences  of  my  own  to  oppose  it. 

Mr.  Hale  :  I  do  not  wish  postponement  put  on  that  ground  at  all. 

HAND  IN  GLOVE  WITH  SANBORN  SAWYER. 

The  attempt  to  gag  the  House  and  force  the  Sanborn  bill  through  when  a  quo- 
rum was  not  present,  had  to  be  abandoned  that  day.     "When  the  report  was  next 


126  THE    SA:S^B0RN    FRAFiJl 

called  up,  in  stating  the  results  of  the  conference,  General  Garfield  did  not  even 

name  the  thirty -fourth  amendment.     He  simply  said  : 

The  material  put  in  by  the  Committee  of  Conference  is  very  slight  and  is  only  found  in  the 
words  of  this  report  printed  in  italics.  If  there  are  special  points  upon  which  gentlemen  desire  to 
ask  a  question,  I  will  now  yield  for  that  purpose. 

*********** 

Mr.  Farnsworth  :  I  object  to  that  part  of  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Conference  which  allows 
the  Senate  amendment  to  t^tand  authorizing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  appoint  commissioners 
or  agents  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  up  certain  property.  I  understand  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  does  not  wish  the  enactment  of  any  such  provision.  T  am  opposed  to  a  proposition  of 
that  kind  upon  the  ground  I  have  always  advocated,  that  we  should  abandon  the  system  of  spies 
and  informers.    These  commissioners,  as  I  understand,  are  to  be  appointed  as  spies  or  informers. 

Mr.  Ambler  :  And  the.  proposition  is  not  for  a  general  system  of  spies,  but  for  a  monopoly  of 
spies,  if  I  may  so  express  it.  Certain  gentlemen  are  to  have  a  monopoly  of  the  spy  syslem  of  the 
United  States. 

Mr.  Rrtudall :  Now  when  we  are  proposing  to  abolish  two  thousand  revenue  officers,  here  comes 
a  proposition  to  increase  them. 

Mr.  Farnsworth  :  1  suppose  that  proposes,  if  we  arc  to  have  any  spies,  we  might  as  well  have  a 
monopoly  of  them. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  If  we  ere  to  have  any,  the  fewer  the  better,  I  think. 

Mr  Randall  :  It  seecis  to  me  that  the  thirty-fonrth  amendment  ought  not  to  be  agreed  to.  The 
House  has  voted  I  don't  know  how  often  in  distinct  opposition  to  the  moiety  system  and  the  spy 
system.  This  proposition,  it  is  true,  does  not  contemplate  the  moiety  system  proper,  so  called,  but 
a  system  by  which  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  may  divide  with  those  gentlemen  to  be  named  by 
him  the  proceeds  of  prosecutions.    Such  a  provision  seems  to  be  entirely  wrong. 

Mr.  Hale,  of  JMaine  :  What  I  object  to  is  this  ;  that  these  informers  should  be  paid  for  assisting 
the  proper  officers  of  the  government.  What  are  the  proper  officers  to  do  if  they  are  not  to  detect 
these  thieves  and  execute  the  laws  ?  What  are  the  district  attorneys  and  the  whole  paraphernalia 
of  our  courts,  what  are  they  all  for  unless  to  enforce  the  law  and  collect  the  money  and  property 
belonging  to  the  government  of  the  United  States  ?  Shall  we  establish  this  most  vicious  system 
for  the  discovery  of  information  ?  I  have  reason  for  believing  that  the  other  members  of  that 
committee  (Senate),  had  they  been  required,  would  have  yielded  this  as  a  matter  of  concession. 

What  Mr.  Hale  stated  was  well  known  by  many  others.  If  Gen.  Garfield  and 
his  co-Gonferers  of  the  House  had  stood  firm  the  Senate  would  have  yielded.  The 
moiety  system  was  odious  and  public  sentiment  was  decidedly  against  it.  Senator 
Cole's  language  to  the  Senate  conveys  but  one  idea — that  Mr.  Garfield  was  desir- 
ous of  having  the  Senate  amendment  adopted.  Gen.  Butler  of  Massachusetts 
defended  the  moiety  system  and  pronounced  a  eulogy  on  Sanborn,  and  ad- 
vocated the  adoption  of  the  Senate  amendment.     He  was  followed  by  Mr.  Randall. 

GARFIELD   DID  NOT  WANT   DISCUSSION. 

Mr.  Randall:  Now  this  provision  may  have  reference  to  a  higher  class  of  plunders  :  but  the  opera- 
tion of  such  legitlation  must  be  the  same,  and  at  a  time  when  we  are  proposing  to  simplify  the 
collection  of  the  revenue,  to  raise  revenue  from  a  reduced  number  of  articles,  and  to  collect  it  solely 
by  stamps,  there  certainly  must  be  no  necessity  for  such  a  provision  as  thi-.  I  hope  the  House  will 
have  the  good  sense  to  vote  down  the  proposition,  as  it  has  repeatedly  heietofore  voted  down  al- 
most unanimously  propositions  of  the  same  kind. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio:  No  member  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  was  more  opposed,  or  is 
more  opposed,  to  the  idea  of  moieties  than  I.  I  was  opposed  to  putting  on  the  clause  to  which  the 
several  gentlemen  have  referred.  We  And  the  Senate  making  this  statement.  The  Senate  con- 
ferers  UAd  us  that  they  had  reason  to  believe  that  single  corporations  had  covered  up  under  the  form 
of  stock  accounts  and  other  bonds,  $500,000,  which  ought  to  have  been  paid  into  the  treasury  as  in- 
come tax,  and  they  had  reason  to  believe  this  provision  would  enable  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
to  secure  the  repayment  of  that  amount.  The  Senate  conferers  were  a  unit  on  this  subject,  and 
notwithstanding  atl  the  representations  we  made  they  would  not  give  way.  I  do  not  believe  a 
better  result  can  be  had  if  we  vote  a  dozen  conferences.  I  have  no  personal  pride  in  this  confer- 
ence report ;  but  I  say  ut  this  stage  of  the  session,  when  this  report  has  cost  five  sessions  of  the 
conference  committee  to  produc  the  result,  I  should  be  sorry  to  see  it  defeated  in  this  single  point. 
I  demand  the  previous  question  on  the  adoption  of  the  report. 
•     Mr.  Randall:  I  ask  the  gentleman  to  let  me  move  to  amend. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio:  I  cannot. 

Mr.  Randall  I  hope  the  previous  question  will  be  voted  down.  I  desire  to  ask  a  parliamentary 
qnestion,  whether  we  have  not  the  right  to  have  another  conference  to  take  out  that  portion  of  this 
report  ? 

The  Speaker:  If  the  House  so  orders. 

Mr.  Holman:  Is  it  not  further  iu  order  to  move  to  recommit  the  bill  if  the  previous  question  be 
not  seconded. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio:  I  demand  the  previous  qnestion. 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

The  question  was  taken  and  it  was  decided  in  the  negative,  yeas  80,  nays  81,  not  voting  79. 

MR.    GAr.FIELD   VOTED  AYE. 

t 
So,  the  report  of  the  conference  committee  was  not  agreerl  to. 
Mr.  Holman:  I  move  to  recommit  the  report  to  the  committee  of  conference. 
Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio:    1  do  not  see  liow  that  can  be  done,  the  Senate  having  already  acted  upon 
this  report. 


THE    SANBOBX    FKAUDS.  127 

Mr.  Farnsworth:  Would  not  the  proper  course  be  to  appoint  another  committee. 

The  Speaker:  There  is  nothing  in  the  rules  preventing  the  recommittal  of  the  report  to  the  same 
committee. 

Mr.  Wood:  I  wish  to  inquire  if  it  would  be  in  order  to  express  the  hope  that  the  committee  will 
stand'  bj'  the  action  tliat  the  House  has  just  taken  ? 

The  Speaker:  The  gentleman  can  express  that  hope  in  public  or  in  private.     [Laughter]. 

Tlie  question  being  taken  on  recommitting  the  report  to  the  committee  of  conference  it  was 
agreed  to . 

Gen.  Garfield  while  pretending  to  oppose  moieties  made  every  effort  in  this 
contest,  and  resorted  to  every  maneuvre  to  have  the  Senate  Sanborn  amendment 
adopted.  And  when  the  Conference  Committee  came  back  with  the  old  amend- 
ment, with  a  tale  of  verbiage  of  no  value  at  all,  and  which  in  no  manner  changed 
its  objectionable  features,  here  is  Mr.  Garfield's  lame  defense  of  it  : 

GA.RFIELU'S   ARGUMENT   FOR   THE   VICIOUS   LAW. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  Mr.  Speaker,  there  were  two  points  especially  made  in  the  House  against 
the  Senate  amendment  apart  from  the  objections  which  were  directed  against  the  entire  principle 
of  the  proposition.  The  conferers  have  had  four  sessions  in  regard  to  this  question.  The  Senate 
conferers  were  absolutely  unwilling  to  recede  from  the  amendment.  After  ail  these  conferences 
v-e  insisted  tliat  if  the  proposition'was  to  be  retained  at  all  there  should  be  safeguards  to  obviate 
special  objections  made  in  the  House.  The  first  was  that  irresponsible  persons  without  character 
might  make  such  representation^^  as  might  induce  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  give  them  a 
contract,  and  that  this  would  be  the  last  heard  from  them.  The  amendment  in  itd  present  form,  as 
members  will  have  noticed  if  they  had  attended  to  the  reading,  provides,  that  no  contracts  shall  be 
made  with  any  person  unless  he  first  submits  a  written  statement  under  oath  of  what  lie  believes 
to  be  the  amount  of  money  or  property  withheld  from  the  government  unlawfully  by  any  person, 
firm  or  corporation,  stating  also  the  law  that  he  believes  to  be  violated  ;  and  the  statements  are  to 
be  so  specific  that  they  may  enable  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasurer  to  know  where  the  derelict  prop- 
erty is  and  its  exact  status.  In  the  next  place,  the  araendmenc  m  its  present  form  provides  as  a 
pro'tection  against  blackmailing,  that  any  person  having  such  contract  who  shall  attempt  to  make 
settlement,  or  shall  receive  money  in  the  way  of  settlement  without  an  express  written  order  from 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  that  effect,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  penal  offense,  and  shall  be 
punished  therefor.  In  the  third  place,  it  is  provided  that  frequent  reports  under  the  direction  of 
the  treasury  shall  be  made  by  any  person  thus  authorized  to  recover  property.  The  committee  of 
conference  believe  that  the  proposition  in  its  present  form  obviates  as  fully  as  possible  the  evils 
apprehended  by  members  of  the  House  who  objected  to  the  measure.  The  gentleman  from 
Pennsylvania  desires  to  ask  me  a  question. 

Mr.  Randall  :  Nor.  now  ;  I  will  wait  until  you  get  through. 

Mr.  Garfield  cf  Ohio  :  I  desire  to  call  the  previous  question. 

Mi.  Eaudall  :  I  do  not  suppose  you  desire  to  call  the  previous  question  until  objections  to  this 
report  have  been  made.    It  is  one  very  objectionable  even  in  its  modified  form. 

Mr.  Duke  :  I  hope  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  will  allow  it  to  be  printed  and  go  over  to  another 
day. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  I  demand  the  previous  question. 

Mr.  Randall  :  I  hope  the  previous  question  will  not  be  ordered.  The  bill  is  just  as  offensive  as 
it  ever  was. 

Mr.  Bingham  :  Debate  is  not  in  order,  the  previous  question  having  been  called. 

Mr.  Farnsworth  :  I  should  like  to  ai-k  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  whether  any  change  has  been 
made  on  the  subject  of  increase  and  salary. 
_Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  Tht  re  has  been  no  change.    I  demand  the  previous  question. 

Mr.  Randall  :  I  move  the  House  adjourn  if  the  gentleman  will  not  give  me  time  to  discuss  it. 

The  House  divided,  and  there  were  ayes,  71,  noes,  79. 

Mr.  Randall  demanded  tellers. 

Tellers  were  ordered,  and  Mr.  Randall  and  Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  were  appointed. 

Mr.  Sargent  :  I  do  not  think  there  is  any  necessity  for  going  on  with  the  motion  to  adjourn. 
There  is  no  objection  to  some  reasonable  time  being  given  for  debate. 

Mr.  Cox  :  It  was  refused,  and  I  object  to  debate  now. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  I  was  willing  to  yield  any  reasonable  time  for  debate. 

Mr.  Randall  :  You  had  a  very  strange  way  of  showing  your  willingness. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  Don't  quarrel  or  we  will  go  on. 

Mr.  Cox  :  Well,  go  on. 

The  House  again  divided,  and  the  tellers  rei)orted  ayes,  61  ;  noes,  68. 

Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  If  the  gentleman  desires  to  speak  for  a  few  minutes  I  do  not  object,  but 
I  am  willing  to  withdraw  the  previous  question. 

Mr.  Randall :  There  ought  to  be  some  debate  upon  this  important  question. 

Mr.  Cox  :  I  demand  the  yeas  and  nays  on  the  motion  to  adjourn. 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

The  question  was  taken  and  it  was  decided  in  the  negative.    Yeas  70,  noes  103  ;  not  voting  67. 

So  the  House  refused  to  adjourn. 

The  previous  question  was  seconded  and  the  main  question  ordered. 

Mr.  Randall  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays. 

They  were  ordered. 

The  question  on  agreeing  to  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Conference  was  then  voted  on  and 
resulted  yeas  87,  noes  77  ;  not  voting  76. 

GENERAL    GARFIELD    VOTED   AYE. 

During  the  few  days  that  intervened  between  those  two  votes  the  Sanborn  Ring 
conquered  the  prejudices  of  some  of  their  adversaries,  persuaded  others  to  stay 


128  THE  SAKBORN  PKAUDS. 

away,  and  converted  their  first  defeat  into  a  majority  of  ten  in  which  the  party 
lines  were  closely  drawn. 

One  of  the  strongest  reasons  for  the  sudden  conversion  was  Gen.  Garfield's 
statement  that  the  amendment  had  been  guarded  so  as  to  protect  the  treasury. 
Experience  has  shown  that  these  pretended  safeguards  were  only  contrived  to 
pass  the  amendments  ;  for  all  the  excesses  which  brought  such  scandal  on  the 
treasury  and  compelled  Congress  to  repeal  the  law,  were  perpetrated  under  it. 
They  helped  rather  than  harmed  the  Sanborn  Ring  in  their  operations. 

THE  SANBORN  FRAUDS  INVESTIGATED. 

The  House  of  Representatives ,  February  13th,  1874,  directed  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means  to  investigate  the  operations  of  Sanborn  and  others  under  the 
moiety  law  which  Gen,  Garfield  had  succeeded  in  1872  in  passing.  The  investi- 
gation was  thorough.  Hon.  Charles  Foster  of  Ohio  then  a  member  of  the  Ways 
and  Means  committee,  now  Governor  of  Ohio,  was  active  in  the  prosecution  of 
this  inquiry.  In  their  report  (see  H.  R.  Report  559,  43CZ  Congress  1st  Sess.,  page  1) 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  say : 

The  Forty-second  Congress  at  its  second  session  reported  a  law  wliich  provided  for  the  paj'ment 
of  moieties  to  informer:?,  so  far  as  related  to  internal  revenue  tax  ;  but  in  the  last  hours'of  the  same 
session,  and  by  means  of  a  committee  of  conference,  tliere  was  engrafted  on  the  Legislative, 
Executive,  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill,  a  provision  of  seemingly  so  slight  significance,  as  to 
have  been  added  as  the  last  half  of  a  sentence,  in  one  of  the  usual  paragraphs  relating  to  the 
Internal  Revenue  Bureau. 

,)  Under  this  provision  of  "seemingly  so  slight  significance,"  contracts  were 
made  with  Sanborn  and  his  partners  in  over  5,000  cases.  The  names  of  the  par- 
ties, companies,  public  bodi-es,  foreign  and  domestic,  fills  over  50  printed  pages 
of  the  report  of  the  committee,  involving  transactions  covering  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  The  informers  were  to  liave  50  per  cent,  of  the  gross  sum  col- 
lected and  paid  over  to  the  treasury.     The  9ommittee,  in  their  report,  page  3,  say: 

now  THE  GOVERNMENT  WAS  ROBBED. 

The  committee  find  that  the  Information  furnished  by  the  regular  officers  of  the  government 
on  which  collections  were  made,  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Sanborn,  to  avail  himself  of  informa- 
tion paid  for  by  the  government,  and  obtain  contracts  for  the  collection  of  the  very  claims  thus 
brought  to  light  and  found  to  be  due  the  government. 

It  further  appears  from  the  testimony  of  Sanborn,  that  when  he  applied  for  this  railroad  con- 
tract, he  furnished  a  list  of  railroads  taken  from  the  railroad  manuals  and  guides,  comprising  the 
names  of  592  railroad  companies,  being  substantially  the  entire  list  of  railroads  within  the  United 
States.    Sanborn  made  affidavit  that  all  of  these  592  railroad  companies  were  delinquents. 

The  committee  cannot  ascertain  that  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenuf,  or  any  officer  of  his 
department,  was  before,  at  the  time,  or  since  the  contracts  were  made,  or  that  he  was  advised  as 
to  the  making  of  the  contracts,  or  of  the  character  of  the  claims  that  was  intended  thereby  to  be 
collected.  No  communication  on  the  subject  ever  passed  from  the  office  of  the  secretary  to  that  of 
the  commissioner.  No  order  in  regard  to  it  was  ever  issued  from  the  commissioner's  office,  nor 
were  any  collections  or  other  actions  of  his  subordinates  ever  reported  to  them  until  after  action 
was  taken  in  the  House,  calling  upon  the  secretary  for  information  in  relation  to  these  collec- 
tions. In  fact,  it  is  shown  that  the  commissioner  wrote  a  letter,  protesting  against  the  manner  of 
these  collections,  to  the  secretary,  which  has  never  been  answered.  *  *  *  * 

The  whole  power  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau,  as  well  as  the  entire  machinery  of  the  govern- 
ment for  the  collection  of  taxes,  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Sanborn.  *  *  * 
The  evidence  of  Supervisors  Hawley  and  Simmons  shows  that  they  regarded  these  appropriations  as 
requiring  them  to  assist  Sanborn  at  all  times,  and  to  the  utmost  of  their  ability,  in  the  collection 
of  taxes,  in  whatever  case  he  might  desire  their  aid.  It  is  also  shown  by  these  witnesses  that  they 
did  place  at  his  disposal  officers  under  their  control  in  the  pay  of  the  Revenue  Bureau,  and  who 
did  collect  while  in  such  employ,  and  under  such  pay,  much  the  largest  part  of  the  total  amount 
credited  as  collected  by  Sanborn,  and  on  which  he  received  50  per  cent. 

The  committee  find  that  some  of  the  agents  of  Sanborn,  who  were  not  employees  of  the  govern- 
ment, were,  without  authority  of  law,  furnished  by  the  Secretary  and  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  with  special  letters  to  the  supervisors  and  collectors  throughout  the  country,  calling 
upon  such  officers  to  aid  and  assist  them  as  they  might  require.  In  addition  to  this,  to  more  com- 
pletely arm  them  with  power,  two  of  these  same  agents  were  furnished  with  secret  service  detect- 
ives commissioned  by  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury. 

THE  MONEY   COULD   HAVE   BEEN   COLLECTED  WITHOUT   CONTRACT. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  the  committee  that  a  very  large  percentage,  if  not  all  of  the  $427,000  of  taxes 
collected  by  Sanborn,  were  not  a  proper  subject  of  contract  under  the  law.  All  of  these  taxes 
should,  or  would  have  been  collected  by  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau  in  the  ordinary  discharge  of 
their>duty.  ************ 


THK  SANBORN  FRAUDS.  129 

It  is  shown  by  the  evidence  before  the  committee  that  about  $10,000  was  collected  by  Super- 
visors Hawley  and  Simmons  from  taxes  imposed  by  Schedule  C  of  the  Internal  Revenue  law,  for 
the  collection  of  which  no  contract  was  made  with  Sanborn  or  any  one  else.  Nevertheless,  San- 
born claimed  and  was  allowed  50  per  cent,  thereof.  By  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Odell,  Treasurer  of 
the  Delaware,  Lackawanna  and  Western  Railroad  Company,  and  that  of  Supervisor  Hawley,  it 
very  clearly  appears  that  the  sums  collected  from  that  railroad— being  about  $100,000— were  well 
known  to  the  Internal  Revenue  officers,  and  are  collected  by  them,  whicti  collection  should  have 
been  made  in  the  ordinary  discharge  of  their  duties,  and  without  cost  to  the  government. 

WHO   WAS  RESPONSIBLE. 

The  Ways  and  Means  Committee  endeavored  to  ascertain  where  the  responsi- 
bility rested  in  the  Treasury  Department  for  this  gross  dereliction  of  duty,  but 
they  were  unable  to  do  it.     lu  their  report  they  say : 

The  committee  feeling  alarmed  at  the  apparent  looseness  with  which  the  law  has  been  adminis- 
tered, were  desirous  of  ascertaining  where  the  responsibility  rested.  It  would  seem  to  belong 
somewhere  in  the  Treasury  Department.  They  have  had  before  them  the  Secretary,  Assistant 
Secretary  Sawyer  and  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury.  The  Secretary  gave  but  little  information, 
and  exhibited  an  entire  want  of  knowledge  as  to  the  manner  of  making  the  contracts,  administer- 
ing the  law,  or  of  the  provisions  of  the  law  itself.  His  only  connection  so  far  as  he  could  remem- 
ber, with  this  transaction,  was  in  affixing  his  signature  to  the  various  papers  presented,  as  a  mere 
matter  of  office  routine,  without  knowing  their  contents. 

The  Assistant  Secretary  disclaimed  any  particular  knowledge  of  the  law  of  contracts,  and  in 
like  manner  affixed  his  signature  as  a  matter  of  office  routine.  The  Secretary  and  Assistant  Stcre- 
tary  by  their  testimony  show  that  the  papers  were  prepared  by  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treastiry,  thus 
indicating  a  responsibility  upon  him.  The  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury  in  turn  testified  that  he  is  sim- 
ply the  law  officer  of  the  Treasury  Department  and  a  subordinate  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, without  any  power  in  regard  to  the  administration  of  this  law,  except  that  expressly  given 
by  the  Secretary;  that  he  had  consulted  in  every  instance  with  the  Secreta-  y  and  Assistant  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury;  that  he  had  in  all  cases  simply  obeyed  the  directions  of  his  superior  officers, 
and  that  the  contracts  or  various  orders  of  the  department,  were  well  known  to  the  Secretary  and 
Assistant  Secretary.  *  *  * 

Under  this  law  $427,000  was  collected  and  paid  into  the  treasury.  Of  this  amount  Sanborn  re- 
ceived $218,500. 

Judge  Noah  Davis,  of  New  York,  then  United  States  District  Attorney,  was 
one  of  the  witnesses  examined  by  the  committee.  He  said  that  he  knew  of  no 
law  that  allowed  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  make  contracts  with  any  person 
by  which  he  was  to  be  paid  more  than  five  per  cent,  for  the  collection  of  money. 
He  further  said  that  Sanborn  came  to  him,  and  desired  to  make  an  arrangement 
by  which  some  of  these  collectiojis  could  be  made  through  his  office,  and  offered 
to  divide  with  him,  but  that  he  declined. 

George  Bliss,  who  succeeded  Judge  Davis  as  United  States  District  Attorney 
at  New  York,  was  more  subservient.  He  testified  that  he  assisted  Sanborn  in 
making  his  collections,  and  received  five  per  cent.,  which  in  a  very  short  time 
amounted  to  $12,000.  The  collections  that  were  made  through  the  District  At- 
torney's office  were  principally  in  cases  of  legacy  and  succession  taxes.  The 
Ways  and  Means  Committee,  in  their  report,  say  in  regard  to  this : 

It  is  clear  that  legacy  and  succession  taxes  should  not  have  been  made  a  matter  of  contract. 
THE   LEGACY  AND  SUCCESSION   TAX   SWINDIiK. 

J.  D.  Coughlin,  of  New  York,  testified  as  follows : 

While  I  was  assistant  assessor  of  succession  and  legacy  for  the  County  of  New  Tork,  I,  with 
one  or  two  assistants  that  the  department  gave  me,  collected  from  $100,000  to  $500,000  a  year,  as 
the  records  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Department  will  show.  The  salary  of  an  assistant  assessor 
was  $1,500  a  year. 

Q.  Thus  a  neglect  to  collect  was  a  dereliction  of  duty  on  the  part  of  the  Internal  Revenue  offi- 
cer?   A.  Yes;  it  was  entirely  a  dereliction  of  duty  on  the  part  of  that  officer. 

Q.  You  were  well  aware  of  this,  and  made  application  to  the  Secretai  y  of  the  Treasury  for  a 
collecting  contract,  did  you  not?  A.  Yes;  I  made  such  application  soon  after  I  went  out  of  office  as 
assistant  assessor. 

Q.  While  you  were  still  acting  as  an  officer  of  the  government,  why  did  you  not  inform  other 
officers  of  the  govemmeni,  that  they  might  be  able  to  make  collections.  ?  A.  Because  I  knew  if 
the  government  was  goinp-to  collect  taxes  at  50  per  cent.,  I  would  be  the  best  person,  because  I 
knew  how  to  get  on  with  tne  business. 

Q.  Why  did  not  the  Secretary  give  you  a  contract  a   IS  per  cent*  f    .A.  I  don't  know. 

Q.  Did  he  ever  write  any  answer  to  your  application  ?    A.  No,  sir 

THE  REPEAL   OF  THE  INIQUITOU*!   LAW/ 

The  exposure  of  the  Sanborn    frauds  excited    such  universal    indignation 


130  THE    SANBORN    FRAUDS. 

throughout  the  country  and  aroused  public  sentiment  to  such  a  pitch,  that  Con- 
gress, on  June  20,  1874,  unconditionally  repealed  the  law  which  Mr.  Garfleld  had 
contributed  so  much  to  enact.     The  repealing  act  provides  that  : 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  authorized  to  revoke  and  annul  all  contracts  for  the  collection 
of  such  taxes  made  under  and  by  authority  of  eaid  act  ;  that  the  Court  of  Claims  shall  have  no 
authority  to  consider  or  decide  upon  any  claims  for  damages  by  reason  of  the  discontinuance  of  the 
contracts  aforesaid,  or  for  any  profits  or  percentage  under  them. 

THE  REPEALING  ACT    DEFIED. 

This  repealing  act  has  been  openly  violated.  The  proof  of  this  is  contained  in 
the  last  "  estimates  of  deficiencies  "  for  the  j-ear  ending  June  30,  1880  (See  Ex. 
Doc.  34,  U.R.  46  Cong.,  2d  Sess.)  In  this  John  Sherman  asks  for  an  appro- 
priation to  meet  a  deficiency  "  for  detecting  and  bringing  to  trial  persons 
violating  the  .internal  revenue  laws,  including  payment  for  information  and 
detection." 

On  pago  24  of  this  ofllcial  document  is  a  "  Schedule  of  accounts  found  due  by 
the  First  Comptroller,"  to  certain  spies  and  informers,  for  the  fiscal  year  1878. 
In  this  schedule  are  31  names,  and  the  total  amount  asked  for  is  $7,547.35. 
J.  D.  Sanborn  is  one  of  the  persons  for  whom  an  appropriation  is  asked.  Five 
distinct  claims  presented  by  Sanborn,  and  "found  due  by  the  First  Comp- 
troller," are  printed  in  this  list,  aggregating  $5,033,60. 

THE   NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE  ON   THE   SWINDLE. 

The  New  York  Tribune  of  February  27, 1873,  in  commenting  on  Mr.  Garfield's 
law  creating  a  monopoly  of  informers  and  spies,  says  : 

Elsewhere  we  publish  an  accurate  account  of  a  Washington  job,  connected  with  the  collection  of 
overdue  taxes,  under  the  Internal  Revenue  laws.  It  would  be  difficult  to  credit  the  statements  but 
for  the  proofs  furnished  by  the  records  of  Congress.  There  are  now  due  to  the  United  States 
some  four  or  five  millions  of  dollars  from  legacy  and  succession  taxes.  Tliese  taxes  are  more 
easUy  collected  than  any  other  form  of  revenue  under  the  Excise  laws,  for  the  reason  that  all 
bequests  are  matters  of  public  record,  which  may  be  examined  by  revenue  officers  or  arn/body  else. 
Yet  Congress  was  persuaded  to  pass  an  act  in  1872,  outhorizing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to 
bestow  upon  not  more  than  three  of  his  favored  friends,  as  commissioners  for  collecting  these 
taxes,  such  portion  of  the  four  or  five  millions  as  might  seem  good  in  his  eyes  ;  and  perhaps,  in 
these  days  of  Credit  Mobilier  and  other  gigantic  swindles,  we  should  put  it  down  to  the  credit  of 
the  Secretary  that  he  has  decided  not  to  give  away  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  this  sum. 

Tho  same  statements  show  that  Assistant-Assessor  Coughlin,  of  this  city,  has  been  heretofore 
assessing  these  taxes  at  an  expense  to  the  government  of  less  than  one  -per  cent,  upon  the  amount 
which  he  assessed  and  caused  to  be  collected. 

This  swindle  was  smuggled  into  an  appropriation  bill ;  but  if  Congress  happens  to  be  in  an 
economic  mood,  there  i»  yet  lime  and  opportunity  to  repeal  or  modify  the  act  through  any  one  of 
the  several  appropriation  bills  which  still  await  final  action. 


1 


TUE    BACK-l'AY    GKAJi   A2sD    SALAKY    STEAL.  131 


THE  BACK-PAY  GRAB  &  SALARY  STEAL. 


The  part  which  Gen.  Garfield  played  in  the  back-pay  grab  and  salary  steal,  was 
not  at  the  time  properly  understood  by  the  country.  His  connection  with  this 
record  was  marked  by  duplicity  and  secret  connivance,  and  in  the  end  by  open 
advocacy  of  the  infamous  law,  which  excited  universal  detestation,  and  left  all 
connected  with  it  branded  with  lasting  disgrace. 

But  for  him  the  opportunity  by  which  Gen.  Butler  succeeded,  after  a  first  de- 
feat, in  getting  an  amendment  attached  to  the  Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial 
Appropriation  Bill,  would  never  have  offered.  AVith  that  entering  wedge,  the  rest 
was  made  easy;  without  it,  the  task  was  hopeless. 

It  is  necessary^  in  order  to  comprehend  the  course  of  Congressional  proceedings, 
and  Gen.  Garfield's  connection  with  the  legislation  of  the  Forty-second  Congress, 
by  which  the  back-pay  and  salary  steaf  was  made  possible,  to  take  a  brief  retro- 
spect. The.  salary  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  had  already  been  appro- 
priated to  the  30th  of  June,  1873.  The  legislation  which  Gen.  Garfield  so  sig- 
nally assisted,  doubled  the  pay  of  the  President,  and  extended  it  back  to  the 
fourth  of  March,  in  utter  disregard  of  the  fiscal  year.  On  the  7th  of  February, 
1873,  Gen.  Butler  reported  a  bill  from  the  Judiciary  Committee  to  double  the  pay 
of  the  President  and  increase  the  salaries  of  the  Vice  President,  Cabinet,  Justices 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  Congress. 

The  project  had  long  been  canvassed,  and  it  only  waited  a  favorable  chance  to 
be  tested.  Some  of  the  most  anxious  advocates  were  the  most  timid  about  an 
open  support  of  a  proposition  which,  in  1816,  had  consigned  a  former  Congress 
to  an  ignominious  political  grave.  The  avarice  of  others  was  stronger  than  their 
apprehensions. 

THE   FIRST   EXPERIMENT. 

On  the  10th  of  February,  1873,  the  first  experiment  was  tried  upon  the  House 
and  public  opinion,  when  Gen.  Butler  moved  to  suspend  the  rules,  so  as  to  attach 
his  Salary  Bill  as  an  amendment  to  the  Miscellaneous  Appropriation  Bill  then  pend- 
ing. That  motion  required  two-thirds,  but  it  was  beaten  by  a  majority  of  thirty- 
nine,  which  included  some  of  the  strongest  friends  of  the  plunder,  who  voted  for 
effect.  The  first  fire  was  thus  drawn,  and  Butler  knew  exactly  where  to  plant 
his  batteries. 

The  knowing  ones  were  not  at  all  disheartened.  They  knew  their  real  strength, 
how  much  aid  would  be  needed  at  a  pinch,  and  who  could  furnish  it  without  un- 
necessary sacrifices.  After  that  preliminary  skirmish  there  was  a  suspension  of 
operations  for  a  fortnight.  In  the  meantime  bargains  were  made  and  plans  per- 
fected.  That  there  was  concert  and  secret  understanding  betweea  Butler  and 
Garfield  was  publicly  charged  at  the  time,  and  has  been  believed  ever  since. 

The  Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill  came  back  from  the 


133  THE  BACK- PAT  GKAB  AND  SALARY  STEAL. 

Senate  on  the  24th  of  February,  loaded  down  with  nearly  a  hundred  amendments. 
The  natural  course  was  to  have  them  printed  and  allow  members  a  chance  to 
examine  the  items  before  calling  up  the  bill.  Gen.  Garfield,  however,  adopted 
another  policy,  and  doubtless  with  sufficient  private  reasons  that  he  did  not 
divulge.  The  Ghhe  helps  to  lift  the  veil.  After  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  sud- 
denly. Gen.  Garfield  appeared  and  said  : 

GARFIELD   OPENING   THE  DOOR. 
Mr.  Garfield :  I  rise  to  call  up  the  Legislative  Appropriation  Bill. 

This  motion  was  followed  by  others  from  various  quarters  with  bills  of  a  pub- 
lic nature,  claiming  early  attention.     In  the  midst  of  much  confusion — 

Mr.  Randall :  I  demand  the  regular  order  of  business.  I  insist  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr. 
Garfield)  shall  go  on  with  the  Appropriation  Bill  or  yield  the  fioor  unconditionally 

The  Speaker:  What  has  been  going  on  has  been  going  on  by  the  svfferance  of  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio.  What  has  been  going  on  has  been  permissive.  The  Chair  will  advise  the  House  it  is  his  duty 
to  recognize  the  Appropriation  Bills  before  any  and  all  other  business  whatever,  except  privileged 
questions. 

Mr.  Garfield  yielded  to  Mr.  Wilson  to  report  a  bill,  and  then  said: 

Mr.  Garfield,  of  Ohio:  The  bill  now  has  the  precedence  of  other  business,  and  I  hope  the  House 
wDl  adjourn. 

Many  members:  No,  no. 

Mr.  Garfield,  of  Ohio:  Then  I  move  that  the  House  resolve  itself  into  committee  of  the  whole  on 
the  State  of  the  Union  for  the  consideration  of  the  amendments  of  the  Senate  to  the  Legislative, 
Executive  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill. 

Mr.  Holman:  I  suggest  that  the  amendment  be  considered  in  the  House. 

Objection  was  made. 

The  Speaker:  If  objection  is  made,  the  motion  of  the  gentleman  from  Indiana  (Mr.  Ilolman) 
can  only  be  passed  under  a  suspension  of  the  rules. 

Mr.  Hoiman  :  Then  I  move  that  the  rules  be  suspended,  so  as  to  allow  the  bill  and  amendments 
to  be  considered  in  the  House  as  in  Committee  of  the  Whole. 

The  question  being  put  on  Mr.  Holman's  motion,  it  was  not  agreed  to,  two-thirds  ^ot  voting 
therefor. 

Mr.  Hawley,  of  Cojinecticnt:  ITwpeit  will  be  knowmchat  all  this  means. 

Mr.  Shanks:  We  know  what  it  means  as  well  as  the  gentleman  from  Connecticut  does. 

Suspicion  was  awakened  by  this  sharp  turn  in  the  proceedings,  and  the  back- 
pay grabbers  were  quick  to  rebuke  Gen.  Hawley  for  suggesting  it. 

General  Garfield  now  took  the  lead  of  the  House  by  right  of  his  position,  and 
controlled  it  to  suit  the  scheme  which  he  clandestinely  favored.  Pie  could  ad- 
vocate adjournments  ostensibly,  and  yet  by  passive  connivance  allow  them  to  be 
voted  down,  so  as  to  prepare  the  way  for  Butler,  who  was  waiting  for  his  pre- 
concerted chance.     Then  followed; 

Mr,  Garfield:  Pending  the  motion  that  the  House  resolve  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole,  I 
move  that  all  general  debate  be  limited  to  five  minutes. 

Mr.  Randall:  1  renew  i  he  motion  that  the  House  do  now  adjourn. 

The  motion  that  the  House  adjourn  was  not  agreed  to. 

The  question  recurred  on  the  motion  that  all  general  debates  be  limited  to  five  minutes,  and  it 
was  agreed  to. 

Mr.  Garfield,  of  Ohio:  I  now  ask  for  a  vote  on  the  motion  that  the  rules  be  suspended  and  that 
the  House  resolve  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  special  order. 

The  question  being  put  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  that  the  rules  be  suspended  and 
the  House  resolve  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  Senate  amendments  to  the  Legislative, 
Executive  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill,  it  was  agreed  to— years,  86;  nays,  49. 

The  House  then  resolved  itself  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union.  (Mr. 
Dawes  in  the  chair),  and  proceeded  to  the  consideration  of  the  amendment  of  the  Senate  to  the 
bill  (H.  R.  No.  2,991)  making  appropriations  for  the  legislative,  &c.,  expenses  of  the  government 
for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1874,  and  for  other  purposes. 

Having  thus  opened  the  door  late  at  night,  General  Garfield  affected  alarm 

least  burglars  might  enter,  and  wanted  to  close  it  again.     But  there  were  keen 

eyes  that  were  not  taken  in,  and  saw  that  he  meant  to  admit  confederates  who 

had  their  bags  ready  to  carry  off  the  silver  and  spoons.     So  he  rose  again  : 

TRYING  TO  DECEIVE  THE  PEOPLE. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  my  desire  to  get  this  bill  placed  in  a  position  where  it  will  have 
precedence,  and  then  I  hope  we  may  adjourn.  Several  gentlemen  asked  me  if  this  bill  was  likely 
to  come  up  to-night,  as  they  desired  to  be  present  during  its  consideration,  and  I  told  them  that  it 
wflfl  not)  lilfclv 

Mr.  Eldredge:  Why,  then,  did  the  gentleman  insist  on  going  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on 


THE   BACK-PAY    GRAB   AND    SALARY   STEAL.  133 

the  State  of  the  Union  ?  After  he  had  made  that  pledge  we  tried  to  adjourn,  but  the  gentleman 
insisted  on  going  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union. 

Mr.  Garfield:  The  House  insisted  on  going  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the 
Union. 

Mr.  Eldredge:  The  House  did  not ;  it  was  the  gentleman  himself  who  insisted  on  it. 

Mr.  Garfield:  On  the  contrary,  I  voted  to  adjourn  every  time.  If  gentlemen  will  send  for  a 
printed  slip  which  accompanies  this  bill,  they  will  see  all  the  amendments.  There  are  several  bat- 
tle fields  in  this  bill,  and  I  wish  to  indicate  them  to  gentlemen,  so  that  they  may  understand  the 
matter.    First,  Ac,  ********* 

After  having  pledged  himself  not  to  call  up  this  bill,  according  to  his  own  con- 
fession, and  thus  kept  away  members  who  were  known  to  be  hostile  to  the  grab, 
he  sprung  it  on  the  House,  and  compelled  the  majority  to  go  into  Committee  of 
the  Whole  on  the  State  of  the  Union.  And  when  charged  with  this  treachery  he 
said  he  had  "  voted  to  adjourn  every  time."  So  he  did  :  but  he  rowed  one  way 
and  looked  another. 

At  last  the  motive  of  all  the  trick  management  was  made  manifest,  when  the 
leader  came  to  the  front,  after  having  been  bottled  up  until  the  night  had  well 
advanced. 

Mr.  Butler,  of  Massachusetts:  I  move  to  amend  the  amendment  reported  from  the  Committee 
of  the  Whole,  to  be  submitted  for  it  what  I  send  to  the  clerk's  desk  to  be  read. 

The  clerk  read  as  follows  : 

[Here  follows  the  salary-grab  amendment.] 

Mr.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut:  I  raise  the  point  of  order  on  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Butler),  that  it  is  not  germain  to  the  amendment  reported  from  the  Com- 
mittee on  Appropriations. 

Mr.  Holman  :  I  raise  the  point  of  order  that  it  is  new  legislation. 

The  Chairman:  One  point  of  order  only  can  be  entertained  at  a  time. 

The  Chair  [Mr.  Dawes,  who  was  in  the  plot]  overrules  the  point  of  order  of  the  gentleman 
from  Connecticut  (Hawley)  that  this  amendment  is  not  germain. 

The  Chair  will  now  hear  the  point  of  order  of  the  gentleman  from  Indiana. 

Mr.  Holman:  I  raise  the  point  of  order  that  all  points  of  order  raised  against  any  proposition 
must  be  admitted  at  the  same  time.  The  gentleman  from  Connecticut  raised  the  point  of  order 
that  this  amendment  was  not  germain. 

The  Chairman:  And  the  Chair  overruled  that  point  of  order. 

Mr.  Holman:  Then  I  raise  the  point  of  order  that  each  one  of  the  salaries  enumerated  in 
this  proposed  amendment  is  fixed  by  law,  and  the  effect  of  this  amendment  is  to  change  existing 
law. 

The  Chairman:  The  Chair  rules  that  so  much  of  this  amendment  aa  provides  for  an  increase  of 
salaries  is  in  order. 
Mr.  Butler,  of  Massachusetts:  And  that  is  all  there  is  of  the  amendment. 
Mr.  Holman:  Does  the  Chair  overrule  my  point  of  order  ? 

The  Chairman:  The  Chair  rules  that  so  much  of  this  amendment  as  increases  salaries  is  in 
crder. 

[An  appeal  was  taken,  and,  after  some  debate,  the  decision  of  the  Chair  was,  of  course,  sus- 
tained by  the  conspirators.] 

Mr.  Donnan:  I  raise  the  point  of  order  that  this  amendment,  in  substance,  if  not  verbatim,  has 
■once  before  during  this  session  been  negatived  by  the  House,  and  that  therefore  it  is  not  now  in 
order  to  tack  it  on  to  an  appropriation  bill. 

Mr.  Dawes  overruled  the  point  of  order  made  by  Mr.  Holman,  although  the 
House  had  sustained  it  by  a  decided  vote  on  the  7th  of  February,  when  Butler 
moved  to  suspend  the  rules  that  he  might  attach  this  identical  amendment  to  the 
miscellaneous  bill.  If  the  sense  of  the  House  had  been  squarely  tested,  two- 
thirds  would  have  been  necessary  to  get  in  the  amendment.  So  Mr.  Dawes  was 
put  in  the  chair  to  defeat  all  objectionable  points.  Then  Butler  delivered  his 
prepared  speech.  After  that  Gen.  Garfield  had  more  regrets  to  utter  for  his  own 
work  : 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  regret,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  subject  comes  before  the  House  at  such  an  hour  of  the 
night  as  this.    We  ought  to  have  fuller  discussion  than  possible  on  this  occasion. 

A  leading  Republican,  who  had  witnessed  the  whole  scene,  stood  forward  to 
denounce  this  hypocrisy  on  the  spot : 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  DENOUNCED. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Roberts:  Is  not  this  matter  before  the  House  by  his  action  at  this  hour  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  will  answer  the  gentleman.  I  have  myself,  as  the  House  will  remember,  been  in 
favor  of  the  motion  to  adjourn  [very  much] ;  but  when  the  House  does  not  adjourn  I  am  bound  to 
go  on  with  the  business  with  which  I  am  charged. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Roberts:  I  should  like  to  ask  him  if  this  bill  could  have  come  up  to-night  except  on 
the  motion  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio.        *        *       j  ^yish  to  ask  another  question.    It  is  clear  a 


134  THE   BACK-PAT    GEAB   AND    SALARY    STEAL. 

majority  here  to-night  are  ready  to  vote  for  the  proposition  to  increase  salaries.  The  thing  which 
the  minority  asks  is  that  this  vote  shall  be  taken  in  daylight,  under  the  eyes  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  desire  that  what  has  been  said  shall  not  be  taken  out  of  my  time.  If  any  gentle- 
man in  this  House  desires  to  Intimate  that  I  have  done  or  may  do  any  other  than  my  duty  in  calling 
the  attention  of  the  House  to  the  public  business,  I  am  here  to  answer  him. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Roberts:  If  any  gentleman  assumes  to  put  the  threat  on  me,  I  am  here  to  answer  him, 
I  do  intimate  that  it  is  unusual  to  bring  a  bill  including  such  a  proposition  and  a  vote  at  such  an 
hour, 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  insist  on  the  floor,  and  say  this:  I  gave  notice  this  afternoon  to  the  House  that  I 
desired  an  evening  session  for  the  sake  of  bringing  the  Naval  Appropriation  and  the  Legislative 
Appropriation  Bills  before  the  House  after  the  one  hour  which  was  devoted  to  the  bill  of  the  gentle- 
man from  Massachusetts  (Mr.  Banks),  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs.  Gentlemen 
came  here  with  the  understanding  that  both  these  bills  were  in  order.  [He  had  before  stated  that 
he  told  members  this  bill  was  not  likely  to  come  up,  and  sent  them  away.]  And,  sir,  if  any  gentle- 
man has  any  responsibilities  anywhere  relating  to  any  of  these  bills,  let  him  bear  his  share.  I  bear 
mine.  I  rose,  however,  to  say  that  I  not  only  regret  that  this  proposition  has  been  brought  here 
and  now,  but  I  regret  that  it  has  been  brought  at  all. 

His  regrets  were  profuse  after  the  mischief  was  done  by  his  own  collusive 

management.     There  was  a  long  and  keen  debate,  but  the  whole  thing  had  been 

set  up  in  advance,  and  the  result  was  foreshadowed,  or,  as  the  Olobe  puts  it : 

The  question  recurred  on  the  amendment  of  Mr.  Butler,  of  Massachusetts. 
The  committee  divided,  and  there  were:  yeas,  93;  nays,  71. 

Thus  the  same  amendment  which  was  rejected  by  39  majority  on  the  10th  of 

February,  was  rushed  through  on  a  rising  vote  of  23  the  other  way  on  the  24th. 

When  it  came  to  tellers,  where  individuals  could  be  seen  and  gazetted,  it  fell  off 

to  15. 

Mr.  Holman  demanded  tellers. 

Tellers  were  ordered,  and  Mr.  Butler,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  Garfield,  of  Ohio,  were 
appointed. 

The  committee  again  divided,  and  the  tellers  reported:  yeas,  81;  nays,  66. 

So  the  amendment  was  agreed  to. 

Other  amendments  were  proposed  and  discussed,  when 

Mr.  Holman:  I  think  that  at  this  late  hour  we  can  scarcely  proceed  to  vote  with  proper  delibera- 
tion upon  so  grave  a  question  as  this,  and  I  move  the  committee  rise. 

The  question  was  put,  and  on  a  division  there  were:  yeas,  46;  nays,  66. 

So  the  motion  was  not  agreed  to. 

After  more  discussion- 
Mr.  Sargent— I  move  that  the  committee  rise. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to,  there  being  on  division  :  yeas,  65  ;  nays,  55. 

The  committee  accordingly  rose,  and  on  motion  of  Mr.  Randall  (at  1  o'clock  and  17  minutes  A.M.) 
the  House  adjourned.  (Pp.  1670  to  1678,  Conryessional  Globe,  third  session  Forty-second  Congress, 
part  third.) 

General  Garfield  gained  a  victory,  but  the  laurels,  like  the  fruit  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  have  since  turned  to  ashes  on  his  lips.  There  was  much  indigna- 
tion the  next  day,  when  it  came  to  be  known  that  General  Garfield  had  pressed 
this  Appropriation  Bill,  after  having  given  assurances  that  it  would  not  be  con- 
sidered, and  thus  thinned  out  the  opposition. 

On  the  28th  of  February,  just  before  midnight,  the  bill  was  reported  to  the 
House  from  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  where  the  permanent  record  of  votes 
had  to  be  confronted.     It  began  in  this  way  : 

Mr.  Cox:  Mr.  Speaker,  I  want  to  put  in  my  protest,  as  one  member  of  this  House,  against 
increasing  my  own  salary  by  my  own  vote.  When  we  were  elected  to  Congress  there  was  an  im- 
plied contract  between  us  and  the  people  that  we  should  serve  for  so  much. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  must  make  the  point  of  order  that  gentlemen  must  confine  themselves  to  the  sub- 
ject under  discussion. 

Mr.  Cox:  Why  did  not  the  gentleman  make  that  point  upon  some  gentlemen  on  his  own  side  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  Well,  I  give  notice  that  after  the  gentleman  shall  have  concluded  I  shall  make  the 
point  and  insist  upon  it  (page  l,90;j  Globe.) 

After  thus  obstructing  opposition  by  technical  points  of  order,  General  Garfield 

allowed  the  regular  business  to  progress  until  the  appointed  time  for  finishing  this 

■work.     A  special  vote  was  demanded  on  the  Butler  amendment,  and   it  was 

beaten  by  52  majority  on  the  yeas  and  nays.     But  that  vote  was  not  sincere,  for 

Butler  is  recorded  against  his  own  proposition.     In  a  few  minutes  after  he 

moved 

To  reconsider  the  vote  just  taken  ;  and  pending  that  motion,  I  move  that  the  House  adjourn. 
The  hour  is  late  and  the  House  is  very  thin.     [Laughter.] 


THE    BACK-PAY    GRAB    AND    SALARY    STEAL.  135 

CLIXCHING  THE  NAIL. 

Nothing  was  now  wanting  but  to  rivet  the  previous  action  by  refusing  to 
adjourn,  and  then  clinch  it  by  refusing  to  reconsider.  Everybody  understood  the 
exact  issue  presented.  The  adjournment  was  tlie  test,  and  it  prevailed  by  53 
majority,  right  in  the  face  of  the  32  majority  just  before  recorded  in  the  opposite 
sense.     In  this  way  the  door  was  opened  for  reconsideration. 

It  is  true  General  Garfield  voted  against  the  adjournment,  just  as  he  puts  him- 
self on  the  record  on  other  tests,  while  co-operating  with  Butler.  But  he  never 
raised  his  voice  or  lifted  a  finger  to  prevent  the  result.  He  had  charge  of  the  bill 
and  control  of  the  majority.  A  word  from  him  would  have  ended  the  grab,  then 
and  there,  but  he  did  not  speak  it  because  he  was  sustaining  what  he  pretended  to 
oppose. 

The  next  day  Butler's  motion  to  reconsider  was  first  in  order,  and  Mr.  Farns- 
worth  promptly  moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table  and  thus  finish  the  struggle.  It  was 
defeated  by  39  majority.  That  told  the  whole  story.  The  reconsideration  need- 
ed no  more  momentum.  The  up  and  down  vote  fixing  the  Congressional  pay 
followed,  with  a  bare  majority  of  3,  caused  by  a  desire  to  save  members  in  close 
districts,  who,  though  earnest  for  the  grab,  would  suffer  by  an  affirmative  record. 
But  there  was  always  a  reserve  on  hand,  which  could  have  been  called  into  action, 
if  absolutely  needed.  Fifty-one  Republicans  boldly  faced  the  music.  If  only 
two  of  them  had  gone  over,  there  would  have  been  no  grab. 

GENERAL   GARFIELD's  BASE  COMPLICITY. 

This  brief  history  of  the  proceedings  in  the  House  traces  the  course  of  General 
Garfield  from  first  to  last,  and  fixes  the  responsibility  directly  upon  him.  He 
abused  his  trust,  and  by  an  act  of  base  complicity  made  the  opportunity  to  origin- 
ate this  outrage.  And  when  he  could  have  dealt  it  a  fatal  blow  he  sat  still 
and  passively  gave  the  plunderers  their  greatest  help. 

The  bill  with  this  graft  now  went  to  the  Senate,  and  from  there  to  the  hands  of 
a  committee  of  conference,  which  was  the  objective  point  from  the  beginning. 
The  conspirators  had  got  their  scheme  precisely  where  they  wanted  it.  The  con- 
ferees on  the  part  of  the  House,  packed  by  the  Speaker,  who  was  in  favor  of  the 
grab  from  the  start,  were  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  Gen.  James  A.  Garfield,  one  avowed 
and  one  sneaking  grabber. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  session  Gen.  Garfield  reported  the  result  of  the  confer- 
ence, doubling  the  pay  of  the  President  and  raising  the  pay  of  members  of  Con- 
gress from  $5,000  to  $7,500  retro-actively  for  two  years,  with  a  long  catalogue  of 
augmented  salaries.  He  made  a  labored  and  feeble  speech,  intended  to  palliate 
his  unworthy  conduct.  It  was  the  old  story  so  often  repeated,  of  what  the  Senate 
conferees  had  exacted,  and  what  the  House  had  surrendered.  Speaking  of  the 
salary,  he  said . 

GENERAL    GARFIELD'S  HYPOCRISY. 

The  Senate  conferees  were  unanimous  in  favor  of  fixing  the  salary  at  $7,500,  and  cutting 
oflE  all  allowances  except  actual  individual  traveling  expenses  of  a  member  from  his  home  to 
Washington  and  back  again  once  a  session,  and  cutting  off  all  other  allowances  of  every  kind. 
[Observe  his  effort  to  show  the  -sacrifice  of  "allowances"  by  repeatkig it  twice  in  a  sentence.] 
That  proposition  was  agreed  toby  a  majority  of  the  conferees  on  the  part  of  the  House.  I  was 
opposed  to  the  increase  in  conference,  as  I  have  been  opposed  to  it  in  the  discussion,  and  in  my 
votes  here  [we  have  seen  how  sincerely] ;  hut  my  associate  conferees  were  in  favor  of  the  Senate 
amendment,  and  I  was  compelled  to  choose  between  signing  the  report  and  running  the  risk  of  bring- 
ing on  an  extra  session.  I  have  signed  the  report,  and  I  present  it  as  it  is,  and  ask  the  House  to  act 
on  it  in  accordance  with  their  best  judgment. 

This  scarecrow  of  an  extra  session  deceived  everybody.  There  was  no  more 
danger  of  one  then  than  there  is  now.  If  Gen.  Garfield  had  resisted,  even  at  that 
late  hour,  in  a  manly  and  decided  way,  instead  of  conniving  as  he  did,  the  House 


136  THE    BACK-PAY    GRAB    AND    SALARY    STEAL. 

"would  have  instantly  receded,  and  the  Senate  must  have  followed  suit.  He  knew 
that  perfectly  well  when  this  sham  was  invented  to  impose  on  the  public.  But 
if  it  actually  involved  an  extra  session,  was  it  not  better  to  call  one  and  stamp 
out  forever  this  diso^raceful  mode  of  legislation,  and  put  an  end  to  such  plunder, 
than  to  protect  bo  by  any  acquiescence?  The  cost  would  have  been  cheap  for 
such  an  example. 

A  brief  discussion  was  permitted,  from  which  some  passages  may  be  profitably 
culled : 

Mr.  Hibbard:  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman  ?iow  much  plunder  will  be  taken  frcym  the  Treasury 
if  this  raising  of  salaries  is  adopted  f 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  am  glad  the  gentleman  has  asked  me  that  question.  The  report  presented  here, 
taking  into  account  the  changes  made  with  reference  to  the  salaries  of  members  and  officers  of 
both  houses  and  other  increases  of  salaries  in  this  bill,  will,  according  to  the  best  estimate  I  have 
been  able  to  make,  involve  an  annual  increase  of  expenditure  of  about  three  quarters  of  a  million 
dollars. 

Mr.  Hibbard:  How  much  for  the  present  Congress  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  For  the  j)resent  Congress  it  involves  an  additional  expenditure  of  <^)out  one  and  a 
quarter  millions.    I  think  the  House  ought  to  know  all  the  facts. 

Mr.  Dawes:  Did  the  gentleman  hear  the  form  in  which  the  gentleman  from  New  Hampshire 
(Mr.  Hibbard)  put  his  question:  How  much  this  '■^plunder  "  would  amount  tof 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  do  not  accept  the  gentleman's  statement  as  to  that.  It  may  be  an  unwise  expendi- 
ture in  some  respects.  But  in  mx)st  cases  the  increase  is  proper,  and  ought  to  be  made.  It  is  not 
"  plunder'"  unless  gentlemen  here  consider  themselves  not  deserving  of  the  promised  pay.  (Page 
2101  Congressional  Globe.) 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  SHOWS  HIS  HAND. 

At  length  Gen.  Garfield  showed  his  hand.  He  contended  that  "  in  most  cases  " 
in  the  bill  "  the  increase  was  proper  and  ought  to  he  made,''  and  declared  it  was 
*'  Twt  plunder,  unless  gentlemen  consider  themselves  not  deserving  the  promised 
pay."    Not  content  with  this  expression,  he  continued: 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  have  nothing  further  to  say,  except  that  I  wish  the  House  to  weigh  well  the  dan- 
ger of  refusing  to  concur  in  this  report.  The  conferees  have  spent  ten  full  hours  of  hard  work  in 
preparing  it  for  the  consideration  of  the  House;  andi  I  ask  gentleman  to  consider  the  res]X)nsibility 
thrown  upon  them  in  acting  umn  this  question.    I  call  for  a  vote. 

The  Speaker:  The  hour  allotted  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  to  close  debate  has  expired. 

Mr.  Holman:  I  rise  to  a  parliamentary  inquiry,  there  being  but  one  subject,  the  salary  alone,  in 
reference  to  which  there  is  a  division  of  opinion.  If  the  House  refuse  to  sustain  this  point,  will  it 
not  be  in  order  to  recommit  to  the  same  committee  ? 

The  Speaker:  It  would  be,  or  to  order  a  new  conference. 

Mr.  Holman:  We  have  twenty  hours  left  in  which  that  can  be  done. 

Mr.  Holman  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays.    The  yeas  and  nays  were  ordered. 

The  Speaker:  The  Chair  has  decided  he  would  not  entertain  a  motion  to  lay  upon  the  table  a 
conference  report.  He  is  aware  this  ruling  is  somewkat  different  from  that  made  by  previous  occu- 
pants of  the  chair.  He  has,  however,  uniiFormly  decided  a  conference  report  could  not  be  laid  on 
the  table,  because  it  would  carry  the  bill  with  it.  If  the  House  rejects  the  report,  that  leaves  the 
Appropriation  Bill  for  another  conference  committee.  To  lay  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Con- 
ference on  the  table  would  carry  the  bill  with  it,  and  therefore  the  Chair  has  never  entertained  any 
such  motion.    That  is  the  reason  of  his  decision. 

Mr.  Donnan:  I  ask  that  the  rule  be  read  which  prohibits  members  from  voting  on  a  question  in 
which  they  are  interested. 

The  Speaker:  That  has  no  application  here  whatever. 

The  question  was  taken,  and  it  was  decided  in  the  affirmative— yeas  102,  nays  96,  not  voting  42. 

So  the  report  of  the  Committee  of  Conference  was  adopted. 

After  all  his  dodging,  trimming,  equivocation,  double  dealing  and  trickery. 
Gen*  Garfield  finally  voted  squarely  for  the  back-pay  grab  and  salary  steal  in  its 
worst  form.  And  that,  too,  when  a  change  of  only  three  would  have  prevented 
the  passage  of  this  job. 

THE  AMOUNT   STOLEN. 

In  addition  to  the  two  millions  which  Congress  thus  voted  to  themselves,  there 
were  a  host  of  officials  who  shared  in  this  sweeping  spoliation,  as  may  be  seen 
by  the  following  list,  making  a  comparison  between  the  new  and  old  pay. 


THE    BACK-PAY    GRAB    AND    SALARY    STEAL. 


137 


STATEMENT  SHOWING  THE  SALARIES  OP  CERTAIN  OFFICERS  BY  THE  ACT  OF 
MARCH  3,  1873,  AND  THE  FORMER  PAY  OF  THE  SAME,  EXCLUSIVE  OP  THE 
VICE-PRESIDENT,    SPEAKER,    AND   THE   TWO  HOUSES   OP   CONGRESS. 


New 

Presiident,  per  annum,  exclusive 
of  perquisites 

Vice-President 

Speaker  of  the  House 

Chief  Justice 

Eight  Associate  Justices,  each . . 

Secretary  of  State 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury 

Secretary  of  War 

Secretary  of  the  Navj^ 

Secretary  of  the  Interior 

Attorney-General 

Postmaster-General 

First  Assistant  Secretary  of  State 

Second  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State  

First  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury 

Second  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  

AssistahtSecretary  of  thelnterior 

First  Assistant  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral   

Second  Assistant  Postmaster- 
General 

Third  Assistant  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral   

Supervising  Architect  of  Treasury 

Examiner  of  Claims  StateDepart- 
ment 

Solicitor  of  the  Treasury  

Commissioner  of  Agriculture  . . . 

Commissioner  of  Customs 

First  Auditor  of  the  Treasury. . . 

Second  Auditor  of  the  Treasury. 

Third  Auditor  of  the  Treasury. . 

Fourth  Auditor  of  the  Treasury, 

Fifth  Auditor  of  the  Treasury  . . 

Auditor  for  Post  Office  Depart- 
ment   

Commissioner  of  Land  Office. . . 


2)ay.    Old  pay.   I 

$50,000  $25,000  ! 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,500* 

8.500 

10,000* 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

10,000 

8,000 

6,000 

3,500 

6,000 

3,500 

6,000 

3,500 

6,000 

3,500 

6,000 

3,500 

4,000 

3,500 

4,000 

3,500 

4,000 

3,500 

5,000 

4,000 

4,000 

3,500 

4,000 

3,500 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

4,000 

3,000 

New 

Commissioner  of  Pensions 

Superintendent  Money  -  Order 
System 

Superintendent  Foreign  Mails  . . 

Chief  First  Diplomatic  Bureau, 
State  Department 

Chief  Second  Diplomatic  Bureau, 
State  Department    

Chief  First  Consular  Bureau 

(!hief  Second  Consular  Bureau.. 

Chief  First  Bureau  Indexes  and 
Archives 

Chief  Second  Bureau  Indexes 
and  Archives 

Seeretary  of  Senate 

Clerk  House  of  Representatives. 

Chief  Clerk  House  of  Representa- 
tives   

Journal  Clerk  House  of flepreseu- 
t  atives 

Doorkeeper  House  of  Represen- 
tatives  

Assistant  Doorkeeper  House  of 
Representatives 

Chief  Engineer  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives  

Six  clerks  House  of  Representa- 
tives, each 

One  clerk 

Ten  clerks,  each 

Four  clerks,  each 

Postmaster  Senate 

Assistant  Postmaster  Senate  — 

Two  mail  carriers,  each     

SuperintendentDocumentsRoom 
Senate 

First  Assistant  Superintendent 
Documents  Room  Senate 

SecondAssistant  Superintendent 
Documents  Room  Senate 


pay.  Old  pay. 
$4,000    P,000- 

4,000 
4,000 

3,000 
3,000 

2,400 

1,800 

2,400 
2,400 
2,400 

1,800 
1,600 
1,600 

2,400 

1,600 

2,400 
5,000 
5,000 

1,600 
4,320 
4,320' 

3,600 

3,000 

3,600 

3,000 

3,000 

2,592 

3,000 

2,592 

2,502 

2,160 

3,000 
3,000 
2,500 
2,000 
2.592 
2,000 
1,700 

2,592 
2,520 
2,160 
1,800 
2.400 
1,728 
1,200 

2,500 

2,160 

2,500 

1,440 

1,800 

1,441 

*  The  pay  of  the  Supreme  Court  had  been  revised  in  1870. 
A  GENERAL   STEAL. 

Five  reporters  of  the  House  were  made  permanent  officers,  with  a  salary  of 
$4,380  each,  exclusive  of  extras.  Even  this  wanton  extravagance  did  not  suffice 
for  the  corruptionists.  Their  hand  was  in  and  they  made  the  people's  money  fly 
by  a  proviso  giving  15  per  cent,  in  addition  to  all  the  employees  of  Congress 
whose  salaries  had  been  thus  raised,  and  to  others  who  had  not  the  effrontery  to 
demand  an  increase,  and  then  to  date  this  percentage  back  two  years,  as  they  did 
for  themselves.     Here  is  the  profligate  proviso  to  speak  for  itself  : 

And  it  is  hereby  provided  that  the  increase  of  compensation  to  the  officers,  clerks,  and  others  in 
the  employ  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  provided  for  by  this  act  shall  begin  with 
the  present  Congress;  and  the  pay  of  all  tne  present  employees  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, including  the  employees  in  the  library  of  Congress,  and  those  under  the  Commissioner 
of  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds  now  employed  in  the  Capitol  building,  and  also  the  House  re- 
porters, whose  pay  has  not  been  specifically  increased  by  this  act,  holding  their  places  by  appoint- 
ment under  the  respective  officers  thereof,  or  by  the  authority  of  the  Committee  of  Contingent 
expenses  of  the  Senate,  or  the  Committee  of  Accounts  of  the  House,  be  increased  fifteen  per 
centum  of  their  present  compensation  on  the  amount  actually  received,  and  payable  to  them 
respectively  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  Congress,  or  from  the  date  of  their  appointment 
during  the  present  Congress,  and  who  shall  be  actually  employed  at  the  passage  of  this  act. 

Pressed  by  popular  resentment  and  the  dread  of  tlie  coming  elections.  Congress 

reluctantly  repeated  this  legislation  at  the  recent  session.     But  in  March  they 

undid  a  portion  of  what  they  had  done  in  January,  and  raised  many  salaries  still 

higher  than  they  stood  in  the  bill  of  abominations.     The  reporters,  for  instance, 

are  allowed  $5,000  a  year,  when  they  only  average  nine  months  of  work  on  a 

Congress  of  two  years,  and  have  all  the  rest  of  the  time  at  their  own  disposition. 


138  THE    BACK-PAY    GRAB    AND    SALARY    STEAL. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Democrats  when  they  obtained  control  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  was  to  reduce  the  salaries  of  all  the  employees  of  that  body  to 
the  old  standard,  cutting  off  not  only  the  increase  by  the  back-pay  grab  and 
salary  steal  act,  but  various  other  addition  which  the  Republican  majority  had  at 
various  time  made. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD -TOOK  THE   SWAG  BUT   WAS  AFRAID  TO  KEEP   IT. 

General  Garfield  promptly  drew  his  back  pay,  which  amounted  to  $4,548. 

The  indignation  of  the  people  at  this  bold  steal  by  their  representatives  scarce- 
ly knew  bounds.  The  constituents  of  the  102  members  of  Congress  who  voted 
for  the  back-pay  grab  and  salary  steal,  immediately  assembled  in  their  respective 
Congress  Districts  and  passed  resolutions  condemning  their  unfaithful  represent- 
atives. The  Republicans  of  General  Garfield's  district  assembled  in  convention 
at  Warren,  Trumbull  County,  Ohio,  March  26,  and  adopted  a  resolution  asking 
him  to  resign  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  declaring  that  by 
voting  for  the  retroactive  salary  bill,  he  had  forfeited  the  confidence  of  his  con- 
stituents. General  Garfield  had  not  the  courage  to  defend  his  course.  He  kept 
the  money  nearly  six  weeks,  however,  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  and 
then  surreptitiously  returned  it  to  the  treasury. 

He  did  not  do  this,  however,  through  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  but  had  it  deposited  to  his  credit  with  the  Treasurer  of  the 
United  States.  The  following  letter  from  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasu- 
ry, shows  how  he  returned  the  money : 

Treasury  Department,  Office  of  the  Secretary,  | 
Washington,  June  22,  1880.  ) 

H.  DusEY,  Esq.,  East  Des  Moinep,  Iowa: 

iSir:  In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  17th  inst.,  asking  to  be  informed  on  what  date  the  Hon.  James 
A.  Garfield  paid  into  the  treasury  his  back  pay.  and  how  the  treasury  books  show  this  transaction, 
I  have  to  inform  you  that  it  appears  from  the  records  of  this  office  that  the  sum  of  $4,548  was  de- 
posited to  the  credit  of  tlie  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  in  the  name  of  James  A.  Garfield,  on 
"account  of  retroactive  increase  of  salary,"  on  the  22d  of  April,  1873,  and  that  this  amount  was 
covered  into  the  treasury  by  miscellaneous  covering  warrant  No.  704,  second  quarter,  1874,  and  can- 
not be  withdrawn  except  by  act  of  Congress. 

Very  respectfully, 

J.  K.  UPTON, 

Assistant  Secretary. 


GENERAL    GARFIELD  S    SERVICE    TO    THE    INDIAN    RING.  13^ 


GENERAL  GARFIELD'S  SERVICE  TO  THE 
INDIAN  RING. 


General  Garfield,  while  he  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations^ 
was  one  of  the  most  useful  and  potent  friends  the  Indian  Ring  had  on  the  floor 
of  the  House.  Upon  every  occasion,  when  his  influence  should  have  been  in  the 
interest  of  reform,  it  was  exerted  to  shield  and  to  enlarge  the  operations  of  the 
Indian  Ring. 

No  man  will  now  dispute  that  the  management  of  Indian  affairs,  during  the 
period  of  which  we  speak,  was  grossly  corrupt.  It  had  grown  worse  year  after 
year,  until  the  evil  had  become  alarming.  It  was  destructive  to  the  remnant  of 
aboriginal  tribes,  and  was  a  standing  reproach  to  the  civilization  of  the  country. 

Philanthropic  and  Christian  men  of  various  denomniations,  had  advocated  the 
policy  of  peaceable  persuasion  rather  than  military  power,  as  a  means  of  civilizing 
the  Indian.  The  experiment  had  been  tried  on  the  Cherokees,  Chickasaws  and 
other  nations,  and  had  been  productive  of  great  good.  If  their  praiseworthy 
efforts  had  been  properly  seconded  with  the  least  honest  disposition,  they  might 
have  accomplished  a  great  deal  towards  improving  the  present  condition  of  the 
wards  of  the  nation. 

In  April,  1869,  a  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners  was  created  with  authority 
"to  exercise  joint  control  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  over  the  disburse- 
ment of  the  appropriations  made  by  this  act  or  any  part  thereof  that  the  President 
may  direct."  President  Grant  appointed  men  of  unexceptionable  character,  wha 
served  without  pay  or  reward,  and  at  the  start  the  experiment  promised  fair,  but 
it  began  to  be  discovered  before  the  end  of  the  first  fiscal  year,  that  obstacles 
were  thrown  in  their  path,  and  that  the  Ring  was  determined  to  thwart  their  good 
intentions.  Accordingly  the  power  of  the  commissioners  was  more  positively 
defined  by  an  act  approved  July  15th,  1870,  which  declare  I  the  duty  of  said 
commissioners 

To  supervise  all  expenditures  of  money  appropriated  for  the  benefit  of  the  Indians  in  the 
United  States;  to  inspect  all  goods  purchased  for  said  Indians,  in  connection  with  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  Affairs,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  consult  said  commissioners  in  making  purchases 
of  said  goods. 

THE  COMMISSIONERS  CRIPPLED. 

This  restraint  was  damaging  to  the  Ring  which  dominated  the  Indian  Bureau 
and  owned  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  The  frauds  upon  the  Indians  and  the 
government  continued  until  there  was  an  outcry  against  the  growing  jobbery. 
The  commissioners  appealed  in  vain  to  the  President,  who  referred  the  com- 
plaint to  the  Interior  Department  which  had  sanctioned  the  wrongs.  They 
asked  for  new  legislation,  and  in  May,  1871,  obtained  it,  but  with  the  proviso- 
that 


140  GENERAL    GARFIELD'S    SERVICE   TO    THE    INDIAN    RING. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  shall  have  power  to  sustain,  set  aside,  or  modify  the  action  of 
said  board,  and  cause  payments  to  be  made  or  withheld  as  he  may  determine. 

The  Secretary  exercised  this  power  to  set  aside  and  modify  freely.  The  com- 
missioners made  public  outcry  and  aroused  a  sentiment  damaging  to  the  admin- 
istration of  the  Interior  Department.  Nevertheless  the  Indian  Ring  succeeded  in 
May,  1873,  in  getting  a  proviso  added  to  the  Indian  Appropriation  bill,  by  which 
the  commissioners  w^ere  rendered  powerless  to  protect  the  Indians,  or  the  treas- 
ury. 

This  proviso  was  as  follows  • 

That  any  member  of  the  Board  of  Indian  Commissione  rs,  is  hereby  empowered  to  investigate 
all  contracts,  expenditures  and  accounts,  in  connection  with  the  Indian  service,  and  shall  have  ac- 
cess to  all  books  and  papers  relating  thereto,  in  any  govern  ment  office,  but  the  examination  of 
vouchers  and  accounts  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  said  Board,  shall  not  be  a  prerequisite  of  pay- 
ment. 

Thus  shorn  of  all  real  power,  the  commissioners  still  struggled  to  check  the 
corruption  that  was  daily  growing  worse.  Their  remonstrances  however  were 
unheeded.  The  whole  power  of  the  government  appeared  to  be  exerted  to  break 
them  down.  The  Indian  Bureau  withheld  all  vouchers  from  the  supervision  of 
the  Board,  and  treated  the  commissioners  with  contempt. 

THE   COMMISSIONERS   PROTEST. 

They  firmly  protested  as  follows : 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  respectfully  present  the  following  report:  From  July 
1,  1872,  until  March  1,  1873,  no  accounts  were  sent  to  us  by  the  Indian  Office,  for  examination.  It 
having  been  thought  by  that  office,  that  the  Act  of  May  29,  1872.  relieved  them  of  the  necessity  of 
submitting  accounts  to  the  board,  and  relieved  the  board  of  the  duty  to  act  on  them. 

After  the  meeting  of  Congress,  the  discussion  upon  the  Indian  Appropriation 
bill  showed,  that  it  was  not  the  opinion  of  Congress  that  the  board  had  been  re- 
lieved from  the  duty  of  auditing  these  accounts.  Notwithstanding  this  positive 
statement  by  the  Indian  Commissioners,  Mr.  Delano,  the  Secretary  of  Interior, 
had  the  effrontery  in  a  document  laid  before  Congress  to  say  : 

In  view  of  the  legislation  in  that  behalf  which  had  been  previously  enacted,  and  was  still  un- 
repealed, and  rhe  peculiarity  of  the  language  of  the  act  of  1872, 1  deem  it  best  for  prudential  rea- 
sons for  the  time  being,  to  continue  the  practice  of  sending  all  accounts  to  the  board  for  examina- 
tion, prior  to  the  final  action  of  the  department  thereon. 

These  statements  contradict  each  other  and  cannot  both  be  true.  The  com- 
missioners had  no  motive  for  falsifying  ;  Mr.  Delano  had.  After  this  the  ac- 
counts were  sent  for  auditing,  and  the  commissioners  rejected,  or  disapproved, 
or  suspended  to  the  amount  of  over  a  half  million  dollars.  Mr.  Delano  indorsed 
on  the  back  of  them,  "Action  set  aside  by  the  Secretary  of  Interior." 

These  things  were  not  done  in  a  corner.  The  Indian  Commissioners  did  not 
hide  their  light  under  a  bushel.  They  were  in  earnest.  They  made  known  their 
difficulties  to  every  member  of  Congress  who  would  listen  to  them.  They  told 
how  they  found  the  department  protecting  plunderers,  and  said  that  they  be- 
lieved the  officials  were  sharing  with  them.  They  resigned  in  a  body  and  Mr. 
Delano  filled  their  places  with  subservient  tools.  He  demanded  liberal  pay 
for  these  tools.  He  made  a  notorious  jobber  of  the  Washington  Ring  secretary 
to  the  new  commissioners  with  a  large  salary. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD's  SERVICES  TO   THE   RING. 

Public  sentiment,  excited  by  the  venal  and  vicious  legislation  of  back-pay 
grab  and  like  steals,  demanded  legislation  which  would  sweep  the  Indian  Ring 
out  of  existence.  When  the  Indian  Appropriation  Bill  came  up  an  effort  was 
made  to  revive  the  proviso  of  1871.  On  the  10th  of  May  Mr.  Beck  moved  to 
strike  from  the  bill  certain  words  and  to  insert  the  proviso  above  quoted.    In- 


GENERAL    GARFIELD's    SERVICE   TO    THE    INDIAN   RING.  141 

stantly  Gen.  Garfield  sprang  to  his  feet  and  interposed  one  of  the  parliamentary 

quibbles  with  which  he  was  always  ready.     He  said  : 

I  make  a  point  of  order  against  this  amendment.  It  is  plainly  a  change  of  existing  law 
in  reference  to  the  mode  of  keeping  accounts  and  administering  business  in  the  Interior  Depart- 
ment. 

What  Gen.  Garfield  called  the  "  existing  law"  was  the  proviso  of  1872,  which, 
had  been  added  to  the  appropriation  bill  of  that  year  for  the  express  purpose  of 
negativing  the  authority  of  these  commissioners.  Mr.  Beck  promptly  answered. 
He  said : 

I  do  not  think  the  point  is  well  taken.  My  amendment  simply  embodies  the  law  as  passed  in- 
1871.  It  was  attempted  to  be  invalidated  in  1872  by  the  proviso  in  these  words  :  "  but  the  ex- 
amination of  vouchers  and  accounts  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  said  board  stall  not  be  a  pre- 
requisit  of  payment." 

Mr.  Garfield  :  Certainly  ;  but  that  is  the  whole  point.  The  proposition  of  the  gentleman  from 
Kentucky  (Mr.  Beck)  amounts  to  this  :  Under  the  existing  law  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  has  the 
power  to  go  on  and  settle  accounts,  and  the  proviso  of  the  gentleman  puts  the  power  of  settling  these- 
accounts  mto  the  hands  of  an  outside  board,  without  regard  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  It 
provides  that  no  payment  shall  be  made  until  this  outside  board  shall  have  audited  and  passed  the 
accounts.    It  is  a  plan  to  unhinge  all  our  present  methods  of  settling  Indian  accounts. 

Mr.  Beck  :  I  want  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  and  the  country  to  what  I  expected  would 
follow— what  two  years  ago  I  insisted  would  follow.  Indeed,  what  I  showed  then  was  the  in- 
tention of  striking  out  this  provision  requiring  the  Indian  Commissioners  to  revise  these  accounts 
of  Indian  agents.  It  was  done  then,  and  the  effect  has  been  to  enable  the  retainers,  agents,  pet 
contractors  and  other  hangers-on  of  the  Indian  Bureau  to  rob  the  treasury  of  the  United  States. 

The  favored  contractors  have  been  awarded  contracts  at  nearly  double  what  they  were  made  at 
■when  advertised  to  the  lowest  bidder,  and  the  frauds  of  the  Indian  Ring  are  all  perpetrated  in 
consequence  of  the  determination  to  overthrow  a  supervision  and  render  impossible  an  investigation 
by  this  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners.  They  have  appealed  to  Congress  ;  they  have  appealed  to 
the  President  to  have  this  power  ;  they,  have  appealed  to  tlie  Secretary  of  the  Interior  ;  and  now 
a  point  of  order  is  raised  and  sustained,  and  the  Republican  side  of  the  House  refuses  to  suspend 
the  rules  and  refuse  to  give  these  commissioners  any  power  to  save  the  money  of  the  people. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  MAKES  FACES  AT  THE  COMMISSIONERS. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  The  proposition  of  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  (Mr.  Beck),  which  he  thinks  I 
have  done  very  wrong  in  objecting  to  on  a  point  of  order,  is  this:  that  the  head,  not  of  the 
bureau  alone,  but  of  a  great  executive  department  of  this  government,  shall  be  deposed  officially, 
and  a  body  of  outside  people  without  salary,  without  bonds,  without  any  sort  of  pecuniary  or  legal 
pledge  resting  upon  them  to  hold  them  responsible  to  the  government,  shall  have  the  vouchers  and 
accounts  of  one  |Of  the  departments  of  the  government  sent  following  after  them  wherever  they 
may  happen  to  be— at  their  several  homes,  at  the  watering  places,  traveling  on  the  cars  or  any- 
where else  ;  and  that  these  gentlemen  at  their  leisure  may  look  over  these  vouchers  and  accounts 
and  write  "approved  "or  "disapproved,"  but  that  no  person  shall  be  paid  for  any  services  rendered 
in  connection  with  the  Indian  Department  until  these  fine  outside  gentlemen  shall  have  approved 
of  the  accounts. 

Gen.  Garfield  denounced  as  "outside  people"  and  an  " outside  board "  the 
Peace  Commissioners  created  by  Congress  and  appointed  by  the  President, 
empowered  by  law  to  exercise  joint  control  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
over  the  disbursement  of  appropriations,  and  who  had  wisely  and  honestly  exer- 
cised that  power  until  the  Indian  Ring,  with  the  aid  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  had  crippled  it  in  1872. 

This  was  Gen.  Garfield's  mode  of  treating  a  dignified  body  of  the  most 
respectable,  conscientious  and  enlightened  men,  who  had  very  self-sacrificingly 
devoted  their  time  to  a  cause  which  they  believed  to  be  good. 

He  was  not  allowed  to  go  unrebuked.  Mr.  Beck  demonstrated  that  Secretary 
Delano  had  lived  under  the  act  of  1871  for  a  whole  year,  and  that  he  then  got  it 
clandestinely  repealed  by  the  proviso  of  1872. 

Mr.  Beck  continued : 

MR.    beck's   SCATHING  REVIEW. 

Mr.  Beck:  The  act  that  I  now  seek  to  restore  was  passed  in  May,  1871 ;  it  was  passed  to  prevent 
a  flagrant  evil,  which  former  laws  had  left  untouched,  because  at  that  time  there  was  no  way  of 
stopping  payments  upon  vouchers  of  Indian  agents  that  came  to  the  bureau.  The  holders  of  these 
vouchers  were  paid  whenever  they  asked,  so  they  appeared  regular  on  their  face.  Proof  was  made 
before  a  committee,  of  which  I  was  a  member,  that  a  large  number  of  the  greatest  frauds  were  per- 
petrated under  that  system.  At  some  of  the  agencies  wnere  cattle  were"to  be  delivered,  say  200  or 
300  would  be  delivered,  and  then  they  would  stampede  them  and  collect  them  and  re-deliver  them. 


142 

We  were  told  of  one  case  where  eight  or  nine  hundred  head  had  to  be  delivered,  and  as  soon  as 
they  delivered  one  lot  they  would  be  driven  back  to  the  rear  of  the  line,  and  so  counted  over  again, 
ancf  vouchers  given  for  them,  although  twice  counted  and  known  to  be  so.  One  agent  in  Montana, 
as  the  gentleman  from  Montana  (Mr.  Maginnis)  knows,  was  dismissed  because  he  refused  to  give  a 
fradulent  voucher  for  about  $t7,000  when  the  true  voucher  was  only  $7,000.  It  was  to  guard  against 
these  frauds  that  we  passed  that  law.  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  did  not  then  dare  to  oppose. 
*  *  *  *  In  1872,  in  an  evil  hour,  this  House  consented  to  striking  out  that  au- 

thority of  the  Peace  Commissioners  to  revise  these  vouchers  and  accounts,  and  from  that  time  to 
this  fraud  and  corruption  have  permeated  the  Indian  Department  in  the  payment  of  accounts 
and  vouchers  and  in  contracts.  The  commissioners  have  certified  to  that,  and  it  is  sought  to  be 
perpetuated  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  by  refusing  even  to  let  an  amendment  in 
the  interest  of  honesty  and  fair  dealing  to  be  considered. 

That  is  what  I  have  said  ;  and  the  facts  I  have  presented  are  not  met  and  cannot  be  met,  for  they 
are  true.  If  your  agents  are  going  to  be  honest  in  their  disbursements,  what  harm  can  it  do  to  allow 
men  appointed  under  an  act  of  Congress  and  chosen  by  the  President  to  look  at  the  vouchers  of  the 
agents  and  advise  the  Secretary  whether  they  are  just  or  unjust. 

If  you  allow  them  to  make  purchases,  if  you  allow  them  to  control  contracts,  why  should  you 
not  allow  them  to  examine  the  vouchers  of  the  Indian  agents?  That  is  the  point  where  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior  can  get  no  information  except  from  these  commissioners,  who  have  their  agents 
everywhere,  whose  duty  it  is  to  know  what  the  Indians  get,  and  who  can  tell  whether  the  vouchers 
are  just  or  not.  You  have  stricken  out  this  right  so  that  no  man  can  be  able  to  detect  frauds,  and 
lefuse  even  to  allow  us  the  right  to  try  and  restore  it.    {Cong.  Record,  May  10,  1874.) 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  DECEIVES  THE  HOUSE. 

These  appeals  had  no  effect.  General  Garfield ,  Chairman  of  the  Appropriations, 
and  Mr.  Averill,  Chairman  of  Indian  Affairs  (just  rejected  by  his  constituents), 
had  a  good  understanding  with  each  other.  They  represented  the  Ring,  and  car- 
ried it  over  all  opposition.  The  new  members,  composing  more  than  one-half  the 
House,  and  not  yet  enlightened  as  to  these  sharp  practices,  naturally  enough  fol- 
lowed their  political  leader,  and  accepted  the  assurances  of  Mr.  Garfield  as  true. 

While  the  Indians  are  annually  decreasing  fast  in  numbers,  the  cost  of  main- 
taining them  increases  in  a  corresponding  ratio.  The  very  policy  which  was 
adopted  as  a  means  of  peace  and  economy  has  been  converted  into  an  engine  of 
strife  and  plunder,  until  the  expenses  have  more  than  doubled  since  it  was  inaugu- 
rated. This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  policy,  but  of  faithless  and  venal  men  who 
iiave  abused  it  for  their  own  advantage  and  that  of  thieving  confederates. 


ENCOURAGING    AND    DEFENDING   PETIT   LARCENY.  143 


ENCOURAGING  AND  DEFENDING  PETIT 

LARCENY. 


Gen.  Garfield,  while  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  not 
only  favored  every  petty  steal,  but  enlarged  the  opportunities  of  the  thieves  in 
all  the  executive  departments.  Everybody  will  remember  with  what  disgust 
the  people  six  years  ago  received  the  intelligence  from  Washington,  that  Attorney- 
General  Williams  had  directed  the  disbursing  officer  of  the  Department  of  Justice, 
to  buy  and  pay  for  out  of  the  contingent  fund,  a  sixteen  hundred  dollar  landaulet, 
in  which  his  wife  was  daily  seen  disporting  herself  on  the  streets.  In  the  good 
old  times,  a  cabinet  officer  found  riding  in  a  carriage  paid  for  by  the  govern- 
ment would  have  been  driven  by  the  people's  scorn  from  the  country.  Almost 
a  half  century  ago,  Mr.  Ogle,  of  Pennsylvania,  made  Matrin  Van  Buren,  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  an  object  of  ridicule  everywhere,  by  falsely  de- 
<jlaring  in  the  House  of  Representatives  that  he  daily  used  gold  spoons  in  the 
White  House. 

But  the  times  change,  and  men  change  with  them. 

For  many  years  past,  until  the  Democrats  obtained  control  of  the  House, 
not  only  every  head  of  a  department,  but  almost  every  head  of  a  bureau,  had  a 
carriage  and  span  of  horses  paid  for  by  the  government,  and  kept  at  government 
expense,  for  his  private  convenience.  At  the  time  of  which  we  speak  there  were 
forty  horses  in  use  at  the  Treasury  Department  alone.  Thirty  of  them  were  for 
the  use  of  the  department  employees. 

Gen.  Garfield,  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  reported  in 
the  Legislative,  Executive,  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill  for  the  fiscal  year 
1874,  a  clause  to  continue  and  legalize  this  robbery.  {See  Cong.  Bee.  No.  110, 
April  2^,  1874.)  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  government  a  specific  ap- 
propriation was  recommended  and  carried,  for  carriages,  horses,  and  repairs  for 
the  Department  of  Justice  : 

Mr.  Garfield  :  It  has  been  found  necessary  to  move  to  amend  the  paragraph  just  read  by  insert- 
ing before  the  words  "  five  copyists  "  the  words  "  one  clerk,  who  shall  be  telegraphic  oi)erator, 
$1,000." 

The  amendment  was  agreed  to. 

The  Clerk  read  the  following  : 

For  contingent  expenses  of  the  department,  namely  :  For  furniture  and  repairs,  $1,500 ;  for 
-care  of  and  subsistence  of  horses,  $1,400  ;  repairs  to  carriages  and  harness,  $600  ;  for  law  and  mis- 
cellaneous books  for  the  library  of  the  department,  $3,000  ;  for  the  same  for  the  office  of  the  Solici- 
tor of  the  Treasury,  $1,000  ;  for  stationery,  $8,500  ;  for  miscellaneous  expenditure,  such  as  tele- 
graphing, fuel,  lights,  and  other  necessaries,  $6,000  ;  in  all,  $16,000. 

Mr.  Nesmith  :  I  move  to  amend  the  paragraph  just  read  by  striking  out  the  words  "  for  care  of 
and  subsistence  of  horses,  $1,400  ;  repairs  to  carriages  and  harness,  $600."  I  believe  that  this  esti- 
mate is  an  innovation.  I  believe  there  has  been  no  definite  estimate  of  that  kind  offered  hereto- 
fore for  this  department.  I  do  not  perceive  the  necessity  of  an  appropriation  of  $2,000  for  the  pur- 
pose of  transporting  anything  connected  with  the  Department  of  Justice  about  this  city.  If  this 
item  of  $2,000  is  stricken  out"  I  fancy  it  will  be  that  much  saved  to  the  people  who  pay  the  taxes. 
I  observe  that  in  other  portions  of  this  bill,  which  were  passed  when  I  was  not  present,  there  is 
appropriated  for  the  Postmaster-General  for  a  similar  purpose  $1,200,  and  for  the  Secretary  of  the 


144  ENCOURAGTXG    AND    DEFEXDIXG    PETIT   LARCENY. 

Interior  the  same  sum.  Now,  if  it  is  proper  and  necessary  to  make  such  appropriations  for  the 
heads  of  the  departments,  there  should  at  least  be  equality  amon^  them.  I  do  not  understand  why 
the  Attorney-General  should  have  $800  more  appropriated  for  the  use  of  private  horses  and  car- 
riages than  is  appropriated  for  the  other  members  of  the  cabinet. 

I  do  not  know  if  my  amendment  is  adopted  that  it  will  be  a  saving  to  thr*  treasury.  I  see  that 
heretofore,  when  no  appropriation  of  that  kind  was  made,  the  contingent  fund  has  heen  used  for 
a  similar  purpose.  I  hold  in  my  hand  copies  of  vouchers  for  moneys  paid  out  of  that  fund.  They 
are.as  follows  : 

A   $1,600   CARRIAGE. 

Washington,  Jan.  27,  1872» 
United  States  Department  of  Justice,  to  Andrew  J.  Joyce  &  Co.,  Dr. 

To  one  landaulet,  No.  94,  $1,600.    Received  payment.  Andrew  J.  Joyce  &  Co, 

Baltimore,  July  29,  1871. 

United  States  Department  of  Justice,  bought  of  Coblens  &  Kaufman,  one  pair  of  bay  horses, 
$750.    Received  payment.  Koblens  &  Kaufman. 

Washington,  July,  1872. 
United  States  Department  of  Justice,  to  Andrew  J.  Joyce  &  Co.,  Dr. 

One  pair  stitched  pole  straps  and  gold  slip  buckle,  $8 ;  new  silk  lining  in  landaulet,  $3.5.75  ; 
painting  and  varnishing  landaulet,  $42,50  :  various  other  items  same  nature,  $124.88.  Total, 
$211.13. 

Then  in  November  last  there  was  another  bill  for  repairs  of  landaulet,  and  again  in  Deceiiiber, 
making  in  all  over  $800.  The  landaulet  seems  to  have  been  repaired  from  June,  1872,  to  December 
last,  to  the  amount  of  about  $1,100.  It  must  have  been  that  it  was  not  a  good  landaulet  when  it 
was  purchased,  though  costing  $1,600,  to  require  that  amount  of  repairs. 

Now  I  appeal  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  who  is  supposed  to  be  la- 
boring here  in  the  interest  of  economy,  and  who  the  other  day  struck  out  the  enacting  clause  in  a 
bill  wnich  provided  for  a  small  appropriation  to  remunerate  widows  and  orphans  who  have  been 
made  such  by  lack  of  protection  on  the  part  of  the  government,  which  permitted  the  Indians  to 
massacre  their  natural  protectors,  The  occupant  of  the  office,  the  Attorney-General,  has  the 
honor  to  be  a  constituent  of  mine  ;  and  I  desire  to  see  all  my  constituents  treated  equally  well.  I 
do  not  believe  in  giving  $2,000  for  private  purposes  to  a  man  who  is  already  drawing  a  salary  of 
$8,000,  while  you  refuse  to  compensate  widows  and  orphans  for  property  destroyed  by  the  Indians 
through  your  own  neglect. 

I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  under  any  circumstances  legitimate  to  appropriate  money  to  the  heads 
of  these  departments  for  the  purpose  of  transporting  them  about  this  city.  Why  not  make  a  sim- 
ilar allowance  to  members  of  Congress  ?  Why  not  make  an  appropriation  of  the  same  kind  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  ?  Why  not  make  the  system  equal  and  uniform  every- 
where? This  constituent  of  mine  is  the  only  one  who  indulges  in  this  gorgeous  oriental  splendor 
of  riding  in  a  sixteen  hundred  dollar  landaulet.  Why,  sir,  lawyers  of  my  state  of  his  calibre  ride 
upon  the  outside  of  a  fifty  dollar  mule,  and  think  they  are  doing  well  at  that.  But,  sir,  there  is  a 
Spanish  proverb,  I  believe,  "  Put  a  beggar  on  horseback  and  he  will  ride  to  the  devil."  Now,  I 
have  no  objection 

Mr.  Negley  :  I  object  to  the  remarks  of  the  gentlemen  in  reference  to  a  cabinet  minister. 

Mr.  Nesmith:  Well,  sir,  without  making  any  direct  reference  to  anybody,  I  say  it  is  a  Spanish 
proverb,  "  Put  a  begger  on  horseback  and  he  will  ride  to  the  devil."  I  have  no  objection  to  the 
termination  of  this  journey  in  that  direction,  but  I  do  not  want  the  people  to  pay  for  the  trans- 
portation. 

Mr.  Durham:  I  desire  to  ask  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  one  question  in 
regard  to  this  item  I  have  been  appoinied  a  member  of  a  sub-committee  to  investigate  the  con- 
tingent expenses  of  the  Department  of  Justice  since  its  establishment  in  June,  1870  ;  and  I  expect 
in  two  or  three  days  to  make  a  report  upon  the  extravagance  growing  out  of  the  contingent  fund 

this  department;  but  for  the  present,  regarding  it  as  inappropriate  to  make  any  statement  as  to 
what  will  be  the  substance  of  that  report,  I  desire  to  ask  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations  how  many  horses  are  provided  for  in  this  appropriation  "  for  care  of  and  subsis- 
tence of  horses?" 

ALL  THE  HONORS  YOU  WANT. 

Mr,  Garfield:  We  limit  it  only  by  the  amount  appropriated  ;  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
number. 

Mr.  Durham:  That  is  not  answering  my  question.  How  many  horses  are  provided  for  in  this 
item  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  answer  the  gentleman,  that  we  pay  nothing  about  the  number.  There  will  be,  I 
presume,  so  many  as  can  be  provided  for  (including  the  carriage)  with  this  amount  of  money. 

Mr.  Durham:  Then  I  put  this  further  question  to  the  gentleman  :  Whether  it  v/ill  take  $1,200  to 
keep  one  horse  or  two  horses  or  three  horses;  and  I  renew  the  question,  how  many  horses  are 
provided  for  in  this  item  f 

Mr.  Garfield:  The  gentleman  can  get  all  the  echoes  he  may  desire  in  answer  to  his  question  as 
to  the  number.     I  do  not  know  the  number,  and  do  not  undertake  to  state  it. 

Mr.  Durham:  The  gentleman  is  not  answering  with  fairness  and  candor. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  have  not  the  information  upon  which  to  answer,  and  therefore  I  do  not  undertake 
to  do  so. 

Mr.  Durham:  Then  I  still  put  to  my  distinguished  friend  the  question,  whether  he  has  the  items 
to  show  how  many  horses  there  are  in  use  by  that  department. 

Mr.  Garfield:  If  the  gentleman  has  made  a  careful  investigation  as  one  of  a  sub-committee,  and 
has  his  report  inchoate  and  almost  ready  to  launch,  he  certainly  ought  to  be  able  to  answer  that 
question  better  than  I  can. 

Mr.  Durham:  I  can  answer  so  far  as  the  past  is  concerned;  but  in  this  bill  we  are  providing  for 
the  future.  I  will  answer  that  there  have  been  three  horses  in  use  by  that  department  in  the  past. 
Now,  how  many  are  there  to  be  used  in  the  future,  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1875  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  The  number  of  horses  to  be  used  in  the  future  is  something  I  suppose  that  would 
require  a  prophet  to  prodict;  but  if  the  gentleman 


ENCOURAGING    AND    DEFENDING   PETIT   LARCENY.  145 

Mr.  Durham:  The  gentleman  understands  my  question.  How  many  have  the  committee  pro- 
vided for  in  this  bill  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  Well,  I  am  utterly  incapable  of  furnishing  brains  for  the  understanding  of  a 
statement,  in  addition  to  making  it. 

Mr.  Durham:  If  I  have  not  got  the  brains  to  answer,  I  have  the  candor  and  honesty  to  answer; 
I  will  say  that  much.  If  my  distinguished  friend,  who  stands  at  the  head  of  this  Appropriation 
Committee,  and  who  ought  to  know  the  purpose  of  this  appropriation  of  $1,200  for  taking  care  and 
for  the  keep  of  horses,  will  not  have  the  fairness  or  the  candor  to  answer  on  the  floor  of  this  House, 
then  I  leave  it  to  the  House  to  judge  between  him  and  myself. 

Mr.  Garfield:  There  is  no  need  of  heat  about  this  matter.  The  Committee  on  Appropriations 
have  put  in  what  they  considered  enough  to  maintain  the  expense  of  what  now  exists.  The  gentle- 
man says  that  is  three  horses  «iid  carriages.  I  should  suppose  three  horses,  one  for  relay  in  case 
of  accident,  would  not  involve  an  extravagant  amount,  provided  we  proposed  the  heads  of  depart- 
ments shall  have  the  employment  of  horses  and  carriages. 

Now,  Mr.  Chairman,  the  Attorney-General  said  this  to  the  committee:  that  he  is  comp>elled  in 
his  office  not  only  by  his  assistants  to  run  the  Court  of  Claims  on  the  government  side  of  it,  but  all 
the  cases  of  the  United  States  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that  ther-j  is  not  a  day  in  which  he  doe.s  not 
require  the  use  of  a  horse  and  carriage.  Whether  it  should  be  by  what  the  government  owns  or 
what  they  may  hire  makes  no  difference.  If  gentlemen  want  the  Attorney-General  to  walk  lo  the 
Supreme  Court  on  foot,  or  to  ride  in  the  cars,  or  to  go  wherever  else  he  goes  as  other  citizens,  if 
the  gentleman  wants  to  break  down  the  habit  of  years,  and  sweep  away  all  arrangements  for 
horses  and  carriage,  very  well. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD   BELIEVES  IN   AN   OFFICIAL  ARISTOCRACY, 

According  to  Mr.  Garfield,  the  attorney-general  is  not  expected  "io  walk  to  the 
Supreme  Court  on  foot,  or  to  ride  in  a  car,  or  go  wherever  he  goes  as  other  citizens." 
According  to  him.  Cabinet  officers  are  an  official  aristocracy,  notto  be  treated  like 
"  other  citizens. "  Although  they  receive  $8,000  a  year  salary,  and  serve  the  public, 
they  must  be  allowed  fine  carriages,  fast  horses  and  gilded  harness,  to  be  paid  for 
out  of  the  treasury.  He  speaks  of  ' '  breaking  down  the  habit  of  years  and  sweeping 
down  all  arrangements  for  horses  and  carriages."  "Whoever  heard  of  horses  and 
carriages  furnished  by  the  government  for  officials  until  G^n.  Garfield  and  those 
like  him  sanctioned  the  bad  "  habit."  The  pretense  that  a  carriage  is  necessary 
for  an  attorney -general  attending  the  courts  is  false.  The  sixteen-hundred-dol- 
lar  landaulet  which  attorney-general  Williams  had  the  disbursing  clerk  of  his; 
department  pay  for  out  of  the  contingent  fund  was  for  the  private  use  of  himself 
and  wife.  Even  the  liveried  driver  was  borne  upon  the  pay-roll  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice. 

There  were  still  other  interesting  discussions  on  this  occasion. 

Mr.  Nesmith:  Permit  me  to  ask  the  gentleman  a  question. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Certainly. 

Mr.  Nesmith:  Does  he  believe  thera  is  any  more  necessity  for  providing  these  departments  with 
expensive  horses  and  a  sixteen-hundred-dollar  carriage  than  the  judges  or  members  of  Congress? 
And  in  connection  with  that,  does  the  attorne}'-geueral  go  every  day  to  the  Supreme  Court?  And 
another  question  in  the  same  connection;    Are  these  departments  being  run  by  horse  power? 

Mr.  Garfield:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  no  doubt  there  are  abuses;  I  know  there  have  been  abuses 
in  regard  to  horses  and  carriages  in  the  various  departments.  These  are  abuses,  if  not  as  old  as  the 
government,  older  than  any  member  of  the  House.  There  has  been  no  attorney-general  from  the 
Foundation  of  the  government  who  was  not  furnished  with  horses  and  a  carriage  by  the  govern- 
ment as  a  part  of  his  official  outfit  for  the  performance  of  his  duties.  There  is  no  hour  of  the  day 
when  the  heads  of  the  departments  are  not  liable  to  be  called  upon  to  meet  the  President  in  Cabinet 
to  consult  with  each  other,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  common  decency  in  the  transaction  of  business 
they  should  have  it. 

WILLFULLY  FALSIFYING. 

■  In  Stating  that  "there  had  been  no  attorney -general  from  the  foundation  of 
the  Government  who  was  not  furnished  with  horses  and  a  carriage  by  the  gov- 
ernment," Gen.  Garfield  willfully  falsified.  He  did  not  and  could  not  produce 
a  single  example,  record,  appropriation  or  voucher  justifiying  his  baseless  asser- 
tion. Attorney-General  Williams  was,  shortly  after  this,  driven  from  office. 
Even  Grant  could  no  longer  retain  him ;  yet  Garfield  appeared  as  his  defender  on 
the  floor  of  the  House.  To  this  day  Williams  is  known  as  "Landaulet"  Wil- 
liams. The  exposure  of  this  landaulet  tr9,nsaction  had  been  made  previous  to 
Garfield's  defense. 

Mr.  Wood,  of  New  York,  pertinently  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  prac- 
tice of  which  Garfield  spoke  as  long  standing  was  a  recent  one.     He  said: 

10 


146  ENCOURAGING    AND    DEFENDING    PETIT    LARCENY. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  practice  to  which  \vc  now  take  exception  is  of  long  standing  in  this  gov- 
ernment, or  is  of  any  standing  whatever  prior  to  the  incumbency  of  the  gentleman  who  now  fills 
I  that  office.  My  memory,  sir,  goes  back  for  a  long  period,  not  only  with  reference  to  the  office  of 
'I  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  bnt  with  reference  to  all  the  executive  departments; 
and  I  declare  here  that  it  is  a  practice  of  recent  and  modern  introduction  that  any  head  of  a  depart- 
ment, that  any  executive  officer  of  this  government  shall  seek  to  be  carried  through  the  streets 
of  Washington  at  the  public  expense. 

Sir,  the  Chief  Justices  of  the  United  States,  including  John  Marshall  and  Roger  B.  Taney,  never 
traveled  at  the  expense  of  the  government,  either  from  their  homes  to  Washington,  or  from  their 
residences  in  Washington  to  the  Capitol  here,  for  the  purpose  of  attending  to  their  official  duties. 
It  is  entirely  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  is  an  old  practice.  It  is  an  attempt  to  justify  by  an 
erroneous  statement,  founded  upon  a  misapprehension,  this  system  of  having  public  coaches  for 
the  use  of  officials,  bought  by  the  money  of  the  people,  wrung  from  the  industries  of  the  nation. 

STILL   OTHER  CASES. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  case  that  led  to  debate.  On  the  same  bill  angry  feelings 
broke  out  in  another  spot,  but  with  less  intensity,  (See  Congressional  Record, 
April  24,  1874,  page  40.) 

Mr.  Sener:  I  move  to  strike  out  the  words  for  "horse  and  carriage,  and  keeping  the  same, 
$1,200  "  (for  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions).  It  seems  to  me  that  with  the  impro'^ed  facilities  for 
passing  from  point  to  point  in  Washington  afforded  by  the  street  cars,  with  the  several  departments 
■connected  as  they  now  are  by  telegraph,  we  should  not  allow  any  bureau  officer  a  horse  and  car- 
riage. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  will  simply  say  in  reply  that  the  duties  of  the  Pension  Office  are  peculiar  in  this.  It 
is  in  a  building  a  great  way  from  the  Interior  Department,  in  the  Seaton  House,  and  there  are  other 
buildings  where  the  pension  clerks  are  kept.  A  great  deal  of  communication,  of  referring  papers 
And  of  messages,  is  required  to  be  done. 

A  PRETENCE   OP   ECONOMY. 

Mr.  Frye:  Is  it  in  the  interest  of  economy  for  this  bureau  to  keep  a  horse  ? 

Mr.  Garfield:  We  think  it  is. 

Mr.  Randall:  Oh,  no;  it  is  not. 

Mr.  Seuer:  I  wish  to  say  in  reply  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  that  it  is  only  a  few  minutes'  walk 
from  the  Department  of  the  Interior  to  the  Seaton  House,  where  many  of  the  pension  records  are 
kept.  Besides  that,  as  my  .friend  from  Ohio  very  well  knows,  no  paper  carried  to  the  Pension 
Office  is  acted  on  the  same  day  it  is  carried  there.  Nor  does  the  commissioner  himself  give  per- 
sonal attention  to  papers,  except  by  sending  for  a  clerk  to  bring  in  the  papers;  and  then  he  gives  a 
hearing  and  determines  what  he  will  do  in  the  matter. 

Mr.  Lawrence  of  Ohio:  I  wish  to  ask  my  colleague  (Mr.  Garfield)  why  it  is  necessary  to  appro- 
priate $1,200  to  keep  a  horse  and  carriage  for  one  year.  It  is  at  the  rate  of  $100  a  month.  Now  it 
does  not  cost  any  such  sum  in  any  city  of  the  United  States,  or  of  the  world;  and  this  appropria- 
tion for  such  a  purpose  cannot  be  honestly  expended. 

Mr.  Garfield:  More  than  this  was  expended  last  year  to  keep  up  the  establishmeut  in  this  same 
•office.  The  gentleman  cannot  hire  a  saddle  horse  in  this  city  for  less  than  $25  a  month  at  any 
jrespectable  livery  stable. 

GARFIELD'S  MISREPRESENTATION. 

That  was  the  kind  of  argument  Gen.  Garfield  employed  to  defend  his  culpable 
extravagance.  He  was  consistent  in  that,  as  he  was  in  misrepresentation,  when 
he  stated  that  some  of  the  pension  records  were  in  "the  Seaton  House,  a  great 
way  from  the  Department  of  the  Interior."  The  distance  is  just  three  blocks, 
and  one  building  is  in  sight  of  the  other  from  the  roof.  Nine-tenths  of  the  House 
and  the  audience  were  aware  of  this  bold  falsehood,  and  yet  Gen.  Garfield  coolly 
went  on,  as  if  he  was  uttering  undoubted  truths  to  prop  up  a  justifiable  grant  of 
public  money.  ^ 

Gen.  Garfield  is  accountable  for  a  system  of  reckless  expenditure,  by  which  the 
public  service  has  been  demoralized  and  millions  squandered,  during  the  time 
that  he  directed  the  appropriations  as  chairman  of  that  most  important  com- 
mittee. 


GAKPIELD   THE    CHAMPION    OF    O.    O.    HOWARD.  147 


OARFIELD  THE  CHAMPION  OF  0.  0. 

HOWARD. 


The  Freedmen's  Bureau  and  the  Freedmen's  Bank  were  twin  monster  frauds. 
The  first  was  avowedly  established  to  care  for  and  maintain  Southern  white  Un- 
ion refugees  and  to  protect  and  provide  employment  for  the  emancipated  blacks. 
There  was  much  suffering  among  the  whites  as  well  as  the  blacks  at  the  South 
toward  the  close  of  the  war.  The  social  and  industrial  systems  were  broken  up  ; 
;great  hordes  of  negroes  flocked  to  the  Union  armies,  and  the  support  of  these  two 
•classes  was  a  heavy  burden  upon  the  Commissary  Department.  To  afford  the 
white  refugees  and  late  slaves  the  means  of  self-support  it  was  suggested  that  the 
lands  within  the  Union  lines  abandoned  by  their  owners  should  be  parceled  out 
to  the  helpless  people,  and  that  the  government  furnish  them  with  the  means  of 
tillmg  the  soil  and  supply  their  wants  while  awaiting  the  reward  of  their  labor. 
Had  this  beneficial  purpose  been  honestly  adhered  to,  the  greatest  good  might 
have  been  accomplished.  The  change  from  the  system  of  slave  labor  to  that  of 
free  could  have  been  effected  without  a  jar,  and  the  owners  of  the  soil  and  the 
•emancipated  slaves  would  have  accepted  the  new  order  without  ill  feeling.  The 
Freedmen's  Bureau  grew  out  of  the  desire  to  accomplish  something  of  this  sort. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  most  anxious  to  rehabilitate  the  States  and  favored  a  policy  of 
reconciliation.  He  thought  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  would  be  a  useful  agent  in 
the  work  he  was  undertaking.  He  exerted  all  his  influence  to  restrain  the  Repub- 
lican majority  in  Congress  from  conferring  unusual  powers  on  the  Commissioner 
of  the  proposed  Bureau  and  his  subordinates.  He  wanted  all  the  employees  of 
the  Bureau  held  responsible  to  the  military  authorities  and  amenable  to  court 
martial.  The  bills  which  were  introduced  at  the  second  session  of  the  Thirty- 
eighth  Congress  providing  for  the  establishment  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  did 
not  confer  any  extraordinary  power  upon  the  commissioner,  and  he  and  his  sub- 
ordinates were,  by  the  terms  of  the  bills,  amenable  to  the  articles  of  war.  Not- 
withstanding this,  in  the  judgment  of  the  majority  of  the  Senate  then,  the  com- 
missioner had  too  much  discretionary  power,  and  several  bills  originating  in  that 
body  or  agreed  upon  in  conference  committees  of  the  two  Houses,  were  voted 
down.  In  the  opinion  of  the  late  John  P.  Hale,  of  Maine,  then  a  Senator,  the 
loyal  white  people  of  the  South  were  entitled  peculiarly  to  the  assistance  of  the 
Federal  Government.  He  opposed  the  bills  creating  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  be- 
cause they  did  not  provide  for  the  distribution  of  abandoned  lands  and  property 
to  this  class,  or  made  them  subordinate  to  the  blacks.  Finally  an  agreement  was 
reached  by  which  a  bill  was  secured,  through  a  conference  committee,  less  objec- 
tionable than  any  of  the  others.  This  bill  created  the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freed- 
men,  and  Abandoned  Lands  of  the  War  Department.     Its  management  was  to  be 


148  GARFIELD    THE    CHAMPION    OF    O.    O.    HOWARD. 

in  the  hands  of  a  commissioner,  who  might  have  ten  assistants.  The  act  was 
approved  March  3,  1865,  and  May  10,  1865,  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard  was  assigned  to 
duty  as  commissioner.  By  a  series  of  acts,  passed  by  succeeding  Congresses, 
the  power  of  the  commissioner  was  greatly  enlarged  and  millions  upon  millions. 
of  property  turned  over  to  him,  in  the  disposition  of  which  he  was  well  nigh 
unrestricted.  The  first  attempt  at  this  enlargement  of  the  scope  of  the  Bureau 
was  made  at  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-nmth  Congress,  and  the  bill  was  ve- 
toed by  President  Johnson.  This  veto  was  the  beginning  of  the  rupture  be- 
tween Andrew  Johnson  and  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party.  Gen.  Garfield, 
was  among  the  most  ultra  of  his  party  in  advocating  the  enlargement  of  the  pow- 
ers of  the  Commissioner  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  He  was  always  the  cham- 
pion of  Gen.  Howard.  The  management  of  the  commissioner  was  even  then 
denounced  as  bad,  and  the  work  of  his  subordinates  was  such  as  to  draw  from 
Gen.  U.  S.  Grant,  in  his  report  of  the  condition  of  the  Southern  States  after  hi& 
tour  through  them  in  the  Fall  of  1865,  the  following  stinging  rebuke  : 

I  did  not  give  the  operation  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  that  attention  I  would  have  done  if  more 
time  had  been  at  my  disposal.  Conversations,  however,  on  the  eubject  with  officers  connected 
with  the  Bureau,  lead  me  to  think  that  in  some  of  th6  states  its  affairs  have  not  been  conducted 
with  good  judgment  or  economy,  and  that  the  belief  widely  spread  among  the  freedmen  of  the 
Southern  States,  that  the  lands  of  their  former  oivners  will— at  least  in  part— be  divided  among 
them,  has  cainefrom  t/ie  agents  of  this  Bureau.  This  belief  is  seriously  interfering  with  the  will- 
ingness af  the  freedmen  to  make  contracts  for  the  coming  year.  In  some  form  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau  is  an  absolute  necessity  until  civil  law  is  established  and  enforced,  securing  to  the  freedmen 
their  rights  and  fnll  protection.  At  present,  however,  it  is  independent  of  the  military  establish- 
ment of  the  country,  and  seems  to  be  operated  by  the  different  agents  of  the  Bureau  according  to 
their  divided  notions. 

WHAT   WAS  PROVED  AGAINST  HOWARD   IN   1870. 

In  1870  the  House  of  Representatives,  compelled  principally  by  exposures 
made  in  the  Cincinnati  Gazette  by  its  Washington  correspondent.  General  H.  V. 
Boynton,  of  the  illegal  and  corrupt  administration  of  General  O.  O.  Howard, 
directed  an  investigation  into  the  affairs  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  to  be  made. 
Of  course,  the  result  was  a  whitewashing  report.  Nevertheless,  it  was  conclu- 
sively proved  that  appropriations  made  for,  and  the  receipt  of  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau,  amounting  to  more  than  $900,000,  were  by  General  Howard,  without 
authority  of  law,  turned  over  to  Howard  University,  hospital  and  lands  ;  that  por- 
tions of  the  land,  alleged  to  have  been  sold  for  the  benefit  of  Howard  University 
went  improperly  to  members  of  his  family  ;  that  he  accepted  in  payment  for 
some  of  this  land,  bonds  which  he  had  issued  in  aid  of  the  First  Congregational 
Church  of  Washington,  and  that  he  had  never  accounted  for  or  redeemed  these 
bonds  ;  that  even  the  buildings  for  the  Howard  University  and  hospital  were 
built  of  patent  bricks  made  by  a  concern  in  which  General  Howard  and  members 
of  his  family  were  interested;  that  he  had  appropriated  labor  belonging  to  the 
government,  without  compensation,  to  his  private  use;  that  he  drew  their 
salaries  in  defiance  of  law ;  that  he  advanced  a  large  sum  of  money  in  his  hands 
as  a  disbursing  officer  of  the  government  to  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion of  Washington,  of  which  he  was  president,  taking  worthless  security  there- 
for, which  disposition  of  the  money  of  the  government  was  embezzlement ;  that 
he  purposely  suffered  an  officer  of  the  Bureau  to  sell  lands  in  Washington  to  a 
freedmen's  school  in  North  Carolina,  and  he  paid  for  the  same  out  of  money 
appropriated  for  the  school ;  that  he  was  privy  to  the  swindles  of  the  Freedmen's 
Bank,  belonging  to  the  Freedmen's  Banking,  and  benefited  by  the  use  of  the 
money  collected  from  the  poor  negroes  of  that  concern. 

In  addition  to  his  duties  as  Commissioner  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau 
he  was,  by  Act  of  Congress,  approved  March  2,  1867,  custodian  of  the 
retained  bounty  fund  belonging  to  colored  soldiers,  and  by  Act  approved  March. 


GARFIELD    THE    CHAMPION    OF    O.    O.    HOWARD.  149 

29,  1867,  he  was  to  collect  and  disburse  all  moneys  due  to  colored  soldiers  in 
Southern  States,  and  "  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  safe  custody  and  faithful  dis- 
bursement of  the  same. "  These  acts  were  rushed  through  the  House  under  the 
operations  of  the  previous  question,  demanded  by  Gen.  Garfield.  {Globe,  \st 
Sept.,  40ih  Cong.,  p.  445). 

WHAT    HAPPENED    AFTER    HOWARD    WAS    TURNED    OUT. 

By  Act  of  June  10,  1872,  the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen  and  Abandoned 
Lands  was  discontinued  and  the  business  therefor  turned  over  to  the  Adjutant 
General's  Office  of  the  Army.  When  the  Adjutant-General's  Office  took  posses- 
sion of  the  discontinued  Bureau  they  found  everything  in  great  confusion,  many 
of  the  important  papers  and  record  books  being  lost,  and  a  deficit  was  also  dis- 
covered in  the  retained  bounty  fund  accounts.  It  was  found  also  that  Gen.  Geo. 
W.  Balloch,  Chief  Disbursing  Officer  of  the  Bureau,  claimed  to  have  on  deposit 
-with  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  $520,974.07,  when  in  reality  there  were 
only  $241,356.61  on  deposit.  Upon  this  matter  being  investigated,  it  was  found 
that  Balloch  had  in  his  own  possession  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  doUars 
on  the  United  States  bonds,  on  which  he  had  been  drawing  interest,  and  he 
■claimed  that  the  value  of  these  was  more  than  the  deficit  of  $279,617.46  in  his 
account  with  the  Treasurer.  On  this  showing  he  was  suspended  and  ordered  to 
be  mustered  out  of  the  army.  He  claimed  in  his  defense  that  he  had  the  author- 
ity of  the  second  Comptroller  and  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  to  convert 
the  money  into  bonds,  but  this  was  held  to  be  no  justification.  Assistant  Adju- 
tant-General Vincent,  in  his  report  of  October  7,  1872,  on  the  condition  of  the  ac- 
<50unts  in  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  when  he  assumed  control  of  it  under  the  Act  of 
Congress,  above  quoted,  says : 

THE  PROOF  TURNS  UP  AT  LAST. 

The  number  of  unpaid  claims  transferred  is  4,858.  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $730,596.80; 
the  amount  transferred  for  their  payment,  $726,842.11,  eaving  a  deficit  yet  lo  be  accounted  for  of 
$3,754.69.  This  deficit  was  promptly  reported,  to  the  Secretary  of  War  with  whom  rests  future 
action.  The  treasury  certificates  issued  in  settlement  of  the  unpaid  claims  mentioned  above  are 
shown  by  the  records  to  have  been  received  at  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  at  various  dates  extending 
back  to  May,  1867.  In  addition  to  the  sum  of  $726,842.11,  as  stated  above,  there  is  the  sum  of 
$31,078.03  transferred  as  being  due  to  certain  claimants  borne  upon  the  records  as  paid,  axid  with 
which  amount  the  accounts  of  the  late  disbursing  ofiicer  of  the  Bureau  have  probably  been  credited 
at  the  treasury.  Complaints  have  been  made  that  claimants  have  not  received  from  the  late 
Bureau  their  bounties,  rations,  or  aid,  &c.  The  treasury  accounts  of  the  Bureau  disbursing  officer 
«how  payment  to  have  been  made,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  claimants  have  been  de- 
frauded extensively  of  the  said  money. 

Investigations  into  irregularities  connected  with  the  management  of  the  retained 
bounty  fund  and  the  payment  of  moneys  due  to  colored  soldiers,  sailors  and  ma- 
rines were  still  further  prosecuted  by  the  Adjutant-General's  Office.  Irregularitie? 
were  discovered  almost  daily,  and  large  sums  of  money  found  to  have  been  paid 
on  fraudulent  claims.  These  investigations  by  the  Adjutant-General's  Office,  to- 
gether with  developments  which  have  been  made  from  time  to  time,  establish  be- 
yond controversy  the  fact  that  the  Howard  University  was  a  swindling  enterprise 
from  beginning  to  end.  Although  $993,611.38  of  government  morey  was 
illegally  invested  for  the  benefit  of  this  institution,  it  is  to-day  almost  bankrupt; 
and  is  only  maintained  by  the  closest  economy  and  a  large  reduction  in  its  corps 
of  teachers.  About  $220,000  were  originally  invested  in  real  estate  attached  to 
the  University,  and  of  this  there  remains  for  that  institution  a  very  small  quan- 
tity, the  balance  having  gone  in  various  ways  into  the  hand£  of  specolators  con- 
nected directly  or  indirectly  with  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  of  which  Howard  was 
the  head  and  front. 

The  facts  developed  in  regard  to  the  management  of  the  retained  bounty  fund, 
the  moneys  due  to  colored  soldiers,  sailors  and  marines  by  the  Adjutant-General's 


150  GARFIELD    THE    CHAMPIOX    OF    O.    O.    HOWARD. 

Office  so  directly  implicated  Howard  with  outrageous  frauds,  which  had  beeiB 
practiced  upon  the  unfortunate  negroes  as  well  as  upon  the  government,  that  the: 
President  was  forced,  although  much  against  his  inclination,  to  order  a  court  of 
inquiry  to  investigate  the  matter.  The  majority  of  this  court,  as  constituted, 
consisted  of  officers  so  connected  with  Howard  in  the  past  that  it  was  not  possible 
for  them  to  render  an  impartial  finding.  The  result  was  what  it  was  predicted  it 
would  be  at  the  time  the  Court  was  constituted,  although  a  minority  held  Howard 
to  be  guilty  of  embezzlement.  The  finding  of  the  Court  was  reviewed  by  the 
Judge-Advocate-General  of  the  Armj^  Gen.  Joe  Holt,  who  held,  in  an  able  and 
exhaustive  opinion,  that  the  majority  had  clearly  erred;  and  farther  said,  that  the 
construction  of  the  law  and  army  regulations  by  the  majority  of  the  Court  was  in  di- 
rect conflict  with  an  unbroken  line  of  decisions. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  facts,  which  Gen.  Garfield  was  cognizant  of,  he 
offered  the  following  amendment  to  the  Sundry  Civil  Bill  at  the  first  session  of 
the  Forty-third  Congress : 

That  there  be  paid  to  Major-Greneral  O.  O.  Howard,  out  of  any  money  in  the  treasury  not 
otherwise  appropriated,  the  sum  of  $7,000.  to  reimburse  him  for  the  expense  he  incurred  in  de- 
fending his  official  conduct  as  Commissioner  of  Freedmen's  Affairs, 

Mr.  Spear,  of  Pennsylvania,  wanted  to  know  if  Gen.  Garfield  knew  of  any 
other  alleged  criminal  whose  expenses  were  asked  to  be  paid  by  the  United 
States.  He  replied  that  Howard  had  been  put  through  a  fiery  ordeal  and  had 
been  acquitted,  when  he  very  well  knew  that  only  a  court  of  inquiry  had  sat 
upon  his  case  and  that  its  verdict  had  been  the  Scotch  one — "  Not  proven."  The 
appropriation  was  not  made,. although  Gen.  Garfield  advocated  and  voted  for  it. — 
{See  Gong.  Record  ^M  Cong.,  Ut  Sept.,  pp.  4887-88). 


Tlil!:    BLACK    FKIDAY    SCANDAL.  J 51? 


THE  BLACK  FRIDAY  SCANDAL. 


HOW    GENERAL    GARFIELD    SOUGHT    TO    SUPPRESS   THE    TRUTH. 

On  December  13,  1869,  Mr.  Scbenck  offered  a  resolution  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives directing  the  Committee  on  Banking  and  Currency  to  investigate  the 
Black  Friday  scandal.  It  was  adopted.  Gen.  Garfield  was  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee charged  with  the  inquiry.  The  intention  was  to  whitewash  President 
Grant  and  his  family.  Gen.  Garfield  undertook  the  job.  On  March  1,  1870,  he 
submitted  his  report  to  the  House.     In  it  he  says : 

The  committee  find  that  the  wjcked  and  cunningly  devieed  attempts  of  the  conspirators  to« 
compromise  the  President  of  the  United  States  or  his  family  utterly  failed. 

How  Utterly  and  wickedly  false  this  statement  was  the  following  history  of 

that  memorable  scandal,  compiled  altogether  from  the  evidence  taken  by  Gen. 

Garfield's  committee,  will  demonstrate. 

grant's   first   MEETING   WITH   FISK   AND    GOULD. 

On  the  evening  of  the  loth  of  June,  1869,  a  gay  party,  composed  of  Ulysses  S. 
Grant,  Jay  Gould,  and  Jim  Fisk,  each  accompanied  by  his  retainers,  left  New 
York  for  Boston  on  one  of  Gould's  highly  ornamented  steamers.  The  ostensible 
object  of  the  trip  was  to  attend  Patrick  Sarsfield  Gilmore's  Peace  Jubilee.  The 
arrangement  of  the  details  had  been  intrusted  to  Fisk.  At  supper  on  the  steam- 
boat the  conversation  was  deftly  turned  to  the  "  state  of  the  country."  Gould, 
in  his  sworn  testimony  before  the  Garfield  Committee  of  the  Forty-first  Congress, 
describes  this  supper  and  says  of  the  conversation :  "  The  President  was  a  listener. 
The  other  gentlemen  were  discussing.  Some  were  in  favor  of  Boutwell's  selling 
gold,  and  some  were  opposed  to  it.  After  they  had  all  interchanged  their  views, 
some  one  asked  the  President  what  his  views  were.  He  remarked  that  he  thought 
there  was  a  certain  amount  of  fictitiousness  about  the  prosperity  of  the  country, 
and  that  the  bubble  might  as  well  be  tapped  in  one  way  as  another.  That  waa 
the  substance  of  his  remark.  He  asked  me  what  I  thought  about  it.  I  remarked 
that  I  thought  if  that  policy  was  carried  out  it  would  produce  great  distress  and 
almost  lead  to  civil  war;  it  would  produce  strikes  among  the  workmen,  and  the 
workshops  to  a  great  extent  would  have  to  be  closed ;  the  manufactories  would 
have  to  stop.  I  took  the  ground  that  the  Government  ought  to  let  gold  alone  and 
let  it  find  its  commercial  level ;  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  ought  to  facilitate  an 
upward  movement  of  gold  in  the  fall.  The  fall  and  winter  is  the  only  time  that 
we  have  any  interest  in.     That  was  all  that  occurred  at  that  time." 

The  key  to  Gould's  conversation  is  found  in  the  fact  that  those  who  accom- 
panied him  were  his  stool  pigeons.  The  talk  was  arranged  beforehand  for  the 
purpose  of  ascertaining  Grant's  opinions,  and  approaching  him  at  points  where 
he  appeared  most  vulnerable.  He  was  in  the  hands  of  trained  gamblers,  and  they, 
in  the  parlance  of  their  trade,  were  "playing  him  for  a  flat."    A  deadhead  jour- 


152  THE   BLACK    FRIDAY    SCANDAL. 

ney  to  Boston,  a  free  supper,  and  an  abundance  of  champagne  constituted  the 
vulgar  bait  thrown  out  to  catch  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  American  people. 
And  he  was  caught. 

GOULD   AND   GRANT'S  BROTHEK- IN-LAW    SELECT   AN   ASSISTANT    TREASURER. 

In  June,  1869,  about  the  time  of  the  Boston  Peace  Jubilee,  Mr.  H.  H.  Van 
Dyck  resigned  his  office  as  Assistant  Treasurer  at  New  York.  Jay  Gould  under- 
took to  name  his  successor,  with  a  view  to  controlling  the  treasury  when  the 
time  should  come  to  "  corner  "  the  gold  market.  He  had  already  formed  an  alli- 
ance with  Abel  R.  Corbin,  the  brother  in-law  of  Grant.  Corbin  was  a  ready 
writer  and  a  man  of  some  ability.  He  had  been  unsuccessful  in  business,  and  was 
willing  to  trade  on  his  influence  at  the  White  House.  Years  before  he  had  served 
an  apprenticeship  in  the  lobby  at  Washington.  He  could  talk  politics  and  finance 
with  great  fluency,  and  Grant  frequently  sought  his  counsel.  The  fact  that  he 
was  not  strictly  honest  never  interfered  with  the  cordiality  of  their  relations. 

Robert  B.  Catherwood,  an  eminently  respectable  man,  who  had  married  Cor- 
bin's  step-daughter,  w^as  suggested  for  Assistant  Treasurer.  Gould  and  Corbin 
talked  with  him  on  the  subject,  and  urged  him  to  take  the  place  that  the  three 
might  operate  together  and  make  a  great  deal  of  money  "  in  a  perfectly  legitimate 
manner."  3Ir.  Catherwood,  in  his  testimony,  says  that  his  ideas  differed  from 
theirs  as  to  what  constituted  a  "legitimate  manner,"  and  he  declined  the  office. 
It  was  then  decided  to  confer  it  upon  Gen.  Daniel  Buttertield,  who,  when  this 
design  was  made  known  to  him,  wrote  a  letter  thanking  Mr.  Corbin  very  kindly, 
hoping  that  he  would  exercise  his  influence,  as  he  had  previously  done,  and  say- 
ing that  he  was  under  many  obligations  to  him,  and  that  he  trusted  he  would  be 
successful.  The  work  in  which  Corbin  expected  to  be  successful  was  in  corner- 
ing gold  through  the  aid  of  the  Assistant  Treasurer.  In  due  time  Gen.  Butter- 
field  was  commissioned,  and  Corbin's  standing  was  measurably  increased  in  the 
eyes  of  Gould  and  Fisk.  Mr.  Corbin  had  first  appeared  to  Gould  as  a  suppliant 
for  favors.  On  the  strength  of  his  relationship  to  Grant  he  wanted  to  be  taken 
into  .some  enterprise  where  he  could  make  money.  It  was  then  that  Gould  sug- 
gested the  feasibility  of  advancin  the  price  of  gold,  which  was  then  among  the 
thirties,  to  the  forties  or  fifties,  provided  the  Government  could  be  induced  to  as- 
sist them.  His  theory  was  that  a  rise  w^ould  facilitate  the  exportation  of  grain, 
but  he  hastened  to  add:  "  We  could  make  money  both  ways  by  buying  it  then 
and  selling  it  on  the  rise."  Gould  adds  this  compliment  in  speaking  of  Corbin  : 
"  He  was  a  very  shrewd  old  gentleman.  He  saw  at  a  glance  the  whole  case,  and 
said  he  thought  it  was  the  true  platform  to  stand  on ;  that  whatever  the  govern- 
ment could  do  legitimately  and  fairly  to  facilitate  the  exportation  of  breadstuffs 
and  produce  good,  prices  for  the  products  of  the  West  they  ought  to  do.  He  was 
anxious  that  I  should  see  the  President,  and  communicate  to  him  my  views  on 
the  subject."  It  was  because  of  this  preconcerted  anxiety  that  the  deadhead  ex- 
cursion of  the  15th  of  June  was  arranged.  Of  course  Corbin  was  among  the 
invited  guests,  and  the  subsequent  proceedings  seem  to  show  that  he  improved 
the  opportunity  to  impress  his  brother-in-law  favorable  with  his  friends  Gould 
and  Fisk. 

FREQUENT  INTERVIEWS  BETWEEN  GRANT  AND  GOULD. 

When  Grant  returned  from  Boston  he  went  directly  to  Corbin's  house,  where 
he  held  a  protracted  interview  with  Jay  Gould,  during  which,  according  to  testi- 
mony. Grant  said  to  Corbin:  "Boutwell  gave  an  order  to  sell  gold,  and  I  heard 
of  it  and  countermanded  the  order."     This  was  the  first  positive  declaration  the 


THE    BLACK    FRIDAY    SCANDAL.  153 

conspirators  had  received  that  they  had  won  the  President  over  to  their  side,  or 
that  they  conld  count  on  his  co-operation.  Gould  was  so  pleased  that  he  im- 
mediately tendered  to  Grant  the  free  use  of  a  special  train  to  take  him  to  Corry, 
Pennsylvania,  and  thence  to  Philadelphia.     This  offer  was  greedily  accepted. 

On  the  19th  of  August,  Grant  went  to  Newport,  where  Jim  Fisk  went  to  see 
him.  Fisk,  in  his  testimony,  said:  "  I  think  it  was  some  time  in  August  that 
General  Grant  started  to  go  to  Newport.  I  then  went  down  to  see  liim.  I  had 
seen  him  before,  but  not  feeling  as  thoroughly  acquainted  as  I  desired  for  this 
purpose,  I  took  a  letter  of  introduction  from  Mr.  Gould,  in  which  it  was  writ- 
ten that  there  were  three  hundred  sail  of  vessels  then  on  the  Mediterranean, 
from  the  Black  Sea,  with  grain  to  supply  the  Liverpool  market.  Goid  was  then 
about  thirthy-four.  If  it  continued  at  that  price,  we  had  very  little  chance  of 
•carrying  forward  the  crop  during  the  fall.  I  know  that  we  felt  nervous  about  it. 
I  talked  with  General  Grant  on  the  subject,  and  endeavored,  as  far  as  I  could,  to 
convince  him  that  his  policy  was  one  that  would  only  bring  destruction  on  us  all. 
He  then  asked  me  when  we  should  have  an  interview,  and  we  agreed  upon  the 
time.     He  said :  '  During  that  time  I  will  see  Mr.  Boutwell,  or  have  him  there.' " 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  lamented  Fisk,  with  steamboats,  railroads, 
terpsichorean  divinities,  and  other  affairs  to  manage,  still  found  time  to  give  the 
President  of  the  United  States  lessons  in  finance;  and  that  backed  by  Gould's 
letter  of  introduction,  he  succeeded  in  his  mission  and  induced  the  President  to 
adopt  a  fallacy  so  absurd  that  its  bare  statement  condemns  it — the  fallacy  that  an 
unnatural  premium  on  gold  is  essential  to  the  maintenance  of  our  foreign  com- 
merce. 

During  the  weeks  preceeding  Black  Friday,  Grant  was  very  frequently  in  New 
York,  and  usually  in  the  company  of  Corbin.  His  intimacy  with  Fisk  and 
Gould  began  to  attract  attention,  but  he  paid  small  heed  to  the  criticisms  passed 
upon  him  on  that  account  On  the  2d  of  September  he  went  to  Saratoga,  leaving 
poor  Rawlins,  his  Secretary  of  War,  who  had  been  his  mentor  and  guide  through 
all  his  military  career,  to  die  unattended  in  Washington.  He  was  recalled  on 
the  6th  to  attend  Rawlin's  funeral,  but  on  the  10th  he  again' appeared  in  New 
York.  Gen.  Rawlins  left  no  property,  and  a  fund  was  raised  for  the  benefit  of 
his.  family.  Gen.  Grant  subscribed  $1,000  to  this  fund.  Gould  and  Fisk  not 
only  gave  a  larger  amount,  but  they  paid  Grant's  subscription  for  him.  He  ac- 
cepted their  gift  with  unblushing  promptitude. 

The  plotters  were  resolved  to  make  hay  while  the  sun  of  official  favor  shone 
upon  them.  On  the  2d  of  September,  Jay  Gould,  having  thoroughly  convinced 
himself  that  he  could  rely  on  the  brothers-in-law  Corbin  and  Grant,  bought  for 
Corbm  $1,500,000  in  gold,  at  an  average  price  of  132^^.  Gould  was  afraid,  how- 
ever that  Boutwell  might  interfere.  He  says  that  some  of  those  who  were  short 
of  gold  had  arranged  to  give  the  Secretary  a  dinner,  and  he  was  solicitious  as  to 
what  the  effect  might  be.  He  sought  out  Corbin  again,  who  assured  him  that 
the  President  was  all  right;  that  at  his  (Corbin's)  house  Gen.  Grant  had  written 
a  letter  directing  Boutwell  to  sell  no^gold,  without  consulting  him,  and  that  he 
had  intrusted  this  letter  to  Butterfield,  who  afterward  told  Gould  that  he  had  de- 
livered it.  Nothing  now  remained  but  to  put  the  President  safely  out  of  the  way 
in  some  remote  corner  where  the  rising  storm  of  public  indignation  would  not 
reach  him  nor  compel  him  to  recognize  and  perform  his  duty. 

GRANT   HID  HIMSELF  IN  AN   OBSCURE    VILLAGE. 

The  little  town  of  Washington,  Pennsylvania,  was  accessible  by  rail  in  1869 
only  by  way  of  Wheeling,  West  Virginia.     It  was  cut  off  entirely  from  tele- 


154  THE    «LACK    FUIDAY    SCANDAL. 

graphic  communication,  and  it  was,  perhaps,  the  best  place  in  the  United  States^ 
in  which  to  seclude  a  man  whose  absence  was  essential  to  the  success  of  a  finan 
cial  conspiracy.     To  that  point  on  the  13th  of  September  the  President  made  his 
way.     He  explained  that  he  wanted  to  visit  a  family  of  the  name  of  Smith,  a  dis- 
tant  relative,  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  thirty  years. 

The  country  was  on  the  verge  of  financial  disaster.  Merchants,  importers,  all 
who  bought  and  sold,  began  to  feel  that  they  were  at  the  mercy  of  a  clique  of 
sharpers  and  gamblers  who  were  bent  on  driving  the  gold  premium  up  among- 
the  eighties  or  nineties,  that  they  might  clear  thirty  millions  at  the  expense  of 
every  legitimate  interest  of  trade.  They  knew  that  this  premium  was  fictitious 
and  speculative;  that  under  an  honest  and  intelligent  management  of  the  Treasurj 
it  could  not  exist.  But  what  were  the  relations  between  the  government  and 
the  sharpers?  That  was  the  question  which  sorely  disturbed  the  minds  of  honest 
men.  Gould  was  deep  and  taciturn,  but  Fisk  was  shallow  and  talkative.  In 
warning  his  friends,  in  threatening  his  enemies,  he  blurted  out  the  secrets  of  the- 
combination.  He  swore  he  would  carry  gold  up  to  200,  and  when  he  was  told 
that  the  government  could  block  his  game  by  selling  gold,  he  answered:  "The 
President  is  with  us."  This  revelation  threw  a  new  light  on  the  intimacy  be- 
tween Grant  and  these  gamblers.  Men  of  high  standing  hastened  to  the  capital 
to  tell  the  President  what  dangerous  persons  his  new  friends  were,  and  to  point 
out  to  him  the  necessity  of  immediate  action.  When  they  got  there  they  were 
gravely  told  that  Grant  was  gone.  Gone  where?  To  an  unheard-of  town,  out  of 
the  line  of  communication,  but  he  had  left  orders  to  sell  no  gold.  They  came 
away  disheartened. 

THE   CONSPIKATORS  WEIIE  JUBILANT — $25,000  TO   MRS.    GRANT. 

Fisk  testified  that  about  the  16th  of  September  he  bought  gold  to  the  amount 
of  seven  or  eight  millions.  Gould  made  much  heavier  purchases.  The  price  was 
forced  above  140,  and  the  syndicate  controlled  from  fifty  to  sixty  millions  of  it. 

On  the  20lh  of  September  Gould  said  to- Fisk  (this  is  sworn  testimony):  "  This 
matter  is  all  fixed  up;  Butterfield  is  all  right.  Corbin  has  got  Butterfield  all 
right,  and  Corbin  has  got  Grant  fixed  all  right ;  and  in  my  opinion  they  are  inter- 
ested together."  Fisk  says  that  was  a  point  he  did  not  take  into  consideration. 
He  supposed  Corbin  had  convinced  Grant  by  argument  that  forty-five  was  the 
proper  gold  premium  at  which  to  move  the  crops.  He  did  not  believe  up  to  that 
time  til  at  Grant,  or  anybody  nearer  to  him  than  his  brother-in-law,  had  a  stake  in 
the  scheme.  When  Gould  suggested  it,  he  was  startled,  and  resolved  immediately 
to  see  Corbin.  He  said  to  Gould:  "  You  give  me  a  letter  to  him,  so  that  he  will 
talk  confidentially  with  me."  He  got  the  letter,  and  he  gave  under  oath,  before 
the  Committee  on  Banking  and  Currency,  this  account  of  what  followed: 
"  When  I  met  him  he  talked  very  shy  about  the  matter  at  first,  but  finally  came 
right  out  and  told  me  that  Mrs.  Grant  had  an  interest ;  that  $500,000  in  gold  had 
been  taken  by  Mr.  Gould  at  31  and  32,  which  had  been  sold  at  37  ;  that  Mr.  Cor- 
bin held  for  himself  about  two  millions  of  gold,  $500,000  of  which  was  for  Mrs. 
Grant  and  $500,000  for  Porter.  I  did  not  ask  whether  he  was  General  or  not.  1 
remember  the  name  Porter.  This  was  given  out  very  slowly.  He  let  out  just  as 
fast  as  I  did  when  he  found  that  Gould  had  told  me  about  the  same  thing.  I 
said:  '  Now  I  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  your  transactions  in  one  way  or  the 
other.  You  can  make  your  pathway  clear  and  straight  by  emptying  it  all  out  ta 
me,  because  Mr.  Gould  and  myself  stand  together;  we  have  no  secrets  from  each 
other;  we  have  embarked  in  a  scheme  that  looks  like  one  of  large  magnitude. 


THE    BLA.CIV    FRIDAY    SCAXDAL.  155- 

Mr.  Gould  has  lost  as  the  thing  stands  now.  It  looks  as  if  it  might  be  pretty 
serious  business  before  getting  out  straight  again.  The  whole  success  depends 
on  whether  the  government  will  unload  on  to  us  or  not. '  He  said :  *  You  need 
not  have  the  least  fear. '  I  said :  '  1  want  to  know  whether  what  Mr.  Gould  told 
me  is  true;  I  want  to  know  whether  you  have  sent  this  $25,000  to  Washmgton  as 
he  states.'  He  then  told  me  that  he  had  sent  it;  that  Mr.  Gould  had  sold 
$500,000  in  gold  belonging  to  Mrs.  Grant  which  cost  32  for  37  or  something  in  that 
neighborhood,  leaving  a  balance  in  her  favor  of  about  $27,000,  and  that  a  check  for 
$25,000  had  been  sent.  Said  I:  '  Mr.  Corbin,  what  can  you  show  me  that  goes 
still  further  than  your  talk?'  '  Oh,  well,'  the  old  man  said,  *  I  can't  show  you 
anything;  but,' said  he,  'this  is  all  right.'  He  talked  freely,  and  repeated:  'I 
tell  you  it  is  all  right.'  When  I  went  away  from  there,  I  had  made  up  my  mind 
that  Corbin  had  told  me  the  truth." 

GARFIELD   TRIES   TO   MAKE   $250   OUT   OF    $25,000. 

Before  the  Banking  and  Currency  Committee,  there  appeared  a  witnesss,  W. 
Havgrave  White,  who  was  ready  to  swear  that  he  had  examined  the  money  de- 
livery book  of  Adams  Express  Company,  and  that  he  had  seen  the  entry  of  a 
package  sent  from  New  York,  some  time  in  September,  1869,  to  Mrs.  U.  8.  Grant, 
White  House,  valued  at  $25,000.  The  majority  of  the  committee,  under  Gar- 
field's lead,  refused  to  receive  this  testimony.  The  manager  of  the  express  com- 
pany, Samuel  M.  Shoemaker,  privately  told  Mr.  Garfield  that  no  such  entry  ap- 
peared, and  he  was  called  to  the  witness  stand  to  substantiate  this  statement.  He 
produced  his  money  package  book,  assuring  the  committee  at  the  same  time  that 
it  contained  no  delivery  to  Mrs.  Grant.  Mr.  Samuel  S.  Cox  of  the  minority  of 
the  committee,  asked  to  examine  the  book.  It  was  handed  to  him,  and  running 
his  eye  down  the  page,  he  read  aloud  this  entry:  "  September,  1869,  Mrs.  U.  S. 
Grant,  White  House,  money  package,  value  $25,000."  Garfield  jumped  to  his 
feet  in  unfeigned  astonishment,  while  Shoemaker  appeared  to  be  overwhelmed 
with  surprise.  He  studied  the  book  for  several  minutes,  and  finally  said:  "After 
careful  examination  I  am  satisfied  that  it  is  $250."  He  explained  that  by  inserting 
before  the  last  two  ciphers  a  period,  which  had  been  accidentally  omitted,  it. 
would  read  $250  and  no  cents.  On  this  imaginary  period  Garfield  bases  the  dec- 
laration in  his  report  "  that  the  wicked  and  cunningly  devised  attempt  of  the  con- 
spirators to  compromise  the  President  of  the  United  States  or  his  family  failed. " 

GRANT   FRIGHTENED  BY   FISK. 

Jim  Fisk  was  too  impetuous.  He  wanted  not  only  the  "old  man's"  assurance 
that  "  it  was  all  right  "  with  the  Grants,  but  he  insisted  that  Corbin  should  write 
a  letter  to  the  President  urging  him  to  stand  firm  and  not  to  sell  gold  on  govern- 
ment account  under  any  circumstances.  Poor  Corbin  was  already  in  the  job  up- 
to  his  ears,  and  he  readily  wrote  the  letter.  Fisk  caused  it  to  be  delivered  by  a 
special  messenger,  who  left  Pittsburgh  at  1  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  rode 
twenty-eight  miles  on  horseback  to  Washington,  Pa.  He  arrived  at  the  house  of 
Grant's  distant  relative  about  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  delivered  the  letter. 
The  President  read  it  carefully,  and  after  holding  a  consultation  with  his  wife  in 
regard  to  its  contents,  he  said  to  the  messenger:  "It  is  satisfactory;  there  is  no 
answer."  But  from  that  moment  he  took  the  alarm.  The  rumble  and  roar  of  the 
great  financial  storm  had  actually  penetrated  his  remote  hiding  place.  Another 
messenger  came  to  him  direct  from  the  capital  telling  him  he  must  return;  that 
imperative  business  demanded  his  attention;  that  another  day's  absence  might  de- 
stroy his  fame.     Then  it  was,  according  to  Corbin's  testimony,   that  Mrs.  Grant 


156  THE    BLACK    FRIDAY    SCANDAL. 

^rote  to  Mrs.  Corbin  saying  that  the  President  was  greatly  distressed  to  learn  that 
her  husband  was  speculating  in  Wall  street,  and  expressing  the  hope  that  he 
^ould  hnmediately  disconnect  himself  from  anything  of  that  sort.  This  letter 
appears  to  have  frightened  Corbin,  but  his  fear  did  not  get  the  better  of  his 
shrewdness.  He  sent  for  Jay  Gould,  and  told  him  that  he  (Corbin)  must  go  out 
of  the  matter;  that  it  had  created  a  great  deal  of  feeling  in  his  own  family  as 
well  as  on  the  part  of  the  President,  and  that  it  must  end  immediately.  But  he 
wanted  $100,000  as  his  share  of  the  profits  in  a  partnership  where  he  had  in- 
Tested  his  brother-in-law's  against  Gould's  money.  Gould  says,  under  oath :  "  I  told 
liim  I  would  give  him  $100,000  on  account,  and  that,  when  I  sold,  if  he  liked,  I 
would  give  him  the  average  of  my  sales.  I  did  not  feel  like  buying  any  gold  of 
him  then." 

Corbin's  fright,  the  return  of  the  President  to  Washington,  the  growing  excite- 
ment in  financial  and  business  circles,  warned  the  speculators  that  they  were  ap- 
proaching the  end  of  their  rope.  On  Thursday,  the  23d  of  September,  they  knew 
that  Wall  street  could  not  bear  the  pressure  more  than  one  day  longer.  On 
Thursday  night  Gould,  as  usual,  was  saturnine  and  Fisk  mercurial. 

THAT  AWFUL   DAY. 

Black  Friday  came.  The  business  of  the  metropolis  stood  still  at  the  audacious 
•command  of  a  clique  of  sharpers.  Every  artery  of  trade^  every  nerve  of  enter- 
prise, felt  a  shock  as  of  paralysis.  Merchants  rose  from  sleepless  beds  to  make 
their  way  to  Wall  street,  hoping  against  hope  that  they  might  find  some  way  to 
purchase  the  gold  required  to  meet  their  contracts.  Bankers  who  had  faith  in 
the  lionesty  of  the  administration,  and  who  had  invested  heavily,  in  the  belief 
that  the  fictitious  price  could  not  last,  grew  wild  with  excitement  when  they 
found  what  preparations  were  making  to  corner  the  market.  On  the  previous 
day  gold  had  risen  to  144.  If  it  remained  there  or  went  higher  thousands  would 
be  irretrievably  ruined — not  speculators  alone,  but  honest  business  men  with 
whose  honor  and  credit  these  jugglers  of  the  street  were  playing  their  game. 

Gould  and  Fisk  were  early  on  the  ground.  They  operated  through  a  number  of 
brokers,  directing  that  all  gold  which  was  offered  should  be  purchased  till  the 
"corner"  was  complete.  Gould  himself  kept  out  of  sight.  He  was  known  to 
be  in  his  office,  but  he  was  careful  that  his  orders  should  be  issued  through  some 
third  party.  He  was  playing  with  loaded  dice.  If  he  won,  he  intended  to 
pocket  the  profits.     If  he  lost,  he  could  repudiate  his  contracts. 

All  through  the  forenoon  the  excitement  increased  in  intensity.  JIundreds  of 
telegrams  were  sent  to  Washington,  appealing  to  the  President  to  sell  gold  on 
government  account,  and  thus  break  this  conspiracy  against  the  public  welfare. 
These  appeals  were  accompanied  by  plain  hints  that  delay  would  be  accepted  as 
proof  that  Grant  was  in  league  with  the  gamblers. 

At  noon  the  order  came  to  sell  $4,000,000  in  gold  for  the  government.  The 
order  was  communicated  to  the  Assistant  Treasurer  by  telegraph,  and  was 
immediately  made  known  to  Jay  Gould  and  Jim  Fisk,  who,  being  thus  fore- 
i;varned,  set  to  work  to  save  themselves  from  the  wreck  in  which  they  had 
involved  the  street.  Among  the  brokers  operating  on  their  account  was  Albert 
Speyer,  wlio  had  formerly  been  a  brewer  and  had  accumulated  a  handsome  for- 
tune. Tbroughout  the  forenoon  he  bought  largely,  bidding  as  high  as  60  and  65 
for  gold.  When  the  news  reached  the  Gold  Room  that  the  government  was 
selling,  the  premium  immediately  declined  to  85.  But  Speyer  kept  on  buying  at 
€0,  obeying  implicitly  the  orders  he  had  received  from  the  chief  conspirators. 


f 


THE  BLACK  FRIDAY  SCANDAL.  157 

When  he  was  loaded  down  with  more  millions  than  he  could  count,  he  rushed 
wildly  to  Gould's  office  to  report  progress.  He  was  received  with  the  cool 
remark,  "  We  don't  want  any  of  your  damned  gold."  Poor  Albert  Speyer  stag- 
gered out  of  the  place,  and  before  the  close  of  the  day  was  insane. 

When  night  fell  on  Black  Friday,  New  York  felt  that  all  the  conditions  of  her 
commercial  prosperity  had  been  rudely  assailed.  The  nominal  transactions  in 
gold  for  that  one  day  aggregated  $500,000,000.  Fifty  houses  failed  outright,  and 
more  than  three  times  that  number  were  rendered  insolvent  by  their  losses.  The 
Gold  Exchange  did  not  open  its  doors  again  for  business  till  the  30th  of  Septem- 
ber.    The  demoralizing  effect  of  the  conspiracy  spread  far  and  wide. 


158  GARFIELD  THE  FKIEND  OF  ROBESON. 


GARFIELD  THE  FRIEND  OF  ROBESON, 


THE  CORRUPTOR  OF  THE  PUBLIC  SERVICE  AND  DESTROYER  OF  OUR  NAVY. 

Gen.  Garfield  has  never  failed  as  a  member  of  Congress  to  detend  rogues  in 
high  places.  He  lias  always  been  a  sturdy  opponent  of  investigations  to  unmask 
fraud  and  punish  wrong-doers.  Fellow-feeling  makes  us  wondrous  kind.  He 
has  experienced  the  evil  effects  of  such  inquiries,  and  very  naturally  opposed  them 
upon  every  occasion  and  under  all  circumstances. 

He  is  the  friend  of  George  M.  Robeson,  late  Secretary  ot  the  Navy,  whose  ad- 
ministration of  that  department  was  the  most  corrupt,  the  most  profligate  and 
the  most  destructive,  not  only  of  our  navy,  but  of  the  morals  of  our  naval  corps, 
that  ever  afflicted  this  or  any  other  country.  As  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Appropriations,  Gen.  Garfield  was  in  a  position  to  have  curbed  Robeson's  reck- 
less extravagance  and  check  his  destructiveness.  All  the  estimates  for  the  navy 
came  to  his  committee.  He  passed  upon  all  of  them.  Did  he  ever  cut  them 
down  or  propose  any  restrictive  legislation  ?    Never ! 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  CANNOT   PLEAD  IGNORANCE. 

He  and  his  defenders  cannot  plead  ignorance-of  Robeson's  misdemeanors,  of 
his  shameless  profligacy,  of  his  wanton  destruction  of  the  American  navy,  of  his 
open  favoritism  in  purchasing  materials  and  awarding  contracts,  of  his  illegal 
payment  of  trumped-up  claims,  and  the  consequent  general  demoralization  of  the 
service.  The  exposure  of  Robeson's  corruption  began  in  1872.  A  republican 
representative,  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  character.  Governor  Blain,  of  Michigan, 
moved  an  investigation  into  some  of  Robeson's  methods  at  the  second  session  of 
the  Forty-second  Congress,  which  resulted  in  the  most  startling  exposures. 
Two  facts,  brought  to  light  by  the  inquiry,  is  sufficient  to  illustrate  the  character  of 
Robeson's  administration  of  the  Navy  Department,  and  establish  the  truth  of 
our  statement. 

THE   PAYMENT   OF   THE   SECOR  CLAIMS. 

During  the  civil  war  Secor  &  Co.  and  Perme,  Secor  &  Co.  contracted  with  the 
Navy  Department  for  the  building  of  certain  monitors  for  the  sum  of  $460,000 
each.  These  vessels  were  built,  accepted  by  the  government,  and  did  good  ser- 
vice. In  consequence  of  a  necessary  change  in  the  specifications  of  these  vessels, 
determined  upon  by  the  Navy  Department,  after  the  contracts  were  made  and 
work  commenced,  a  large  amount  of  extra  work  had  to  be  done  by  the  contract- 
ors. They  did  it,  and  after  the  vessels  were  finished  and  accepted  by  the  depart- 
ment, they  presented  a  large  claim  for  additional  compensation.  They  did  not, 
however,  confine  their  claim  to  the  extra  work  rendered  necessary  by  changes  in 
the  specifications.  "They  demanded  a  very  large  sum  for  losses,  in  consequence  of  ^ 
the  rise  in  the  cost  of  material  and  labor.  They  alleged  that  the  changes  ordered 
by  the  department  caused  delay,  and  that  during  the  time  lost  thereby  the  ad- 


GARFIELD   THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON.  159 

Tance  occurred.  The  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Hon.  Gideon  Wells,  recognized  the 
justice  in  principle  of  these  claims  and  pursued  the  only  course  recognized  by  the 
law.  He  appointed  a  board  of  competent  naval  officers,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
the  late  Admiral  Gregory,  and  to  this  board  all  these  claims  were  referred.  There 
were  many  others  besides  those  of  Secor  &  Co.  and  Ferine,  Secor  &  Co.  This 
board  examined,  item  by  item,  every  charge  made  by  the  contractors  for  extra 
work,  and  upon  their  certification  of  the  bills  to  the  secretary  they  were  promptly 
paid.  There  were  paid  in  this  way  to  Secor  &  Co.  and  Ferine,  Secor  &  Co. ,  over 
and  above  the  contract  price  of  their  work,  the  sum  of  $521,195. 58.  This  was 
every  cent  allowed  by  Admiral  Gregory's  board.  The  contractors,  of  course,  were 
not  satisfied.  Who  ever  heard  of  one  who  was  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the 
government  had  dealt  fairly  and  justly  by  him  ?  But  Secretary  Wells  had  done 
all  that  the  law  in  his  judgment  permitted  him  to  do.  He  treated  the  matter,  so 
far  as  his  department  was  concerned,  as  res  ajudicata.  The  contractors  must 
appeal  to  Congress.  His  duty  was  performed.  If  they  had  equities,  Congress 
was  the  only  body  that  had  jurisdiction. 

CONGRESS,    IN   1868,    PAID   EVERY  DOLLAR   DUE   THE   SECORS. 

Some  time  prior  to  March,  1865,  the  Secors  and  some  forty  other  naval  con- 
tractors appealed  to  Congress  for  relief,  alleging  that  they  had  suffered  great  loss 
in  the  performance  of  their  contracts  over  and  above  the  contract  price  and 
allowance  for  extra  work.  They  organized  one  of  the  strongest  lobbies  ever 
known  about  the  Capitol.  It  was  known  as  the  "  Iron  Clad  Lobby,"  and  its 
doings  are  to  this  day  the  subject  of  gossip  by  the  ancient  habitues  of  the  national 
-capital.  The  result  of  this  application  to  Congress  was  a  request  by  the  Senate, 
March  9,  1865,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  to  organize  a  board  to  inquire  into, 
-determine  and  report  how  much  the  vessels  of  war  and  steam  machinery  con- 
tracted for  by  the  department  in  1862-3,  had  cost  the  contractors  "  over  and  above 
the  contract  price  and  allowance  for  extra  work. "  Only  those  contractors  who 
iad  given  satisfaction  to  the  department  were  to  have  consideration.  This  was 
the  foundation  of  all  subsequent  legislation  on  the  subject.  The  object  was  to 
establish  a  principal  upon  which  the  contractors  could  be  fairly  and  equitably 
settled  with  by  the  government.  Secretary  Wells  appointed  the  board,  and  made 
Commodore  W.  O.  Selfridge  president  of  it.  The  report  of  this  board  was 
sent  to  the  Senate  January  30,  1866.  It  contained  a  recommendation  in 
favor  of  the  Secors  for  $119,057  upon  each  of  the  three  vessels— the  Tecumseh, 
Mahopac,  and  the  Manhattan.  Nobody  was  satisfied  with  this  report,  and  accord- 
ingly an  act  was  passed  by  Congress  directing  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to 
•constitute  a  new  board  to  ascertain  the  additional  cost  which  had  been  necessar- 
ily incurred  by  reason  of  the  changes  and  alterations  in  the  plans  and  specifications 
and  the  delays  caused  thereby,  which  were  not  provided  for  in  the  original  con- 
tract, the  amount  of  all  payments  on  account  thereof  to  be  deducted.  A  more 
comprehensive  provision  could  not  have  been  devised.  Surely  the  contractors 
•ought  to  have  been  satisfied  with  this  enactment. 

The  secretary  appointed  a  new  board,  of  which  Commodore  J.  H.  Marchand 
was  president.  This  board  reported  to  the  secretary  November  26,1867,  who 
forwarded  the  same  to  Congress.  The  Secors  were  allowed  by  it  $115,539.01  on 
account  of  the  Tecumseh,  Mahopac  and  Manhattan.  Thereupon  Congress  deter- 
mined to  close,  once  and  for  all  time,  this  matter,  and  by  act  of  July  13,  1868, 
appropriated  $115,539.01  to  be  paid  Secor  &  Co.  and  Ferine,  Secor  &  Co.,  "  m 

FULL  DISCHARGE  OP  ALL    CLAIMS   AGAINST    THE     UNITED   STATES    ON   ACCOUNT 
•OP  VESSELS  UPON   WHICH     THE    BOARD    MADE     ALLOWANCE     AS    PER    REPORT." 


160  GARFIELD    THE    FKIENJ)    OF    ROBESON. 

The  Secors  applied  to  the  Treasury  Department  for  this  sum  of  $115,539,01,  re- 
ceived it  and  gave  a  receipt  that  it  was  "  in  full  discharge  of  all  claims  against  the 
United  States  on  account  of  the  vessels  Tecumseh,  Malwpac  and  Manhattan,  upon- 
which  the  hoard  made  allowance,  as  per  report. 

ROBBER  ROBESON  VIOLATES  THE   LAW. 

Could  anything  be  more  explicit  and  conclusive.  They  had  merely  an  equita- 
ble claim.  Congress,  the  only  body  having  jurisdiction,  acted  upon  their  case, 
settled  it,  and  required  them,  in  accepting  its  allowance,  to  move  hereafter  all  other 
claims  which  they  might  think  had  not  been  justly  dealt  with.  Congress  possibly 
might,  in  the  plenitude  of  its  power,  not  hold  itself  bound  to  regard  this  adjudica- 
tion final;  but  would  anybody  suppose  that  a  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  two  removes 
from  Secretary  Wells,  would  feel  himself  justified  in  revising  the  work  of  Congress? 
Secretary  Wells  has  regarded  the  whole  subject  of  these  claims  res  adjudicata  long 
before  he  went  out  of  oflQce,  and  had  referred  the  claimants  to  Congress.  It  is  the 
unwritten  law  of  the  executive  departments  that  a  succeeding  head  shall  not  re- 
vise the  decisions  of  his  predecessor.  Even  this  should  have  been  sufiicient  to 
deter  an  honest  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  But  in  this  case  not  only  had  his  prede- 
cessor passed  upon  the  matter,  but  Congress  itself  had  adjudicated  it,  and,  as  it  in- 
tended, placed  a  bar  against  any  further  claim  by  the  Secors.  What  did  George 
M.  Kobeson  dp?  He  appointed  another  board,  without  any  authority  of  law 
whatever,  referred  to  it  the  identical  claims  which  the  Secors  had  submitted  to 
the  Merchant  Board  and  which  they  had  received,  "  in  full  discharge  of  "  $115,- 
539.01!  Moreover,  Mr.  Robeson  selected  the  Secors  out  of  all  the  other  contrac- 
tors, forty  odd,  who  had  been  treated  in  the  same  way  by  Congress.  Neverthe- 
less, he  did  it.  He  appointed  a  board,  of  which  Commodore  Bogy  was  president, 
and  on  August  7,  1869,  it  convened  in  Washington,  examined  the  claims  of  the 
Secors  for  the  construction  of  the  Tecumseh,  Mahopac  and  Manhattan,  and  on 
August  20,  1869,  reported,  allowing  $93,000.  This  report  was  based  solely  upon 
a  comparison  of  bills  paid  to  one  Greenwood  for  building  another  monitor.  This 
award  was  forthwith  paid  by  Robeson  out  of  the  appropriation  for  the  current 
year  for  the  support  of  the  navy,  in  itself  an  illegal  act,  and  against  the  remon- 
strance of  Admiral  Porter  and  the  declaration  by  Chief  Constructor  Senthal  that 
it  was  illegal. 

ANOTHER  WORTHLESS  CLAIM   PAID. 

This  claim  of  the  Secors  was  managed  and  manipulated  by  one  Simeon  M. 
Johnson,  a  claim  agent,  who,  fortunately  for  himself  and  unfortunately  for  the 
people  of  the  United  States,  easily  formed  the  closest  relations  with  Robeson. 
Johnson's  next  operation  with  Robeson  was  to  put  through  the  Hungerford 
claim.  Whipple  &  Stickney,  as  the  attorneys  of  one  Fayette  Hungerford,  a  citi- 
zen of  New  York,  had  for  collection  a  claim  of  $330,000  against  the  government. 
This  amount  was  alleged  to  be  due  for  losses  sustained  by  Street  &  Hungerford, 
of  Memphis,  Tenn.,  by  reason  of  their  property  having  been  taken  by  the  United 
States  ai*my  upon  its  occupation  of  that  city.  A  portion  of  this  property  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  naval  forces  and  was  taken  to  the  naval  station  at 
Mound  City,  111.  Street  was  identified  with  the  Confederacy,  while  Hungerford 
was  loyal.  The  claim  was  assigned  to  Hungerford,  probably  because  of  Street's 
indebtedness  to  him.  Capt.  Paterson,  of  the  navy,  certified  that  this  property 
received  at  Mound  City  was  worth  about  $75,000.  Johnson  undertook  the  man- 
agement of  the  case  in  February,  1871 ;  on  the  15th  of  the  month  he  writes  to 
Whipple  &  Stickney. 


GARFIELD   THE   FRIEND    OF   ROBESON.  161 

AN  INTERESTING  CORRESPONDENCE. 
1  have  presented  Fayette  Huneerford' 8  papers  to  the  secretary.  ♦  *  ♦  ^jqj 

there  cannot  be  an  adjustment  till  after  the  4th  of  March. 

These  letters  of  Johnson,  the  intimate  and  confidential  friend  of  Robeson,  to 
Whipple  &  Stickney,  are  very  interesting,  and  we  quote  liberally  therefrom : 

Mat  3, 1871,  he  writes:  I  had  yesterday  and  to-day  discussing  the  case  of  Hungerford  at  the 
Navy  Department— that  is,  the  question  of  the  sufficiency  of  proofs.  I  found  it  worse  than  bad 
policy  to  press  it  during  the  session,  and  agreed  to  lay  it  over,  *  *  *  j  a^  nnjte 

satisfied  with  the  matter,  except  that  it  is  not  clear  that  there  is  any  money  to  pay  it.  I  think  there 
is,  and  shall  endeavor  to  fi^nd  it,  in  case  I  get  an  order." 

By  June  8,  1871,  Johnson  was  so  far  progressed  that  he  thought  it  time  to  re- 
ceive his  and  his  friends  share.  He  wrote,  among  many  other  things,  the  following : 
"I  have  encountered  a  good  deal  of  trouble  in  your  case;  some  of  it,  I  fear,  insurmountable. 
*  *  *  I  have  made  no  proposition  of  compromise  whatever,  nor  would  I  do  so  with- 

out your  advice  and  consent.  1  wish  to  consult  3'our  principal,  and  if  he  is  willing  to  take  §40,000 1 
will  go  to  work  on  new  propositions  of  adjustment.  Meanwhile,  be  assured  that  I  will  at  any  time 
surrender  the  papers  without  compensation  to  myself.  #  *  *  They  are  always 

difficult  (old  matters),  and  in  nine  cases  out  often  it  is  impossible  to  work  them  out.  I  do  not  want 
to  influence  your  client  in  the  least,  but  *  *  *  j  would  think  him  lucky  to  get 

$40,000. 

JunbO,  1871.  *  *  *  A  compromise  needs  a  power  of  attorney;  and  to  enable 

me  10  speak  by  authority  I  must  have  such  power,  which  must  be  full;  that  is,  to  demand  and  re- 
ceive of  the  Navy  Department  the  amount  that  shall  be  found  due  on  the  claim,  giving  me  abso- 
lute power  to  adjust  the  same  at  my  discretion.  *  *  *  rpj^g  matter  has  to  be 
worked  up  a  little  at  a  time. 

June  17, 1871.  *  *  *  Now,  what  I  want  is  a  full  power  of  attorney  in  my  own 

name.  *  *  *  I  am  certain  that  the  terms  I  make  are  decidedly  best  for  your  cli- 

ent.   If  you  and  he  think  not,  then  I  will  surrender  the  papers. 

June  22,  1871.  *  *  *  tj^^  claim   is  very  old.  *  *  *  By 

the  original  agreement  I  was  to  have  $15,000  of  $75,000;  but  the  wording  of  your  memorandum  is 
15  per  cent.  I  would  like  a  prompt  answer,  as  I  have  but  little  time  to  work  up  the  matter.  So 
far  from  wishing  you  to  confirm  these  terms  I  would  prefer  to  surrender|the  papers,  for  really  I  do 
not  like  the  case.  But  having  gone  so  far,  if  you  feel  yourself  authorized  to  say  to  me  that  I  may 
collect  the  claim  and  pay  you  §40,000, 1  will  proceed. 

"I  MUST  CHANGE  MY  TACTICS  "—WHAT  IT  COST. 
Jttlt  1, 1871.  I  may  now  add  that  I  have  been  pressing  the  Hungerford  claim,  and  expect  to 
get  the  necessary  reports  within  a  few  days.  It  is  just  one  of  those  old  things  which  is  valueless 
if  not  nursed  and  worked  up  with  great  care.  I  have  undertaken  it  so  as  to  secure  $40,000  to  Hun- 
gerford and  leave  myself  out  of  it,  beyond  my  expenditures,  nominally  ^10,000,  but  really  not 
more  than  eight.  The  truth  is,  in  ordinary  hands  the  claim  is  good  for  nothing  except  to  present  to 
Congress,  which  really  makes  it  valueless.  I  am  confident  shall  work  it  off  within  a  short  time; 
and,  in  doing  so,  shall  do  your  client  a  very  great  favor.  I  think  I  have  gotten  rid  of  the  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  payment  under  the  act  of  July,  1870,  requiring  unexpended  balances  to  be  covered 
into  the  Treasury.  *  *  *  i  would  recommend  you  to  get  from  Hungerford  an 

assent  to  receive  a  specific  sum  of  money,  on  the  basis  of  my  payment  to  you  when  the  claim  is 
allowed,  of  $40,000.  *  *  *  AllI  can  pay  is  $40,000  to  you,  no  matter  what  is  al- 

lowed, and  that  you  should  distinctly  say  to  Hungerford.  My  arrangement,  verbally  made,  was  $15,- 
000  for  my  fee,  and  I  then  said  it  was  hardly  likely  that  more  than  $60,000  would  be  paid.  1  found 
that,  to  get  any  sm^to/Jwld,  I  must  change  my  tactics;  and  to  do  so  I  would  be  required  to  incur  a 
large   expenditure.  *  *  *  i    have  written    you  in  all  candor   and   to  avoid 

all  dispute.  It  is  a  question  if  $t>0,000  is  allowed,  or  whatever  sum,  whether  your 
po<rcr  IS  sufficient  to  accept  $40,000  and  close  the  concern.  Your  authority  through 
Mr.  Whipple  to  me,  is  absolute,  that  you  will  accept  $40,000 ;  and  your  power  to  comprom- 
'se  is  complete,  but  it  must  be  a  compromise  with  the  government,  not  with  me.  You  instruct  me  to 
settle  on  payment  of  $40,000  to  you.  That,  of  course,  is  sufficient  for  me;  but  I  don't  want  to  close 
out  this  thing  and  leave  anybody  to  quarrel  about.  All  old  claims  are  su^picUms;  and  any  payment, 
if  proclaimed,  would  be  condemned.     You  understand  me. 

THE  WORTHLESS   CLAIM  PAID— A  $35,000  FEE. 

Jttlt  6, 1871.  When  I  want  Hungerford,  will  telegraph  you;  don't  want  any  more  papers,  I  think. 
July  13, 1871.    Send  your  receipt  to  me  for  $40,000  in  full,  and  draft  attached  to  Riggs  &  Co., 
and  possibly  to-morrow,  almost  certainly,  draft  will  be  paid. 

On  July  14,  1871,  Johnson  received  $75,000  for  the  Hungerford  claim,  as  per 
the  following  voucher  on  file  ia  the  Fourth  Auditor's  office: 

The  United  States  Navy  Department  to  S.  M.  Johnson,  attorney  for  Fayette  Hungerford,  Dr., 
Tor  property  and  materials  furnished  the  naval  station  at  Mound  City,  prior  to  June  30,  1870,  sev- 
enty-five thousand  dollars.  Total,  $75,000.  Approved  in  duplicate  for  $75,000,  payable  by  Pay- 
master Edwin  Stewart,  at  Washington,  from  the  appropriation  of  contingent  yards  and  docks, 
1860-'70. 

GEORGE  M.  ROBESON, 

Secretai-y  of  the  Navy. 

Navt  Department,  Jult  12,  1871. 

Rec'd  Washington,  D.  C,  July  14, 1871,  of  Paymaster  Edwin  Stewart,  seventy-five  thousand  dol- 
1«.,  in  full,  for  &e  above.  S.M.JOHNSON, 

$75,000.  Attorney  for  Fayette  Hungerford. 

11 


162  GARFIELD   THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON". 

This  claim  was  of  doubtful  nature.  In  the  language  of  Johnson,  it  "  was  good 
for  nothing  except  to  present  to  Congress,  which  really  makes  it  valueless."  It  never 
would  have  been  paid  if  it  had  been  presented  to  Congress,  because,  as  Johnson 
said,  "all  old  claims  are  suspicious,  and  any  payment,  if  proclaimed,  would  be  con- 
demned.'^ And  yet  Robeson  not  only  paid  it,  but  designated  an  appropriation,  out 
of  which  it  should  be  paid,  that  Congress  had  made  for  an  entirely  different  pur- 
pose. The  manner  in  which  it  was  done,  the  language  of  Johnson:  "  1  found 
that  to  get  any  sort  of  a  hold,  I  must  change  my  tactics,  and  to  do  so  I  would  be 
required  to  incur  a  large  expenditure-,"  the  payment  of  only  $40,000  to  the  claim- 
ant and  the  division  of  $35,000  —  just  how  nobody  ever  found  out  —  all  these 
circumstances  speak  as  plainly  as  words  could. 

STILL   ANOTHER   ONE  PAID. 

Another  utterly  worthless  claim  which  had  been  rejected  by  Secretary  Welles — 
that  for  the  Steamer  Governor,  amounting  to  $52,000,  less  than  half  of  which 
reaches  the  claimants  —  was  paid  by  Robeson  in  a  like  illegal  and  suspicious 
manner.  Here,  again,  Johnson  was  the  attorney,  aided  by  one  S.  P.  Brown,  a 
defaulting  navy  agent  who  had  set  up  under  Robeson's  protection  as  a  naval 
contractor  and  general  broker  for  Navy  Department  business. 

These  frauds  were  not  the  only  things  charged  against  the  administration  of 
the  Navy  Department  during  the  first  term  of  Robeson.  His  connection  with  the 
Cattells  was  made  notorious  by  the  Blair  investigation.  The  press  was  ringing 
with  charges  against  the  manifest  jobbing  practised  in  the  navy  department.  Mr. 
Beck  of  Kentucky  and  other  Democratic  members  of  Congress,  whose  long  service 
on  the  Committe  of  Appropriations  had  made  them  familiar  with  the  manner  in 
which  Robeson  was  squandering  the  people's  money,  in  season  and  out  of  season, 
urged  a  reduction  ot  appropriations  and  the  setting  up  of  additional  safeguards, 
but  Gen.  Garfield,  in  charge  of  the  appropriation  bills,  as  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee, defended  Robeson  and  strenuously  resisted  every  effort  to  call  him  to 
account  or  to  restrict  his  power  in  the  future.  Mr.  Beck,  on  one  occasion,  in- 
stanced the  payment  out  of  the  appropriation  for  current  expenses  of  the  navy,  of 
the  Secor  claim,  in  defiance  of  the  act  of  July  13,  18G8,  and  insisted  that  such 
things  should  be  made  impossible  in  the  filture,  but  his  proposed  restrictive 
legislation  was  resisted  by  Gen.  Garfield. 

THE  VAST  SUMS  ROBESON  SQUANDERED. 

It  was  a  well-known  fact,  often  iterated  and  reiterated  and  never  denied,  thit 

in  addition  to  the  large  annual  appropriations  for  the  navy,  Robeson  was  in  the 

receipt  of  large  sums  of  money  from  sales  of  ships,  including  stores  and  other 

public  property.     But  the  annual  appropriations  were  large  enough  to  attract 

attention. 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 1870 $22,206,591.64 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1871 19,867.i529.36 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1872 21,729,924..53 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1873 23,730,815.89 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1874 30,859,.347.46 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 1875 21,400,055.43 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1876 18,919,935.36 

$148,714,199.67 

This  enormous  sum  of  $148,714,199.67  was  appropriated  for  the  navy  during 
the  first  seven  years  of  Robeson's  administration,  while  Gen.  Garfield  was  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee  of  Appropriations.  And  this  in  addition,  be  it  remem- 
bered to  the  amounts  realized  by  sale,  barter  and  exchange  of  ships,  engines, 
boilers,  machinery  and  other  public  property,  the  original  value  of  which  was 


GARFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON.  163 

fully  $100,000,000.  And,  notwithstanding  all  this  money  disbursed,  it  was  a  fact 
notorious  to  the  whole  world,  the  shame  of  the  country  and  the  reproach  of  all 
naval  officers  at  home  and  abroad,  that  the  American  navy  was  year  by  year 
growing  more  and  more  worthless.  We  were  not  able  to  cope  on  the  seas  with 
even  fourth  and  fifth-rate  powers. 

DID   NOT   GEN.   GARFIELD  KNOW  THESE  FACTS? 

He  was  in  a  position  of  all  other  public  men  to  know  them!  He  was  bound  to 
know  them!  As  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Appropriations  it  was  his 
duty  to  know  them !  Not  only  was  the  records  of  the  navy  and  every  other 
department  of  the  government  open  to  him,  but  he  could  summon  before  his  com- 
mittee every  employee  of  the  navy  department  from  its  chief  to  the  doorkeepers, 
and  require  an  explanation  of  every  item  of  the  estimates  and  an  account  of  the 
disbursement  of  every  dollar  previously  appropriated.  More  than  this,  all  the 
otBcers  of  the  navy  on  duty  at  Washington  or  coming  thither  during  the  session 
of  Congress  were  within  his  reach.  Many  of  them  were  necessarily  before  his 
committee.  Some  of  them,  it  is  true,  were  demoralized  by  the  degeneracy 
naturally  following  in  the  train  of  Robeson's  mal  administration,  but  there  were 
officers  who  were  still  proud  of  their  high  calling  and  ready  on  all  proper  occa- 
sions to  speak  sadly  and  almost  in  tears  of  the  constant  and  rapid  destruction  of 
the  navy  and  the  degradation  of  the  service.  No!  Gen.  Garfield  cannot,  dare 
not  plead  ignorance. 

WHAT  THE   DEMOCRATIC   HOUSE  DID. 

When  the  Democratic  majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives  assumed  con- 
trol, December,  1870,  one  of  its  first  acts  was  to  direct  an  investigation  of  the 
Navy  Department  to  find  out  something.  The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs  was 
charged  with  the  duty.  The  Committee  of  Appropriations,  under  the  efficient, 
honest  and  vigilant  chairmanship  of  Samuel  J.  Randall,  was,  in  the  meantime, 
not  idle.  The  appropriation  for  the  navy  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  80, 
1877,  was  $14,959,935.36— -  $6,384,950.16  below  the  average  of  the  annual  appro- 
priations during  the  seven  preceding  fiscal  years.  It  is  true  that  Robeson,  in 
defiance  of  law,  and  it  is  believed  corruptly^  within  the  last  month  of  his  admin- 
istration, incurred  liabilities  and  made  disbursements  largely  from  the  pay  fund 
of  the  navy,  which  created  a  deficiency  for  that  fiscal  year  of  $2,003,801.27,  which 
Congress  had  to  provide.  This  reduces,  of  course,  the  saving  Mr.  Randall  and 
the  Democratic  House  effected  in  their  first  year  to  $4,263^088.88,  but  they  were 
not  responsible  for  this.  The  amount  they  appropriated  was  ample,  had  the 
administration  of  the  navy  department  been  honest,  to  have  met  all  its  legitimate 
demands. 

Robeson's  suddenly  acquired  wealth. 

The  Naval  Committee  of  the  House  was  all  this  time  digging  energeti- 
cally into  the  mountainous  corruption  of  the  Navy  Department.  Their 
discoveries  were  astounding.  They  had  but  to  scratch  the  surface  and  some 
hidious  corruption  was  disclosed.  First  and  foremost  they  proved  what  was 
before  well  known,  that  when  George  M.  Robeson  was  made  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  he  was  comparatively  poor.  James  M.  Scovel,  a  leading  Republican  of 
New  Jersey,  intimately  acquainted  with  Robeson  for  many  years,  whose  cousin 
was,  at  one  time,  Robeson's  law  partner,  testified:  "  I  know  that  he  was  a  very 
poor  man,  and  was  so  reputed  in  Camden."  The  returns  of  Robeson,  under  the 
income  law  corroborated  this  evidence,  for  his  sworn  income  in  1869  was  only 
$1,000,  and  during  1866  and  1863  he  swore  he  had  none  whatever.     Following 


164  GARFIELD  THE  FRIEND  OF  ROBESON. 

in  this  line,  the  committee  found  that  within  a  few  months  after  he  became 

Secretary  of  the  Navy  Robeson  opened  large  bank  accounts  with  five  different 

institutions.     These  bank  accounts  showed,  at  one  time,  the  following  plethoric 

financial  condition: 

State  Bank  at  Camden,  New  Jersey  * ^52,713.12 

Bankins;-hou8e  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  t 55,118.00 

First  National  Bank  at  Washington,  D.  C.  $ 95,777.12 

Banking-house  of  Drexel,  Morgan  &  Co.§ 35,213.62 

Banking-house  of  Riggs  &  Co.,  Washington,  D.  C.  J 228,724.75 

$467,546.61 

And  during  this  time  Robeson  was  engaged  in  no  legitimate  business.  More- 
over, his  financial  condition  was  such,  when  he  began  his  official  life,  that  he 
could  have  secured  no  very  great  capital  with  which  to  have  begun  business  or 
with  which  to  have  speculated. 

HIS  FRIENDS,    THE    CATTELLS. 

He  owed  his  position  in  Grant's  Babinet  to  the  influence  of  Mr.  Borie  of  Phila- 
delphia and  Alex.  G.  Cattell,  then  Senator  from  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Cattell, 
undoubtedly,  is  chiefly  responsible  for  Robeson,  for  whatever  Mr.  Borie  did  in 
his  behalf  was  doubtless  due  to  his  relations  with  Cattell.  Therefore,  it  is 
interesting  to  trace  the  relations  of  Robeson  and  the  Cattells  after  the  former's 
office  life  begun.  The  books  of  Messrs.  A.  G.  Cattell  &  Co.  show  what  these  rela- 
tions were.  The  bookkeeper  of  this  firm,  in  his  explanation  of  their  books  to  the 
Naval  Committee,  showed  that  the  firm  deposited  money  from  time  to  time  with  the 
Camden  State  Bank  for  the  use  of  Robeson.  The  books  also  proved  that  their  rela- 
tions with  him  were  so  close  that  the  latter  occasionally  loaned  them  his  notes  for  re- 
spectable amounts,  and  in  March,  1876,  two  of  these  notes  amounted  to  $10,000. 
These  same  tell-tale  books  disclosed  a  "present"  of  $250  to  "the  secretary,"  and 
under  the  head  of  "  Security  "  the  payment  to  Robeson  for  "  campaign  purposes  " 
of  $3,000  at  one  time. 

Again,  there  was  a  joint  real  estate  speculation  at  Long  Branch.  Mr.  E.  G. 
Cattell,  brother  of  A.  G.,  testified  that  about  the  time  the  latter  went  to  Europe 
as  the  Financial  Agent  of  the  Treasury  Department,  to  supervise  Syndicate  opera- 
tions, he  took  charge  of  building  two  cottages  "  on  the  Beach  at  Long  Branch" 
— one  for  his  brother,  the  other  for  Robeson —  and  that  he  paid  out  of  the  firm's 
(A.  G.  Cattell  &  Co.)  funds  $13,582.29,  the  cost  of  Robeson's  villa.  And,  more- 
over, he  further  admitted  that  up  to  that  time  in  1876  there  ad  been  no  settle- 
ment with  Robeson  on  account  of  this  transaction.  There  were  joint  real  estate 
speculations,  also,  in  Washington.  They  purchased  lots  on  Sixteenth  street. 
They  cost  $22,000.  A.  G.  Cattell  paid  $11,000  cash  for  his  half  interest;  Robe- 
son, $3,000  cash  and  his  notes  for  $8,000.  The  notes  found  their  way  to  Jay 
Cooke  &  Co. ,  and  A.  G.  Cattell,  through  E.  G.  Cattell,  paid  them  at  maturity. 
There  was  never  any  adjustment  of  this  account. 

THE  FIRM  OF  A.    G.   CATTELL  &   CO. 

were  commission  merchants,  doing  business  in  Philadelphia.  At  the  time,  or 
shortly  after  Robeson  became  secretary,  A.  G.  Cattell  withdrew  from  this  firm 
and  the  business  was  continued  under  the  old  name,  with  E.  G.  Cattell  and  his 
sons  as  the  parties  interested.     A.  G.  Cattell  withdrew  gradually  from  tRe  busi- 

*  Pages  213  to  225,  Philadelphia,  from  July  1,  1869,  to  November  7,  1871. 

t  Pages  206  to  207,  Philadelphia,  from  April  4,  1872,  to  June  16,  1873. 

t  Pages  295  to  303,  miscellaneons,  from  July  31,  1869,  to  September  4,  1873. 

S  Pages  264  to  265,  from  September  20,  1873,  to  August  1  1874. 

I  Pages  304  to  309,  from  October  16, 1873,  to  AprU  4, 1876. 


GARFIELD    THE   ERIEKD    OF    ROBESON.  165 

ness  his  share  of  the  capital,  which  was  $105,539.42.  At  the  time  he  withdrew 
the  books  show  that  E.  G.  Cattell  had  no  capital  and  owed  A.  G.  Cattell 
$7,223.95.  How  E.  G.  Cattell  was  able  to  do  a  flourishing  business  and  rapidly 
pay  his  brother  $105,539.42,  besides  accumulating  in  a  few  years  a  handsome 
fortune,  will  not  appear  strange  as  we  proceed.  This  concern  did  not  begin  to 
do  a  navy  business.  Indeed,  it  appears  that  beyond  furnishing  five  or  six  thou- 
sand dollars  worth  of  flour  or  grain  per  annum,  the  firm  proper  had  little  to  do  in 
this  line.  E.  G.  Cattell  knew  a  trick  worth  a  great  deal  more — one  that  required 
no  capital  to  be  invested  and  no  risk  to  be  incurred. 

HOW   CATTELL  SOLD  HIS  INFLUENCE. 

He  simply  sold  his  influence  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  His  brother, 
A.  G.  Cattell  and  Paymaster  General  Bradford,  who  afterwards,  in  connection 
with  A.  G.  Cattell,  transacted  the  confidential  business  of  saving  the  firm  of  Jay 
Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.,  in  London,  from  bankruptcy,  with  the  Navy  Pay  Fund, 
assisted  E.  G.  Cattell  to  dispose  of  his  "influence"  in  the  best  market,  William 
Mathews,  of  54  Catherine  street.  New  York,  was  an  old  naval  contractor.  He 
had  done  a  vast  deal  of  business  in  times  past,  through  Bradford,  when  he  was 
only  a  paymaster.  About  the  time  Paymaster-General  Bradford  was  going  to 
Europe,  he  casually  mentioned  to  Mathews  that  he  was  going  to  have  serious 
competition— that  A.  G.  Cattell,  of  Philadelphia,  were  about  to  go  into  the  busi- 
ness of  furnishing  naval  supplies,  and  it  would  be  a  wise  thing  to  make  an 
arrangement  with  them.  Mathews  is  a  shrewd  man  and  knows  a  thing  or  two. 
He  is  always  willing  to  pay  a  reasonable  percentage  for  profits,  if  they  are  con- 
stant and  large.  Bradford  suggested  that  the  Cattells  would  be  in  New  York 
shortly,  and  he  would  introduce  them.  This  was  done.  An  arrangement  was 
made,  which  resulted  very  profitably  to  all  concerned.  There  was  no  evidence 
obtained  by  the  Naval  Committee  to  show  that  Bradford  was  in  any  way  inter- 
ested in  this  arrangement.  Bradford,  however,  at  his  death,  left  evidence  which, 
if  it  is  made  public,  will  throw  a  strong  light  on  these  transactions  and  disclose 
very  peculiar  relations  between  himself,  the  Cattells  and  Mathews. 

The  argument  was  that  E.  G.  Cattell  was  to  aid  in  every  way  he  could  to  throw 
business  into  Mathews'  hands,  and  was  to  receive  five  per  cent,  on  the  gross 
amount  of  all  he  did  with  the  Navy  Department.  This  was  some  time  in  1870 
or  1871.     Mr.  E.  G.  Cattell  testified  in  regard  to  it  as  follows  : 

Did  you  pay  any  capital  into  the  business  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

What  were  you  to  do  ?    A.  All  I  could,  and  what  I  could. 

What  you  could  do  in  what  direction  ?    A.  In  any  direction  that  would  help  in  the  business. 

Were  you  to  buy  property  f    A.  No,  sir. 

Were  you  to  measure  property  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Were  you  to  handle  or  store  property  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Were  you  to  manufacture  property  ?    A.  No,  sir. 

Were  y»u  to  see  to  the  delivery  of  property  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  except  it  should  become  neccseanr. 
^.  I  have  gone  pretty  well  over  that ;  what  were  you  to  do  ?  A.  I  was  to  do  anythinj;  I  could  ; 
my  business  was  to  find  out  what  would  be  likely  to  be  needed;  watch  the  papers,  see  the  advertise- 
ments ;  keep  my  mind  and  self  always  in  constant  exercise  of  what  ought  to  be  sold  or  contracted 
for  to  the  Department,  and  report  to  him. 

Q.  Were  you  not,  by  your  agreement,  to  exercise  any  influence  yon  possessed  with  the  officers 
of  the  Navy  Department  ?  A.  Influence  and  ability;  wherever  and  whatever  influence  and  ability 
I  had  I  was  to  use. 

Mr.  Mathews  explained  what  he  understood  the  agreement  to  be,  as  follows  : 

On  my  part  it  was  an  arrangement  to  prevent  his  interfering  with  my  business;  and  in  carryiilg 
out  that  arrangement,  I  think,  as  a  rough  estimate,  I  have  paid  him  from  four  to  Ave  per  cent,  on 
the  amount  of  business. 

This  business,  in  a  very  few  years,  less  than  five,  amounted  to  $3,000,000,  and 
Cattell  received  something  more  than  $150,000  as  his  share. 


166  GABFIEI.D    THE    FRIEXD    OF    ROBESON, 

Robeson's  INTIMACY  with  these  scoundrels. 
The  relations  between  the  Cattells,  Robeson  and  Mathews  all  this  time  were 
exceedingly  intimate.  Mr.  Mathews'  place  of  business  is  54  Catherine  street,  a 
locality  which  is  not  usually  frequented  by  ladies  of  the  leau  monde,  and  yet  it 
appeared  by  Mr.  Mathews'  books  that  Mrs.  George  M.  Robeson  did  her  shopping 
there.  And,  moreover,  her  account  there  was  invariably  settled  by  Mr.  Cattell. 
Not  only  this,  but  Secretary  Robeson,  when  in  need  of  any  articles  in  New  York, 
would  send  Mathews  word,  and  he  would  meet  him  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel 
and  supply  his  wants.  On  one  occasion  he  was  going  a-fishing,  and  wanted  an 
oil-coat,  and  accordingly  Mathews  met  him  at  the  Fifth  Avenue,  bringing  with 
him  his  qualities  for  him  to  select  from.  Mr.  Cattell  testifies  that  Robeson  was 
aware  of  his  relations  to  Mathews  : 

Mr.  Robeson,  then,  knew  of  your  arrangement  with  Mr.  Mathews  ?    A.  Mr.  Robeson  did  ; 
'd  him  I  could  get  a  percentage. 


I  told 


HOW  THE  CATTELLS  BLED  OTHER  CONTRACTORS. 

The  Cattells  did  not  sell  their  influence  to  Mr.  Mathews  alone.  He  had  the 
benefit  of  his  influence  in  his  particular  line  only.  Mr.  Cattell  kept  his  business 
"in  his  head,"  and  it  was  impossible  for  the  committee  to  obtain  a  complete  list 
of  the  contractors  who  paid  for  his  "influence,"  but  the  following  was  verified 
as  to  names  by  outside  evidence  : 


William  Mathews,  naval  stores,  cloth- 
ing, etc., 5  per  cent,  on  $3,000,000 

J.  W.  Bigler,  timber    dealer,  5  per 
cent  on 1,199,046 

W.  C.   Swift,    timber    dealer,  5  per 
cent,  on , 1,448,6^2 

Caryl  &  Co.,  timber    dealers,  5  per 
cent,  on 

Cramp    &    Son,  shipbuilders,  5  per 
cent,  on  863,441 

D,  S.  Stetson,  shipbuilder . 

Hamnxett  &  Neal,  coal  dealers 

Total $7,211, 

The  amounts  paid  Cattell  could  not  always  be  ascertained,  even  roughly,  but 
he  "guessed "  he  had  received  from  the  following  dealers  "about "  the  sums  set 
opposite  their  names  : 


D.  M.  Noblitt,  coal  dealer,  |  «  «,.  ^f  «^  e-rnn  nnn 

D.  &  J.  Noblitt,      "  P  P'^-  <^^-  °^  8700,000 

Goodwin,  baker  and  flour  dealer Unknowr 

Alexander,  provision  dealer " 

Post,  wire  rope " 

Re8c?inger  &  Co.,  lumber  dealers " 

Mitchell,  candles •' 

Col  ton,  Treasurer  of  Dredging  Co " 

Water  Proof  Company " 

Knowlton,  machinery " 

Lubbock  &  Co.,  beef  packers " 


William  Mathews $150,000 

J.  W.  Bigler 30,000 

W.C.Swift 50,000 

Alexander 5,000 

D.  M.  Noblitt      I  „.  f^ 

D.  &  J.  Noblitt  f ^^'^^ 

Camp  &  Son 40,000 


Hammett&Neal $    500 

D.  S.  Stetson 2,000 

Water  Proof  Company 4,000 

Goodwin 5,000 


$221,500 


Cattell  was  always  uncertain  as  to  the  amounts  he  received,  as  the  following 
extract  from  his  evidence  will  show  : 

Q.  How  much  did  Post  pay  you  ?    A.  I  do  not  remember  that  now. 

Q.  Give  me  some  general  estimate  of  how  much  you  received,  without  being  precise  ?  A.  I 
could  not  tell  that. 

Q.  What  did  you  estimate  your  receipts  from  Bigler  ?  A.  It  would  be  an  impossibility  to  name 
the  amount ;  it  may  have  gone  up  to  $30,000. 

THE  GENERAL  BLACKMAILING   OP   MATHEWS. 

Mr.  Mathews  did  not  get  off  with  his  five  per  cent,  to  Cattell  and  his  supplies 

to  Robeson's  family.     Nearly  every  official  of  the  Navy  Department,  the  n,avy 

yard  at  Brooklyn  and  the  Purchasing  Paymaster's  oflice  at  New  York  were  his 

debtors. 

By  Mr.  Harris  (Republican)  of  Mass.:  "Now,  Mr.  Mathews,  I  ask  you  if,  during  the  last  two 
years,  the  head  of  the  Navy  Department  has  not  been  your  debtor  ;  if  every  paymaster  who  has 
been  stationed  at  New  York  city  has  not  been  your  debtor  ;  if  every  clerk  in  the  Navy  Ajjent's 
office  in  New  York  city,  and  every  one  connected  with  the  Bureau  of  Provisions  and  Clothing  at  the 
navy  yard  has  not  been  your  debtor  ;  if  the  Disburdiflg  Clerk  of  the  Navy  Departuieut  here,  the 


GARFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON.  167 

principal  clerk,  and  the  next  clerk  to  him  in  the  Bureau  of  Provisions  and  Clothing ;  if  the  Quarter- 
master of  the  Marine  Corps  and  the  Assistant  (Quartermaster  and  his  clerk,  Mr.  Marks,  have  not 
been  your  debtors  ?    A.  To  a  great  extent  that  is  true. 

Not  only  were  the  clerks  of  the  Navy  Department  with  whom  he  came  in  con- 
tact leeches  upon  him,  but  those  in  the  Comptroller's  and  Fourth  Auditor's  office 
of  the  Treasury  Department,  where  his  accounts  passed,  bled  him.  His  old 
ledgers  were  filled  with  unsettled  accounts  against  this  class  of  public  officials. 
In  addition,  his  note  ledger  showed  various  sums  of  money  loaned — to  J.  S. 
Delano,  of  the  Second  Comptroller's  office,  $500  ;  John  F.  Denson,  chief  clerk 
to  Paymaster-General  "Wilmough,  $300 — and  not  one  of  them  ever  paid. 

OTHER  GENERAL  BROKERS  OF  NAVY  BUSINESS. 

The  business  of  "  General  Brokers  "  for  Navy  Department  business  was  not 
monopolized  by  the  Cattells.  They  did  the  largest  part  of  it,  but  there  was 
enough  left  to  throw  a  few  fine  plums  into  a  half  dozen  other  shops. 

Mr.  "William  J.  Murtagh,  proprietor  of  the  National  Republican,  official  organ, 
Police  Commissioner  of  Washington,  who  furnished  detectives  to  spy  upon  the 
movements  of  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Sun  and  his  Washington  corre- 
spondent, and  to  set  up  jobs  on  Mr.  Whitthorne,  Chairman  of  the  Naval  Com- 
mittee, sold  his  "influence  "  with  Robeson  in  one  instance  for  $4,000  to  sell  a  lot 
of  timber  for  George  P.  Wallace,  and  again  for  $10,000  to  put  through  a  claim 
of  Joseph  L.  Savage,  rejected  by  Secretary  Wells,  for  $21,719.58. 

S.  P.  Brown,  erstwhile  defaulting  Navy  Agent,  then.  Naval  Contractor,  sold 
his  influence  for  $40,000  or  more  to  put  through  the  claims,  rejected  by  Secretary 
Wells,  for  the  steamers  Governor  and  Louisville. 

The  following  table  of  "rejected  claims "  by  Robeson  is  tabulated  from  official 
sources.  They  do  not  include  all  this  class.  Only  the  most  prominent  and  noto- 
rious have  been  selected.  In  every  one  of  them  large  sums  were  paid  by  the 
claimants  for  "influence." 


168 


GARFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    EOBESON. 


LIST  OP   SOME    OP  THE   WORTHLESS   CLAIMS  PAID. 


Name  of  Claim. 


Secor. 


Governor 

Ames 

Engineers 

Clara  Dolson 

Matthews 

Tllton  &  Wheelwright. 


Belknap. 


Bonsall 

Lonisvllle.... 

"Hungerford 
Total.... 


Amount  al- 
lowed or 
paid. 


$93,000  00 


52,000  00 


21,719  58 


216,015  38 


20,000  00 


9,450  00 


81,968  61 


*32,000  00 


21,000  00 
130,832  00 


4,615  00 

♦82,000  00 

75,000  00 


$789,590  57 


Former  ac- 
tion. 


Rejected , 


Rejected. 


Remarks. 


That  is  to  say,  the  Secors  had  presented  their 
claim  to  Congress  ;  it  had  been  acted  on  ;  the 
amount  ascertained  upon  reference  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Welles,  and  they 
had  accepted  the  amount  which  the  act  of 
Congress  said  should  be  in  full  discharge. 
Secretary  Welles  passed  upon  this  claim  and 
rejected  it.  S.  P.  Brown,  employed  for  his 
influence,  does  nothing,  and,  with  S.  M.  John- 
son, receives  one-balf  the  claim. 
Original  claim  for  $31,559.93,  of  which  $9,838.35 
allowed  by  Secretary  Welles;  balance  disal- 
lowed, lavage  employs  Murtagh,  for  his  in- 
fluence, to  collect  this;  is  successful,  and  pays 
Murtagh  $10,000, 
Secretary  Welles  states  the  history  of  this  claim 
in  his  proof.  It  was  a  claim  founded  on  a 
contract  to  make  certain  guns.  They  were  to 
pass  inspection;  they  never  did. 
This  was  for  services  voluntarily  tendered  the 
government  during  Secretary  Welles's  ad- 
ministration of  the  navy,  which  understand- 
ing he  rejected. 
Subsequently  to  this,  claimant  presented  to 
Congress  balance  of  this  claim.  Why  should 
he  not  have  done  so  as  to  this  amount  ?  It  was 
paid,  as  In  the  case  of  the  Governor,  to  the 
attorney. 
Presented,  so  far  as  record  shows,  first  in  May, 
1873  ;  allowed  in  November,  by  order  of  the 
secretary.  E.  G.  Cattell  receives  fee  of 
$10,000  for  his  influence  and  services;  upon 
face  of  approved  bills  said  to  be  for  reserva- 
tions withheld  on  account  of  duties  chai-ged, 
etc.— a  false  suggestion  or  a  suppression  of  the 
tmth. 
This  claim  was  examined  into  by  Committee  on 
Naval  Expenditures. 

Belknap  was  dismissed  from  navy  by  Presi- 
dent Johnson.  At  that  time  he  was  in  de- 
fault $130,832,  which  it  was  alleged  was 
stolen  from  him  at  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard. 
Secretary  Welles,  in  dismissing  him,  two 
years  after  date  of  alleged  robbery,  stated 
that  he  had  not  applied  for  relief  to  Con- 
gress, etc.  The  circumstances  of  this  case 
are  altogether  peculiar,  and  one  which 
should  have  been  examined  into  by  court- 
martial  or  Congress  before  the  allowance  of 
his  pay  and  the  amount  of  his  alleged  defal- 
^    cation. 

Attorney  representing  claimant  was  A.  C.  Sco- 
vel,  former  partner  of  the  secretary.  Pav  al- 
lowed to  claimant  when  not  an  official  of  the 
navy. 
This  claim  was  rejected  by  Secretary  Welles, 
whose  account  of  it  is  wholly  different  from 
the  present  secretary's.  The  claimant  was 
represented  by  S.  P.  Brown. 
This  claim  has  been  commented  on.    See  below. 


♦About. 
THE  BOLDEST  OPERATION  OP  GEORGE   M.    ROBESON 

Was  his  use  of  the  Navy  Pay  Fund  to  sustain  the  banking  house  of  Jay  Cooke, 
McCulloch  &  Co.,  in  London.  The  foreign  account  of  ^the  navy  had  been  kept 
from  1815  with  the  justly  celebrated  house  of  Baring  Brothers  &  Co.,  London. 
They  were  not  only  reliable,  but  all  during  our  civil  war  they  were  true  friends 
of  the  Union  cause,  and  by  liberal  and  assiduous  efforts  had  contributed  largely 


GABFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON.  169 

to  the  maintenance  of  our  credit  abroad  during  tliat  troublous  period.     More- 
over, Congress,  by  an  act  passed  in  1844,  provided : 

That  no  person  shall  be  employed  or  continued  abroad  to  receive  and  pay  money  for  the  use 
of  the  naval  service  on  foreign  stations,  whether  under  contract  or  otherwise,  who  has  not  been,  or 
shall  not  be,  appointed  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate. 

The  appointment  of  Baring  Brothers  having  been  made  in  1815,  this  provision 
did  not  apply  to  them,  but,  without  its  violation,  their  successors  could  not  be 
appointed  unless  "by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate."  Never- 
theless, Robeson  did,  of  his  own  motion,  in  May,  1871,  remove  the  foreign  pay  ac- 
count of  the  navy  from  Baring  Brothers  and  appoint  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  & 
Co.  their  successors  "to  receive  and  pay  money  for  the  use  of  the  naval  service 
on  foreign  stations." 

In  an  oflScial  letter  of  May  15,  1871,  addressed  to  Baring  Brothers  &  Co.,  he 

assigned  to  them  the  reasons  for  the  change : 

I  beg  to  assure  you  that  this  change  in  no  way  grows  out  of  any  dissatisfaction  dt  any  kind  on 
the  part  of  the  department  with  your  house,  which  has  for  so  many  ^ears  and  eo  acceptably  trans- 
acted its  foreign  financial  business,  but  is  the  result  solely  of  the  opinion  entertained  by  the  de- 
partment that  the  establishment  in  London  of  respectable  houses  of  purely  American  origin  and 
character  makes  it  in  every  sense  becoming  and  desirable  that  the  government  business  should  be 
entrusted  to  some  one  of  them. 

In  a  private  letter  of  May  23,  1871,  addressed  to  Henry  Clews,  Robeson  as- 
signed the  following  reasons  for  the  change : 

"political  as  well  as  financial  reasons." 

My  Dear  Clews :  I  have  your  letter  of  the  19th  instant,  in  regard  to  the  appointment  of  a  fiscal 
agent  of  the  government  abroad.  I  am  sorry  I  was  absent  when  you  were  here,  for  I  could  have 
explained  to  you  personally,  much  more  fully  and  satisfactorily,  the  situation  of  this  matter.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  Navy  Department  really  has  no  fiscal  agent  abroad,  but  has  hitherto  kept  its  ac- 
count with  Baring  Brothers  «fc  Co.,  of  London.  This  account  I  transferred  about  the  first  of  the 
present  month  to  Jay  Cooke's  house  abroad.  This  I  did  for  the  broadest  political  as  well  as  finan- 
cial reasons,  looking  to  the  good  of  the  service  abroad  as  well  as  strengthening  the  party  and  ad- 
ministration at  home.  The  house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  has,  as  you  know,  large  and  extended  in- 
terests and  influence  throughout  the  country.  Their  connection  and  influence  with  the  national 
banks;  with  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  which  controls  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  which,  ab- 
sorbing the  Camden  and  Amboy  Railroad,  now  controls  New  Jersey,  and  stretches  from  its  west- 
ern terminus  across  many  of  the  Western  states  far  toward  the  Pacific;  their  interest  in  the  North- 
ern Pacific,  and  their  general  interest  in  the  country,  make  them  very  powerful  friends  when 
actively  interested  in  the  success  of  the  administration,  and  dangerous  enemies,  in  vital  localities, 
when  indifferent  or  unfriendly.  These  were  some  of  the  considerations  which  influenced  me,  and 
which  would  have  still  influenced  me,  had  I  known  of  your  application, which  I  did  not  at  the  time 
when  I  acted.  In  addition  to  this,  they  are  entirely  an  American  house,  without  any  connection 
with  any  foreign  person  or  interest,  and  having  been  largely  connected  with  the  financial  operations 
of  the  government  during  the  war,  and  contributing  largely  to  its  success  in  connection  with  local 
men  like  yourself,  it  seemed  to  be  proper,  under  the  circumstances,  that  this  account  should  be 
given  to  them. 

WHERE  THE  FINANCIAL   REASONS  CAME  IN. 

The  appointment  undoubtedly  was  largely  due  to  "the  broadest  political  as 
well  as  financial  reasons."  The  Cookes,  all  powerful,  then  had  brought  their  in- 
fluence to  bear  on  Grant,  and  he  indicated  his  desire  to  have  the  change  made. 
But  this  was  not  all.  The  relations  of  A.  G.  Cattell  to  the  C.ookes  was  of  the 
most  imtimate  character.  The  house  of  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  was 
established  in  London  to  enable  them  to  figure  more  conspicuously  and  profitably 
in  the  Syndicate  operations,  as  well  as  to  aid  their  Northern  Pacific  enterprise.  A. 
G.  Cattell  was  to  be  the  financial  agent  of  the  government  in  London,  to  repre- 
sent it  in  the  Syndicate  transactions.  The  opportunities  for  percentages,  per- 
quisities  and  other  profits  would  be  great.  The  establishment  of  a  house  of 
' '  purely  American  origin  and  character  "  would  aid  in  the  direction,  and  make 
more  convenient  and  confidential  "crooked"  transactions.  It  was  here  that 
"the  financial  reasons"  for  the  change  came  in.  The  change  was  made.  It 
placed  in  the- hands  of  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  several  million  dollars  annu- 
ally. The  concern  was  ostensibly  started  with  a  million  dollars  capital,  but  in 
reality  it  depended  entirely  upon  the  government  money  in  its  custody,  from  the 


170  GAEFIELD    THE    FEIEND    OF   EOBESON. 

Syndicate  operatioDS  and  the  naval  foreign  pay  account,  to  carry  on  its  business. 
This  was  not  only  sufficient  for  this  purpose,  but  the  house  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. 
was  enabled,  when  the  financial  stress,  which  caused  the  panic  of  1873,  began  to 
be  felt,  to  draw  upon  the  London  house  largely.  At  the  time  of  their  failure 
Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  was  indebted  to  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  about  $1,800,000. 

WHAT    FOLLOWED    THE   PANIC   OP    1873. 

On  the  18th  of  September,  1873,  the  panic  began  with  the  failure  of  Jay  Cooke  & 
Co.  The  disaster  was  widespread  and  ruinous  in  its  effect.  Wise  men  had  seen  the 
danger  afar  off.  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  in  February  preceding,  pointed  out  the  im- 
pending financial  crash,  and  predicted  its  culmination  in  the  coming  fall.  But  the 
adminstration  of  the  government  was  totally  unprepared  for  it.  Prompt  and 
ordinarily  sensible  measures  would,  however,  have  immediately  made  the  govern- 
ment secure  against  any  losses  abroad.  It  had  an  inconsiderable  amount  of  the 
Navy  Fund  in  the  hands  of  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.,  and  the  government,  as  a 
preferred  creditor,  could  readily  have  made  itself  safe  by  asserting  its  claim  against 
the  property  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  in  this  country,  as  well  as  against  the  bondsmen 
of  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  This,  however,  would  have  bankrupted  the  latter 
concern  and  ruined  A.  G.  Cattell,  one  of  their  sureties.  Measures  were  promptly 
taken — not  to  save  the  government,  but  to  sustain  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co. 
The  government  was  actually  indebted  to  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  £37,758,  6s. 
on  the  18th  of  September,  1873.  It  is  true  that  a  requisition.  No.  2024,  was  drawn 
July  2,  1873,  in  their  favor,  for  $205,714  5s.,  but  a  time  draft  for  that  amount  was 
sent,  and,  as  the  record  shows,  was  not  due  and  was  not  paid  till  September  22, 
1873 — four  days  after  the  failure  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  But  even  admitting  that 
the  government  was  in  honor  bound  to  pay  this  draft,  which  it  could  have 
stopped — there  being  no  evidence  then  or  since  that  it  had  passed  into  the  hands 
of  innocent  holders — still,  it  only  made  the  government  creditor  of  Jay  Cooke, 
McCulloch  &  Co.  in  the  sum  of  £166,932  2s  ,  or  less  than  $900,000. 

JAY   COOKE,  M'CDLLOCH   &    CO.  SUSTAINED   WITH   THE   PEOPLE'S  MONEY. 

In  this  condition  of  things,  what  did  Robeson  do  ?  On  September  17,  1873, 
he  had  drawn  a  requisition  for  $1,000,000  on  the  pay  fund  of  the  navy  in  favor 
of  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  September  18, 
1873,  stopped  the  draft  issued  on  this  requisition  in  transitu  to  New  York.  Robe- 
son not  only  had  this  order  revoked  and  countermanded  and  the  money  go 
forward  to  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co. ,  but  between  September  24  and  27, 
1873,  he  sent  forward  an  additional  amount  of  $381,333.35. 

He  immediately  communicated  by  cable  with  Paymaster-General  Bradford, 
then  abroad,  directing  him  to  report  at  once  to  London,  and  again,  in  defiance  of 
the  Act  of  1844,  sent  him  a  commission  constituting  him  an  extraordinary  fiscal 
agent  "  to  receive  and  pay  money  for  the  use  of  the  naval  service  on  foreign 
stations."  He  also  communicated  with  A.  G.  Cattell,  giving  through  him  par- 
ticular and  definite  instructions  to  Bradford  for  the  protection  and  care  of  Jay 
Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  He  established  a  secret  cipher  with  both  Cattell  and 
Bradford,  by  which  they  could  communicate  with  him  by  cable.  He  authorized 
Bradford  to  open  accounts  with  the  Bank  of  England  and  the  banking  house  of 
Williams,  Deacon  &  Co. ,  and  other  concerns,  and  to  borrow  on  the  credit  of  the 
United  States  whatever  sums  of  money  he  might  require  to  pay  the  drafts  drawn 
on  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  by  naval  paymasters  on  foreign  stations,  in  order 
to  leave  that  concern  the  large  amount  of  money  of  the  United  States  he  had  for- 
warded them  after  the  panic,  September  18, 1873.   This  Bradford  did,  his  accounts 


GAEFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESOK.  lYl 

with  the  banking  house  of  Williams,  Deacon  &  Co.  showing  that  more  than 
once  he  borrowed  money  for  this  purpose  on  the  credit  of  the  United  States  in 
sums  reaching  nearly  if  not  quite  a  million  dollars.  And  further,  the  records 
show  that  Robeson,  in  order  to  enable  Bradford  to  meet  liabilities  incurred  in 
this  and  other  ways,  anticipated  appropriations,  drew  from  appropriations  made 
for  one  fiscal  year  and  applied  the  money  to  liabilities  incurred  in  a  preceding 
year,  all  in  defiance  of  express  legislation  to  the  contrary. 

WHO   SUFFERED    AND    WHO   DIDN'T. 

3y  these  acts,  done  in  violation  of  law,  the  pay  of  officers  and  sailors  was  di- 
verted to  an  illigitimate  object,  and  at  one  time  the  naval  corps  was  more  than 
six  months  unpaid.  The  unfortunate  officers  suffered  the  greatest  hardships,  and 
the  country  rang  with  their  complaints.  Bradford  was  detained  in  London  for 
several  years  at  this  illegal  work.  In  the  meantime,  the  government  had  obtained 
a  lien  upon  a  lot  of  railroad  iron,  bought  by  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  for  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad,  and,  by  being  held  preferred  creditors,  in  one  way  and  another, 
by  hook  and  by  crook,  finally  managed  to  make  itself  whole  for  the  amount 
advanced  by  Robeson  to  sustain  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  But  if  the  expense 
and  all  other  things  are  taken  into  consideration,  it  was  largely  a  loser  by  the 
transaction. 

A.  G.  Cattell,  however,  did  not  suffer  in  any  way  by  the  transaction.  As  the 
agent  and  attorney  of  the  Navy  Department,  he  had  control  and  manipulation  of 
many  millions  of  collaterals  pledged  to  secure  the  advance  to  Jay  Cooke,  McCul- 
loch &  Co.,  consisting  of  banking  paper,  23,000  tons  of  railroad  iron  and  the 
individual  estate  of  Mr.  McCulloch,  upon  all  of  which  he  drew  a  percentage  as  his 
fees. 

ROBESON'S  MANIFOLD   VIOLATIONS  OF   LAW. 

The  Naval  Committee,  moreover  established  by  irrefragible  proofs  that  Robe- 
son had  disregarded  the  law  : 

In  failing  to  advertise  for  supplies,  macerials  and  other  articles  required  by  the  department. 

In  not  requiring  proper  bond  and  sureties  from  those  who  made  co»tract8  and  agreements 
with  the  department,  now  being«required  in  the  majority  of  cases. 

In  not,  in  a  single  instance,  prosecuting  and  enforcing  the  law  against  defaulting  contractors. 

In  making  payment  in  advance  of  work  and  complete  delivery,  a  bare-faced  instance  of  which 
exists  in  the  case  of  the  contractor  for  the  destruction  of  the  "  Hero  "  and  the  "  Piscataqua"  at  the 
WashiuKton  navy  yard,  the  contractor  in  this  case  dropping  the  job  when  it  ceased  to  be  profitable, 
and  leaving  the  government  without  any  adequate  protection  against  his  default. 

In  permitting  contractors  to  be  relieved  from  the  fulfillment  of  their  contracts  Tvhen  it  was 
apparent  that  their  failure  to  do  so  originated  from  a  fraudulent  purpose.  The  method  of  these 
frauds  was  as  follows:  At  the  regular  annual  lettings,  articles  for  which  bids  were  invited  were 
scheduled  in  classes.  A  knowing  or  favored  contractor  would  take  a  certain  portion  of  the 
articles  which  he  knew  would  be  largely  demanded,  and  on  these  fix  large  prices,  and  then  on  a 
vast  number  of  other  articles,  which  he  knew  would  not  be  wanted  entire,  he  would  bid  low. 
When  the  bids  came  to  be  scheduled  in  the  department,  the  prices  would  be  arranged,  and  thus 
the  favored  contractor  would  appear  to  be  the  lowest  bidder.  He  would  furnish  the  large  quantities 
for  which  his  bids  were  high,  and  then  the  department  actually  not  requiring  the  quantities  of  the 
other  articles  on  which  his  bids  were  very  low,  he  would  be  relieved  from  delivery. 

It  was  also  established  that  gross  frauds  and  abuses  were  made  easy  on  the 

government  because  the  system  of  inspection  under  Robeson  was  a  sham.     This 

was  especially  the  case  in  the  acceptance  of  live  oak  from  certain  contractors. 

In  one  single  instance,  in  which  S.  B.  Brown  and  John  Bigelow,  a  friend,  by  the 

way,  of  Paymaster-General  Bradford,  were  the  contractors,  they  got    pay  for 

60,000  feet  before — months  before — it  was  delivered.     And  again,  when  timber 

was  rejected  by  one  inspector  at  a  navy  yard,  it  was   sometimes  shipped  to 

another,  and  order  obtained  from  Robeson  to  receive  it. 

THE  NAVY   YARDS   TURNED  TO  POLITICAL   ACCOUNT. 

To  prevent  the  use  of  the  naVy  yards  as  political  machines,  Congress  at  differ- 


172  GARFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON. 

ent  times  enacted  stringent  laws  regulating  the  employment  of  workmen.  The 
Acts  of  March,  1867,  June,  1868,  and  May,  1872,  provides,  among  other  things: 

First.  That  master  workmen  in  the  various  navy  yards  should  be  men  skilled  in  their  several 
duties. 

Second.  That  no  officer  or  employee  of  the  Government  should  require  any  workman  to  con- 
tribute any  money  for  political  purposes,  and  that  no  workman  should  be  removed  or  discharged 
on  account  of  his  political  opinion;  and 

Third.  That  laborers  should  be  employed  in  the  several  yards  by  the  proper  officers  in  charge, 
with  reference  only  to  skill  and  efficiency,  and  without  regard  to  other  considerations. 

These  enactments  were  systematically  disregarded.with  the  knowledge  of  Robe- 
son. The  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  after  a  thorough  examination  of  this 
abuse,  was  satisfied  that  during  elective  years  fully  $1,000,000  per  annum  was 
used  through  the  navy  yards  for  corrupt  partisan  purposes.  The  following 
illustrates  Robeson's  methods  of  accomplishing  this  political  debauchery  with  the 
public  money. 

[Private.] 

Boston,  Mass.,  Oct.  23, 1874. 
My  Bear  Commodore :  I  wish  you  would  approve  requisition  for  men  to  be  employed,  as  they 
may  be,  made  until  1st  of  November. 

Some  fifty  additional  men  have  been  allowed  from  the  Chelsea  district,  and  I  suppose  some  more 
will  be  required  from  Gooch's  district. 

The  administration  desire  the  success  of  Gooch  and  Frost. 

Yours,  very  respectfully,  J.  HANSCOM. 

To  Commodore  E.  T.  Nichols,  U.  S.  N.,  Commandant. 

[Telegram.] 

Wajhikgton,  Feb.  21, 1873. 
Commodore  J.  C.  Howell  Commandant  Navy  Yard: 

As  the  Monongahela  is  wanted,  you  may  employ  forty  men  on  her  in  addition  to  present  force. 
Give  N.  H.  a  large  share.  J.  HANSCOM, 

Chief  Bureau  Const,  and  Repairs. 

HOW   AND   WHAT   IT   WAS  DONE   FOR. 

This  was  for  the  benefit  of  New  Hampshire  Republicans  at  their  spring 
elections.  At  the  time  of  these  communications  elections  were  pending  in  the 
states  of  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts  respectively.  Orders  for  labor  and 
the  assignment  of  the  amount  of  money  to  be  expended  at  the  different  yards  are 
made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  through  the  heads  of  bureaus.  No  command- 
ant of  a  navy  yard,  nor  any  oflficer  there,  can,  of  his  own  free  will,  originate  any 
work  or  determine  the  amount  of  money  to  be  expended.  This  is  done  entirely 
by  the  department  at  Washington.  Hence,  when  any  political  purpose  is  to  be 
accomplished,  as,  for  instance,  at  Norfolk,  when  an  election  is  pending,  the 
Galena,  or  some  other  vessel  that  has  been  nominally  undergoing  repairs  for  the 
last  three  or  four  years,  is  ordered  by  the  chief  of  the  bureau  at  Washington  to 
be  worked  upon,  and  a  given  amount  of  money  is  set  apart  for  that  purpose,  of 
which  the  ofiicers  at  the  Norfolk  navy  yard  are  duly  notified.  So  at  Boston, 
another  vessel  is  ordered  to  be  worked  upon ;  a  certain  amount  of  money  is  set 
apart  for  it  by  the  chief  of  the  bureau,  and  instructions  are  given  accordingly. 

An  examination  of  the  rolls  of  the  various  navy  yards  show  that  during  the 
month  preceeding  elections  and  the  month  in  which  the  election  is  held,  the 
force  of  employees  are  double  and  sometimes  quintuple  what  it  is  in  the  same 
month  in  years  when  there  are  no  important  elections. 

ANOTHER  OF  ROBESON'S  METHODS  OF  EVADING  THE  LAW 

was  to  make  contracts  with  favorite  contractors  to  repair  certain  ships.  The 
law  forbids  the  expenditure  of  any  money  or  the  incurrring  of  any  liabilities,  un- 
less in  pursuance  of  appropriations  specifically  made.  Robeson  got  around  this 
by  giving  certain  contractors  contracts  to  repair  vessels  and  take  part  pay  from 
material.  A  small  piece  of  iron  would  be  taken,  say  from  the  Puritan,  and  about 
it  would  be  built  an  entirely  new  ship,  into  which  went  the  old  iron  from  three  or 


GAEFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OP    ROBESON.  173 

four  other  vessels.  Other  vessels  were  broken  up,  and  the  old  material,  iron, 
copper,  wood  and  machinery,  bartered  or  exchanged  for  new  material.  Sixteen 
ships  were  destroyed  in  this  way,  and  always  to  the  advantage  of  favored  con- 
tractors. All  this  was  in  violation  of  law,  or  without  authority  of  law.  The 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  possesses  no  right  whatever  to  destroy  a  vessel  belonging 
to  the  United  States.  He  possesses  power  to  sell  at  public  sale  any  "  vessel  and 
material"  of  the  United  States  Navy  that  "cannot  be  advantageously  used, 
repaired  or  fitted  out.''  If  in  his  judgment  such  sale  could  not  be  advantageously 
made,  it  is  his  duty  to  report  to  Congress  the  fact  and  obtain  authority  to  make 
other  disposition  of  the  property. 

THE   SYSTEM  OP  BARTER  AND  EXCHANGE 

was  confined  to  the  old  material  of  ships ;  but  the  Bureau  of  Provisions  and 
Clothing  did  a  large  business  in  the  same  way  with  Mr.  Mathews,  to  his  and  the 
Cattell's  advantage.  In  all,  some  $15,000,000  of  the  property  of  the  United 
States  was  thus  privately  and  without  competition  disposed  of  by  Robeson.  The 
terms  on  which  the  old  iron  was  exchanged  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  of  Cooper, 
Hewitt  &  Co.,  perhaps  one  of  the  most  competent  experts  in  the  country,  pro- 
nounced "most  extravagant,  wasteful  and  improvident."  He  declared  that  the 
contract  with  Seyfert,  McManus  &  Co.,  by  which  4,538,781  pounds  of  old  iron 
was  exchanged  at  the  rate  of  eight  pounds  of  old  for  one  of  new,  was  outrageous, 
and  that  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  was  robbed  thereby.  He  asserted 
that  if  the  iron  trade  of  the  country  had  had  any  knowledge  of  the  disposition 
about  to  be  made,  and  a  chance  to  compete  had  been  given,  the  government 
could  have  readily  obtained  three  cents  a  pound  for  the  old  iron. 

The  catalogue  of  Robeson's  misdemeanors  is  almost  interminable.  He  violated 
the  law  in  not  awarding  contracts  to  the  lowest  bidders ;  in  giving  contracts 
without  advertisement  and  without  competition ;  in  making  purchases  of  large 
quantities  of  supplies  privately;  in  permitting  contractors  who  were  favorites  to 
rule  navy  yards ;  in  countenancing  sinecurists ;  in  permitting  the  use  of  govern- 
ment property  and  material  for  private  purposes ;  in  applying  money  appropri- 
ated for  one  purpose  to  another. 

THE  RUIN   OF    THE  NAVY  THE  RESULT. 

And  what  was  the  result  of  all  this  jobbery;  all  these  violations  of  law;  all 
this  shameless  corruption  and  maladministration?  Up  to  the  period  of  which 
we  now  speak  he  had  spent  more  than  $150,000,000;  what  was  there  to  show  for 
it?  As  to  the  efficiency  of  the  navy  we  quote  briefly  from  a  great  number  of 
opinions  given  by  officers  of  the  navy  upon  its  condition  at  that  time : 

Vice  Admiral  Rowen:  Our  cruising  vessels  of  war,  as  compared  with  the  navies  of  the  principal 
powers,  are  inferior;  lamentably  so  in  speed. 

Rear  Admiral  Leroy:  The  vessels  of  our  navy  are  inferior  in  construction,  armament,  speed  and 
other  properties  to  nearly  all  the  vessels  I  have  met  belonging  to  foreign  powers. 

Rear  Admiral  Pennock:  It  compares  unfavorably  with  other  navies. 

Rear  Admiral  Almy:  The  speed  and  efficiency  of  the  United  States  vessels  of  war  are,  in  gen- 
eral, inferior  to  those  of  the  vessels  of  war  of  other  powers. 

Rear  Admiral  C.  R.  P.  Rogers:  As  compared  with  the  navies  of  the  chief  foreign  powers,  I  think 
onr  own  Inefficient  in  its  more  powerful  ships. 

Rear  Admiral  Stnbllng:  I  am  not  favorably  impressed  with  the  efficiency  of  our  navy  as  com- 
pared with  that  of  other  countries. 

Rear  Admiral  Lee:  It  is  mortifying  and  humiliating  to  witness  the  amount  of  scarcely  more 
than  naval  trash  that  has  been  turned  out,  and  of  which  our  navy,  as  to  vessels,  is  now  in  a  large 
degree  composed. 

Rear  AdmiralJenkins:  Fifteen  or  twenty  years  since  we  had  the  credit  of  having,  vessel  for 
vessel,  those  superior  to  any  in  foreign  naval  service;  now  none  so  poor  as  to  do  us  honor  by 
offering  us  praise. 

Rear  Admiral  Sands:  There  is  not  much  doubt  that  our  navy  has  gone  backward  in  efficiency. 

Rear  Admiral  Emmons:  We  have  gradually  dwindled  from  a  third  to  a  sixth  or  eighth-rate 
power. 

Commodore  Amman :  Our  vessels  are,  I  fear,  in  general,  inferior  in  speed,  especially  under  steam, 
to  those  of  the  same  classes  in  the  better  foreign  navies. 


174  GAEFIKLD    THE    FRIEND    OF'^OBESOX. 

The  opinions  of  a  score  of  other  officers  to  the  same  effect  could  be  added.  It 
would  be  supererogation.  The  fact  is  undeniable  that  our  navy  is  worthless. 
When  Robeson  became  secretary,  in  1869,  there  were  203  vessels  on  the  register. 
Eight  sloops  of -war  and  two  torpedo  boats  were,  by  authority  of  Congress,  built 
during  his  administration.  Three  more  were  purchased.  The  Committee  on 
Kaval  Affairs  estimate  that  Robeson  to  1876  expended  $170,000,000,  used  or  dis- 
posed of  the  material  of  70  ships  of  war,  and  contracted  liabilities  amounting  to 
several  millions  of  dollars,  and  yet  the  navy  was  in  a  worthless  condition.  Ad- 
miral Porter  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  at  least  60  or  70  million  dollars  of  the 
money  expended  by  Robeson  would  have  been  saved  by  a  wise  and  honest  admin- 
istration. The  Naval  Committee  of  the  House  declared  that  if  it  had  been  hon- 
estly expended,  our  navy  would  have  been  at  once  the  pride  of  our  own  people 
and  the  admiration  if  not  the  envy  of  other  nations.  The  responsibility  for  all 
this  waste  of  public  money,  for  the- degradation  of  the  service,  the  demoralization 
of  the  bureaus  of  the  department,  the  same  committee  traced  directly  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy. 

GENERAL   GARFIELD   OPPOSES  FURTHER  INVESTIGATION. 

The  above  is  an  outline  only,  hurried  and  incomplete,  of  what  the  Naval  Com- 
mittee of  the  House,  during  the  Forty  fourth  Congress,  discovered  and  reported. 
In  the  judgment  of  its  members,  and  everybody  else  who  had  knowledge  on  the 
subject  and  an  honest  desire  to  see  the  bottom  facts  laid  bare,  there  remained  a 
great  many  other  things  to  be  inquired  about.  This  was  the  judgment  of  the 
majority  of  the  House  at  the  beginning  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress.  Accordingly, 
on  December  14,  1847,  Mr.  Fernando  Wood  reported  from  the  Ways  and  Means 
Committee  a  resolution  which,  among  other  things,  directed  the  Committee  on 
Naval  Affairs  to  further  prosecute  the  inquiry  begun  in  the  preceding  Congress. 
The  Republicans,  under  the  leadership  of  Gen.  Garfield,  made  sturdy  opposition 
and  raised  every  imaginable  point  of  order  against  it.  Upon  one  occasion  Gen. 
Garfield  said: 

I  desire  to  make  a  point  of  order  upon  this  series  of  resolutions  as  not  being  a  privileged  report 
from  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  at  any  time,  and  it  does  not  relate  to  revenue  or  anything 
which,  under  rule  151,  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  ii?  charged  wiih,  and  upon  wliich  it  is 


permitted  to  report  at  any  time.    Therefore,  to-day,  when  that  committee  is  not  undercall,  this  ia 
"ast'd  re 
The  Speaker  overruled  the  point  of  order. 


not  a  privileged  report  from  the  committee. 


The  merits  of  the  resolutioii  were  discussed,  and  Gen.  Garfield,  still  with  a  view 

to  debating  it,  said: 

The  gentleman  from  New  York  (Mr.  Wood)  is  well  aware  there  could  have  been  perfect  unan- 
imity in  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  as  regards  the  reporting  of  this  resolution,  if  the  clause 
giving  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  of  sending  for  private 
citizens  everywhere,  had  been  left  out. 

Mr.  Wood  reminded  Gen.  Garfield  that  unless  that  power  was  given  the 
proposed  inquiry  would  amount  to  nothing.  There  could  be  no  investigation 
without  witnesses  and  papers. 

This,  of  course.  Gen.  Garfield  knew  perfectly  well.  The  power  to  send  for 
persons  and  papers,  as  he  had  experienced  on  more  than  one  occasion,  was  dan- 
gerous only  to  those  who  had  something  to  conceal.  His  object  was  to  defeat  the 
inquiry  and  prevent  further  exposure,  which  would  be  not  only  damaging  to  his 
friend  Robeson,  but  to  his  party.  The  only  way  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  the 
resolutions  was  to  prevent  their  consideration.  The  Republicans,  therefore,  under 
Gen.  Garfield's  lead,  filibustered  all  that  day.  (See  Record,  ml.  7,  part  1,  2d 
Sept.,  45ih  Cong.,  pp.  227-231  ) 

FILIBUSTERING   TO  PROTECT   ROBESON. 

The  next  day  the  same  tactics  were  resorted  to       By  filibustering,  action  was 


GARFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    KOBESOIT.  llH 

prevented  till  after  the  holiday  recess,  for  Congress  had  previously  resolved  to 
adjourn  till  January  10,  1878.  During  all  this  filibustering.  Gen.  Garfield  was 
the  leader  of  his  side.     {See  Hecord,  Ibid,  pp.  237.246.) 

'  When  Congress  reassembled,  January  10,  the  fight  was  resumed.  Gen.  Gar- 
field still  led  the  opposition.  Referring  to  the  investigation  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment at  the  preceding  Congress — the  results  of  which  we  have  summarized  in  the 
preceding  pages — Gen.  Garfield  said  that  no  one  believed  that  it  was  worth  what  it 
cost.  Mr.  Clymer,  of  the  Committee  of  Appropriations,  called  him  to  task  at 
once,  and  said  that  the  results  of  that  inquiry  had  enabled  his  committee  to  effect 
vast  savings.  This  discussion  took  place  in  the  Committee  of  the  "Whole,  where 
the  yeas  and  nays  could  not  be  called,  and  Gen.  Garfield  and  his  friends  succeeded 
in  amending  the  resolution  in  a  way  which  would,  if  finally  adopted,  have  ren- 
dered nugatory  the  proposed  investigation.  In  the  House,  however,  the  yeas  and 
nays  were  called,  and  the  resolution,  as  originally  reported,  was  adopted  on  a  yea 
and  nay  vote.     Gen.  Garfield  voted  no.     {Ibid,  p.  290.) 

WHAT    WAS   FOUND    DURING   THE   FORTY-FIFTH   CONGRESS. 

Under  this  resolution  the  Naval  Committee  reported  to  the  House  Feb- 
ruary 21,  1879.  They  showed  from  official  records  from  the  close  of 
the  f-scal  year,  1870,  to  the  close  of  the  fiscal  year,  1877,  $173,674,170.36 
had  been  expended;  that,  in  addition,  there  was  a  deficiency  for  the 
fiscal  year,  1877,  of  $2,003,861.27  ;  a  further  amount,  necessary  to  pay 
bills,  approved  that  year,  of  $8,217,738.76,  and  contingent  liabilities  incurred 
during  the  same  year  of  $3,600,263.09.  So  that  Robeson,  in  addition  to  millions 
of  material  sold,  bribed  and  exchanged,  had  disbursed  in  eight  years  the  sum  of 
$182,496,033.48.  He  left  a  navy  which,  according  to  Republican  Representative 
Harris,  of  Massachusetts,  was—  . 

In  comparison  with  the  leading  naval  powers  of  the  world,  in  a  very  humiliating  and  unsatis- 
factory coudition. 

The  present   Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  his  first  annual  report,  recited  tlie  con- 
dition in  which  he  found  things  upon  assuming  control.     He  said : 
Robeson's  successor  tells  unpleasant  truths. 

On  March  1,  1877,  the  indebtedness  of  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering  to  sundry  individuals 
and  companies,  for  balances  due  upon  contracts  made  before  that  lime— 

For  machinery,  boilers,  &c.,  was $1,454,694  3-3 

For  materials,  stores,  «fcc.,  was.. 206,852  75 

Total 1,661,547  08 

On  March  3,  1847,  contracts  were  made  hj  the  department  for  work  on  account  of  the  iron-dads 
Puritan,  Monadnock,  Terror  and  Amphitnte,  aggregatins^  $1,165,000,  each  of  which  contained  a 
provision  that  no  portion  of  the  money  should  be.  paid  until  appropriated  by  Congress. 

Contracts*  were  also  made  March  7  and  March  10,  1877,  for  boilers  for  the  '1  uscarora,  Narragan- 
pett.  Snowdrop  and  Dictator,  amounting  to  $331,621.09,  making  a  total  indebtedness  of  this  bureau 
March  10,  1877,  $3,158,168.77.  As  there  was  no  ivoney  appropriated  by  Cmigress  subject  by  law  to  be 
appli.dtoimymentsqfworkclone  vnder  the  coutracts  made  subsequent  to  March!,  1877,  these  con- 
tructb  were  suspended,  and  the  oi'der  of  suspension  has  not  been  revoked. 

To  tlie  above  aggregate  of  indebtedness  sh  uld  be  added,  for  necessary  purchases,  &c.,  from 
MarclJ  1  to  July  1, 1877,  the  sum  of  $5,747.29,  making  the  total  indebtedness  of  the  Bureau  of  Steam 
Engineering  to  July  1,  1877,  $3,163,915.47. 

THE   INDEBTEDNESS   OF    THE   BUREAU   OP    CONSTRUCTION   AND   REPAIR, 

As  ascertained  up  to  March  1,  1877,  was,  upon  bills  in  requisition  of  navy  paymasters,  $185,680  ; 
a<crued  bills  not  drawn,  $8.3,558.71;  for  labor  at  navy  yards,  $27,949.76;  and  bills  held  by  parties 
and  available  only  after  an  appropriation  to  meet  the  same  was  made  by  Congress,  $547,609.64. 
Large  quantities  of  timber  had  been  contracted  for,  part  of  which  had  been  delivered  and  another 
part  was  to  be  thereafter  delivered.  That  part  to  be  delivered  was  contracted  for  by  orders  from 
the  bureau,  which,  having  been  issued  when  there  was  no  money  on  hand  to  pay  the  bills  and 
without  advertisement  arid  competition,  were  all  suspended. 

A  contract  was  made  by  the  department  February  8,  1877,  for  the  impregnation  and  preservation 
of  timber,  for  which  it  was  agreed  to  pay  $14,000  for  one  hundred  thousand  feet  of  timber,  and  be- 
yond that  qutuitity  ioMX  cents  per  cubic  foot,  with  further  conditions  in  reference  to  the  execution 


176  GARFIELD  THE  EEIEND  OF  ROBESON". 

thereof.  This  contract  was  also  suspended  for  the  same  reason  as  those  referred  to  above,  and  ia 
not  therefore  embraced  in  the  foregoing  estimate  of  indebtedness,  as  the  amount  to  be  paid  undei 
it,  if  executed,  is  indefinite. 

THE  INDEBTEDNESS  OF  THE  BUREAU  OF  PROVISIONS  AND  CLOTHING. 

On  March  1, 1877,  for  bills  for  provisions,  was  $55,846.31;  for  clothing,  $385,189.08;  for  small 
stores,  $88,500;  and  for  freight,  $3,935.91 ;  making  a  total  of  $473,471.30.  It  is  due  to  the  manage- 
ment of  this  bureau,  however,  to  say  that  there  was  due  to  it  on  account  of  clothing  issued  and 
checked  against  pay  of  the  navy,  $339,200.23,  and  that  it  was  indebted  to  pay  of  the  navy  on  ac- 
count of  purchases  and  expenses  of  storehouses  abroad,  $225,742.77;  for  clothing,  $3,489.05,  and  for 
contingent  expenses,  $4,548.30,  making  a  total  of  $233,780.12.  So  that,  in  striking  the  balance  be- 
tween this  bureau  and  pay  of  the  navy,  the  latter  fund  remains  in  debt  to  it  $105,420.11,  for  which 
there  has  been  no  transfer.  The  bureau  has  also  unsettled  balances  with  the  other  bureaus  and  the 
hospital  fund,  as  follows:  The  other  bureaus  are  indebted  to  it  in  the  sum  of  $8,779.80,  while  it  is 
indebted  to  them  and  the  hospital  fund  $4,946.96,  leaving  $3,832.84  in  its  favor.  If  these  adjust- 
ments were  all  made  between  the  bureaus  it  would,  therefore,  reduce  the  indebtedness  of  this 
bureau  to  $364,218.35.  But  as  all  the  money  appropriated  for  the  last  fiscal  year  has  been  expended, 
and  no  portion  of  that  appropriated  for  the  present  fiscal  year  is  applicable  to  the  adjustment  of 
these  balances,  the  indebtedness  of  the  bureau  cannot  be  relieved  in  any  other  way  than  by  the  ap- 
propriation of  the  whole  amount  of  $473,471.30  by  Congress. 

It  the  sums  covered  by  these  suspended  contracts  be  held  as  chargeable  against  the  Bureaus  of 
Steam  Engineering  and  of  Construction  and  Repair,  the  total  indebtedness  of  the  three  bureaus  is 
$7,083,503.25. 

EXTRAVAGANCE  AND   NO  NAVY. 

From  these  it  will  appear  that,  with  "no  navy,"  large  expenditures  of  public  money,  and  vast 
quantities  of  public  property  disposed  of,  there  existed  at  the  close  of  Mr.  Robeson's  administra- 
tion an  indebtedness,  actual  and  contingent,  of  $7,083,503.25  in  the  Navy  Department— an  indebt- 
edness not  warranted  by  law,  since  indebtedness  cannot  legally  be  made  by  any  agent  of  the  gov- 
ernment except  by  the  consent  and  authority  of  Congress.  That  one  department  of  the  government 
should  be  found  in  this  condition;  that  agents  of  the  government  who  were  the  sworn  executors  of 
the  law,  and  who  stood  in  high  places,  should  be  so  unmindful  of  their  obligations  and  duties  as  to 
involve  the  faith  of  the  government  in  such  large  amounts,  and  that,  too,  in  times  of  profound 
peace,  was  startling. 

It  was  with  such  an  exhibit  before  them  that  the  committee  of  the  Forty-fifth 

Congress  entered  upon  the  investigation. 

A  TERRIBLE   SHOWING. 

The  committee  reported  that — 

In  the  year  1865  there  were  borne  on  the  Naval  Register  the  names  of  some  six  hundred  and  fifty 
vessels;  there  was  then  also  on  hand  a  large  number  of  engines,  boilers,  machinery,  stores,  and 
materials,  the  aggregate  cost,  if  not  value,  of  which  was  from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  millions 
of  dollars.  Up  to  1869  there  had  been  sold  over  four  hundred  of  these  vessels;  the  majority  of 
them  were  of  less  cost  than  those  retained,  and  no  very  large  amount  of  materials  had  been  dis- 
posed of— leaving,  in  1869,  and  just  prior  to  the  administration  of  Mr.  Robeson,  two  hundred  and 
three  vessels  in  the  navy,  together  with  a  large  quantity  of  materials  and  stores^  not  attached  to 
ships,  but  being  in  the  different  navy  yards  or  the  country.  Now,  within  these  eight  years,  there 
have  disappeared  from  the  Naval  Register  the  names  of  about  seventy  vessels,  aud  there  have  been 
added  to  the  register  eight.  Of  the  seventy  which  have  disappeared,  five  have  been  lost  at  sea; 
forty  six  have  been  sold,  and  their  proceeds  paid  into  the  treasury;  three  have  been  sold,  and  their 
proceeds  paid  over  or  credited  to  contractors,  and  twenty  have  been  destroyed  by  order  of  the 
secretary  or  his  subordinates,  and  the  materials  "  cut  up,"  paid  over  or  credited  to  contractors. 
Large  quantities  of  materials,  such  as  engines,  boilers,  plate,  iron,  &c.,  have  also  been  sold  and 
delivered  to  or  bartered  or  exchanged  with  contractors. 

Assuming  the  estimate  hereiuoefore  made  approximates  correctness,  and  calling  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  account  of  stores  in  the  then  indebted  bureaus  shows  a  diminution  of  stores  (ex- 
cept in  the  item  of  live-oak  timber  in  the  Bureau  of  Construction),  we  have  this  showing,  viz: 

Expenditures  in  money • .-  •  •  $182,496,033 

Public  property  sold,  used  and  consumed  principally  for  construction  and  motive 

power,  which  cost  the  government  $100,000,000,  one  half  of  which  is  charged 50,000,000 

Total $232, 496,033 

Of  the  public  property  disposed  of  privately  there  were — 

31  vessels,  original  cost $13,775,837.52.  .Realized $542,524.47 

21  vessels,  original  cost 12,614,390.45.  .Realized 429.983.73 

Provisions  and  small  stores,  original  cost 525,640.47 . .  Realized  in  trade 205,536,39 

From  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering  millions  upon  millions  of  pounds — 

engines,  complete  and  incomplete,  boilers,  shafting,  propellers,  tubes,  iron  and 

brass  and  composition,  which  must  have  cost  forty  or  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 

Recapitulating,  the  committee  say: 

MILLIONS  OF  PROPERTY  BARTERED  AWAY. 

Four  vessels,  costing  $3,002,390.48,  have  been  sold  without  advertisement,  the  proceeds  of  three 
of  which  have  not  been  paid  into  the  treasury,  twenty  vesBela  cut  up  and  destroyed,  coeting 


GARFIELD    THE    FRIEND    OF    ROBESON.  177 

$12,614,394.35,  their  material  soldaa  old  Bcrap,  and  proceeds  exchanged:  multiplied  millions  of  ma- 
terial from  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering,  consisting  of  engines,  boilers,  complete  and  incom- 
plete, iron,  copper,  brass  and  composition,  costing  a  vast  sum  of  money,  has  been  sold,  bartered  and 
exchanged  for  sums  of  money  not  greatly  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  destruction,  but  the  proceeds  of 
which  have  not  been  paid  into  the  trea'^ury;  large  quantities  of  provisions  and  clothing  have  been 
sold,  bartered  and  exchano:ed,  costing  large  sums  of  money,  for  small  prices,  but  the  proceeds  of 
which  have  not  been  paid  into  the  treasury,  and  all  of  which,  except  in  case  of  clothing,  should  have 
been  done.  Not  being  paid  into  the  treasury,  it  has  been  applied,  as  stated  by  the  actors  in  this 
so-claimed  "barter  "and  exchange  business,"  to  useful  purposes.  Suppose  it  be  admitted,  for  the 
nonce,  that  this  immense  amount  of  public  property  was  so  used,  it  is  replied,  in  the  first  place, 
that  there  was  no  authority  under  the  law  so  to  use  it;  secondly,  a  report  of  the  disposition  should 
have  been  made  to  Congress;  thirdly,  it  was  an  application  of  the  proceeds  of  public  property 
without  the  knowledge  of  or  an  appropriation  by  Congress. 

THE  LAWS  OP   1872  VIOLATED. 

This  disposition  of  the  public  property  was  in  direct  violation  of  the  acts  of 
Congress,  approved  May  8,  1872,  and  May  23,  1872.  These  acts  were  intended 
to  prevent  exactly  what  Robeson  did.  At  the  close  of  the  war  the  War  and  Isavy 
Departments  having  a  surplus  of  material  of  war  on  hand,  began  to  dispose  of  it. 
Congress,  noting  this,  and  that  the  property  was  not  only  sacrificed,  but  the  money 
realized  was  not  turned  in  to  the  treasury,  thought  proper  to  restrict  the  powers 
of  the  executive  officers  of  the  government.  The  Act  of  May  8,  1872,  provided 
that  all  proceeds  of  sales  of  material,  condensed  stores,  supplies,  or  other  public 
property  of  any  kind,  shall  be  deposited  and  covered  in  to  the  treasury  as  miscel- 
laneous receipts,  and  shall  not  be  withdrawn  or  applied  except  in  consequence 
of  a  subsequent  appropriation.  And  the  Act  of  July  23,  1872,  regulated  the  man- 
ner of  sale  by  the  secretary  of  the  money  of  such  vessels  and  materials  as  in  his 
judgment  cannot  be  advantageously  used,  repaired  or  fitted  out.  It  also  required, 
before  such  sale,  public  notice  by  advertisement  in  some  leading  newspaper  in  at 
least  four  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States,  which  should  state  the 
number  of  vessels  and  the  amount  of  materials  proposed  to  be  sold,  together  with 
a  description  thereof,  and  when  and  where  the  same  could  be  examined.  Full 
report  was  to  be  made  to  Congress  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  of  all  his  acts 
under  the  act,  the  property  sold,  the  parties  buying,  the  amount  realized,  and, 
further,  required  all  moneys  received  on  account  of  the  sales  to  be  covered  in  to 
the  treasury.  Not  one  of  these  requirements  of  the  Acts  of  May  8  and  May  23, 
1872,  were  complied  with  by  Robeson,  but  every  one  was  violated. 

In  concluding  their  report,  the  committee  say : 

HUNDREDS   OF   THOUSANDS   OF   DOLLARS  TO    "PROCURERS." 

Your  committee  are  thoroughly  satisfied  that  large  sums  of  money  have  been  lost  to  the  govern- 
ment by  this  disregard  of  the  law  ;  and  if  any  additional  evidence  were  wanting,  it  is  to  be  found 
in  the  existence  of  "  Cattellism  "  in  the  naval  service,  wherein  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
have  been  paid  to  "  procurers  "  for  their  services  and  influence  in  securing  and  obtaining  contracts 
with  the  bureaus  of  the  Navy  Department. 

There  remains  but  one  other  question  suggested  by  the  defense  to  these  alleged  violations  of  the 
law,  and  that  is,  whether  any  punishment  is  enacted  and  provided  by  the  law.  It  is  urged  that  it  is 
incumbent  to  show  a  fraudulent  intent  in  the  violation  of  the  statutes;  and  that,  again,  the  separate 
statutes  referred  to  as  having  been  violated  are  without  penalties. 

Your  committee  submit  in  reply,  waiving  any  consideration  of  how  far  the  common  law  or  the 
local  criminal' laws  of  the  District  may  be  applicable,  that  by  section  5439,  Revised  Statutes,  it  is 
provided  and  enacted  that  "  Every  person  who  steals,  or  embezzles,  or  knowingly  applies  to  his 
own  use,  or  who  unlawfully  sells,  conveys  or  disposes  of  any  ordnance,  arms,  ammunition,  cloth- 
ing, subsistence  stores,  money  or  other  property  of  the  United  States  furnished  or  to  be  used  for 
military  or  naval  service,  shall  be  punished  as  prescribed  in  the  preceding  section,"  which  punish- 
ment is,  as  stated,  imprisonment  at  hard  labor  for  not  less  than  one  nor  more  than  five  years,  or  a 
fine  not  less  than  one  nor  more  than  ten  thousand  dollars. 

THE   PLEA   OP  ROBESON   DISPOSED   OP. 

Now,  it  is  urged  that  this  law  was  only  intended  for  the  soldier  or  sailor,  or  petty  violator  of 
the  law.  Such  is  not  the  reading  of  the  statute  or  the  act  from  which  it  was  codified.  But  again, 
it  is  here  said  that  the  "fraudulent  intent "  must  appear  or  be  shown.  To  this  it  is  replied  that 
such  is  not  the  reading  of  the  law.  If  punishment  was  sought  for  "  stealing,"  the  felonious  intent, 
it  is  admitted,  must  be  shown  ;  so  in  the  case  of  a  charge  of  "  embezzling."  And  in  the  case  of 
"  application  of  public  money  or  property  to  the  person's  own  use,"  it  is  probable  that  a  fraudulent 
intent  would  be  required  to  be  shown,  yet  this  is  doubtful  under  the  words  of  the  statute  ;  but 
where  one  unlawfully  sells,  conveys  or  disposes  of  public  money  or  property,  the  averment  and 


178  GARFIELD    THE    FKIEND    OF    EOBESOX. 

proof  of  fraudulent  intent  is  not  required  under  the  statute,  nor  is  it  necessary  to  the  offense.  The 
averment  and  proof  of  a  fraudulent  intent  would  make  it  one  of  the  other  offenses  of  the  statute. 
They  are  distinct  offenses,  with  distinct  ingredients.  In  the  case  of  the  sale,  conveyance  or  dis- 
position of  public  money  or  public  property,  the  evident  meaning  of  the  statute  is  that  it  shall  be 
done  alone  by  the  warrant  and  sanction  of  law  ;  otherwise  it  is  unlawful  and  an  offense  punish- 
able as  prescribed. 

WHO  ARE  RESPOiS'SIBLE. 

And,  in  further  discharge  of  their  duty,  your  committee  now  say  that  it  is  apparent  from  the 
whole  proof  in  this  investigation,  that  for  the  indebtedness  of  the  navy  existing  at  the  time  said 
investigation  commenced,  and  that  for  the  unlawful  sale  and  disposition  of  large  amounts  of  valu- 
able property  belonging  to  the  naval  service,  and  the  unlawful  disposition  of  large  sums  of  the 
public  money  appropriated  to  the  naval  service,  George  M.  Robeson,  late  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ; 
VV.  W.  W.  Wood,  late  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering  ;  Isaiah  Hanecom,  late  Chief  of 
the  Bureau  of  Construction  and  Repair,  and  Chiefs  of  the  Bureau  of  Pro\isions  and  Clothing  since 
1872  to  March,  1877,  are  chiefly  responsible. 

Therefore,  in  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  that  the  law  may  be  vindicated,  and  respect  for 
its  mandates  maintained,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  House  to  mark  its  condemnation  of  the  illegal 
practices  of  these  former  officers  of  the  Navy  Department,  and  to  invoke  the  attention  of  the  Ex- 
ecutive Department  of  the  government,  upon  which  rests  the  responsibility  of  further  action  in 
the  premises,  to  these  violations  of  law;  and  accordingly  your  committee  submit  for  the  favorable 
consideration  of  the  House  the  following  resolutions  : 

CONDEMNATION. 

Hesolved,  That  the  acts  and  conduct  of  the  late  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  George  M,  Robeson,  and 
of  the  late  Chiefs  of  the  Bureaus  of  Steam  Engineering,  Construction  and  Repair,  and  Provisions  and 
Clothing,  and  who  were  such  since  May.  1872,  and  as  referred  to  in  this  report,  as  well  as  all  others 
aiding  and  abetting  therein,  in  the  sale  and  disposition  of  public  property,  in  their  method  of  mak- 
ing contracts  and  in  involving  the  government  in  indebtedness  over  and  beyond  the  appropriations 
made  by  Congress  for  the  support  of  the  navy,  deserve  and  should  receive  the  severest  censure  and 
condemnation. 

Resolved Jurther,  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to  de- 
liver certified  copies  of  the  testimony  taken  before  the  Committees  on  Naval  Affairs  and  Naval 
Expenditures  of  this  House,  together  with  the  reports  of  t-aid  committees  and  the  views  of  the 
minority,  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  Attorney-General  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy. 

ANOTHER   COMMITTEE   CONDEMNS,    ALSO. 

Tlio  Committee  on  Expenditures  of  the  Navy  Department  also  presented  an 
investigation  of  that  department,  directing  its  inquiries  especially  to  the  acts  of 
Robeson  during  the  last  months  of  his  administration.  Their  report  fully  cor- 
roborates that  of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Aff^rs.  The  Committee  on  Naval 
Expenditures  report  : 

That  in  their  investigation  of  the  expenditures  of  the  Navy  Department  they  found- 
Extravagance  and  disregard  of  legal  restraint  have  been  recognized  at  almost  every  step  pre- 
vious to  the  beginning  of  the  present  administration  of  the  department. 

We  discovered  that  a  major  part  of  the  indebtedness  was  incurred  several  years  ago,  on  ac- 
count of  work  done  and  material  furnished— long  since  accepted  and  used  by  the  government,  and 
payment  of  which  has  been  rendered  impossible,  for  the  reason  that  the  funds  in  the  treasury  to 
the  credit  of  the  various  bureaus  have  been  recklessly  squandered  in  what  are  technically  known 
as  open  purchases,  amounting  to  millioos  very  often,  without  competition  or  advertisement,  and, 
as  your  committee  maintain,  in  disregard  of  economy  and  in  gross  violation  of  law. 

Notwithstanding  the  plain  terms  of  section  3709,  open  purchases  have  been  the  chief  mode  by 
which  the  Navy  Department  has  been  supplied  with  materials;  not  in  obedience  to  exigency,  but 
vastly  in  exceee  of  its  needs. 

so   THE  PLEA  OP  EMERGENCY  FAILS, 

and  also  the  pretext  of  a  threatened  war  with  Spain,  which  disappeared,  after  a  few  months' 
duration,  in  December,  1875.  The  character  of  this  abuse,  and  under  whose  auspices  it  flourished, 
covering  a  period  of  years,  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  testimony  taken  by  the  committee. 

This  violation  of  law,  without  warrant  in  precedent  of  authority,  has  depleted  the  treasury  to 
the  extent  of  millions  of  dollars,  and  has  been  the  food  on  which  pampered  favorites  have  fattened, 
while  it  has  prevented  the  payment  of  moneys  due  a  meritorious  class  of  creditors,  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  many  have  been  involved  in  bankruptcy,  and  all  of  them  subject  to  irreparable  loss. 

The  amount  of  open  purchases  and  bureau  orders  within  the  last  few  years  aggregates  more 
than  twenty  millions  of  dollars;  all  the  advantages  of  an  open  market  have  been  ignored,  fair  com- 
petition avoided,  and  both  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  law  disregarded. 

At  the  date  of  the  foregoing  contracts,  amounting  to  nearly  four  millions  of  dollars,  there  was 
to  the  credit  of  the  Bureau  of  Construction  and  Repair  only  gl8,357.94  (see  Appendix,  page  251); 
to  the  credit  of  the  Bureau  of  Steam  Engineering,  $36,291.07  (see  Appendix,  page  245).  The  out- 
standing indebtedness  at  the  same  date  amounted  to  more  than  four  millions  of  dollars,  exclusive 
of  that  incurred  by  the  foregoing  contracts. 

It  occurs  to  your  committee  that  the  simple  statement  above  is  sufficient  to  indicate 

THE   ILLEGAL   CHARACTER  OP  THE   CONTRACTS. 

The  honorable  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  in  his  report,  refers  to  Congress  the  question  whether 
these  contracts  shall  be  ratified.  We  unhesitatingly  recommend  their  cancellation,  and  we  charge 
that  their  execution  by  the  bureau  officers,  imder  the  direction  of  the  late  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 


GAKFIELD    THE    FKIEND    OF    ROBESOX.  179 

was  a  most  defiant  and  inescusablc  abuse  of  power,  in  the  very  teeth  of  express  statntes.  The 
provisions  of  law  applicable  are  found  in  sections  3709  and  3732,  printed  in  full  hereinbefore. 

The  late  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  when  cailed  before  the  committee  at  the  instance  of  the  minority, 
attempted  to  excuse  this  violation  of  law,  so  far  as  the  third  of  March  contracts  are  concerned, 
for  the  reasons,  first,  that  payment  of  said  contracts  was  conditional,  dependent  upon  appropria- 
tions, and  that  no  obligation  was  incurred— a  pretention  too  idle  for  refutation  ;  for  if  the  work  had 
been  done  and  accepted,  the  government  would  have  been  bound  in  honor  to  pay  for  it ;  second, 
that  he  had  acted  upon  the  opinion  of  Attorney-General  Taf  t,  pronounced  in  these  words,  to  wit : 
"  The  foregoing  order  (found  in  Appendix,  p.  23)  having  been  submitted  to  me  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  I  state  that  Iperceive  no  legal  objection  to  it,  and  it  seems  to  me  judicious  and  expedi- 
ent, as  well  as  just."  This  opinion  is  dated  March  2,  1877,  the  same  date  of  the  order,  indicating 
that  the  late  attorney-general  devoted  brief  time  in  its  preparation,  which  fact  is  the  only  excuse 
which  your  committee  is  able  to  find  for  such  an  opinion  from  the  highest  law  officer  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

This  opinion  it  is  needless  to  characterize.  Cabinet  officers  are  not  at  liberty  to  violate  the 
law,  even  when  advised  they  may  do  so  by  the  law  officers  of  the  government ;  besides,  the  govern- 
ing statute  precludes  any  misunderstanding  as  to  its  meaning,  for  its  terms  are  plain  and  specific  ; 
nor  can  any  exigency  be  urged  to  justify  the  act. 

THE   KEPUBLICAI^S  AFRAID   OF   THE  llEPORT. 

On  February  10th,  1879,  Mr.  Whitthorne  moved  in  the  House  to  suspend  the 
Rules  so  as  to  fix  the  20th  of  that  month  for  the  consideration  of  the  report  of  the 
Committee  of  Naval  Affairs.  The  motion  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  123  to  107, 
the  required  two-thirds  not  voting  in  the  affirmative.  All  the  Democrats  voted 
aye,  and  all  the  Republicans  no.     General  Garfield  was  present  and  voted  no. 

Another  attempt  was  made  on  the  first  day  of  March  to  fix  a  day  for  the  con- 
sideration of  the  resolutions,  and  the  motion  was  again  defeated,  and  by  almost 
the  same  vote  as  above.     {Record,  vol.  8,  partd,  Sdsess.  45th  Cong.,  p.  2256.) 

The  Republicans  thus  refused  to  permit  a  vote.  They  knew  well  that  the 
House  would  have  condemned  the  management  of  the  Navy  Department  bv  a 
large  majority  if  a  direct  vote  could  have  been  reached. 


180  GARFIELD    CHAMPIONS    GEORGE    F.    SEWARD. 


GARFIELD  CHAMPIONS  GEO.  F.  SEWARD. 


FILIBUSTERS  TO   PREVENT  HIS  IMPEACHMENT. 

George  F.  Seward  was  United  States  Consul-General  at  Shanghai.  In  this 
position,  from  1864  till  promoted  to  be  Minister  to  China,  he  practised  a  system 
of  frauds  and  speculations  which  soon  rendered  him  notorious  everywhere.  He 
charged  enormous  illegal  fees  for  his  consular  services  ;  he  assumed  the  juris- 
diction of  the  vice-consuls  throughout  China,  in  order  that  he  might  increase  his 
fees;  he  compounded  with  the  Chinese  authorities  to  shield  Chinese  offenders  and 
criminals  as  against  American  complainants;  and,  for  great  fees  paid  him,  discon- 
tinued suits  instituted  against  such  criminals  and  offenders.  He  was  guilty  of  so 
many  outrageous  acts  that  the  American  name  became  odious  throughout  the 
East.  His  crimes  became  so  notorious  that  complaints  were  lodged  against 
hin^  at  the  State  Department. 

Unfortunately,  the  laws  regulating  consular  affairs  do  not  provide  that  the  books 
of  United  States  consuls  shall  be  subject  to  official  inspection.  This  weak  place 
in  the  consular  laws  enabled  Seward  to  enjoy  absolute  immunity. 

ROBBING  A  DEAD  MAN'S  ESTATE. 

The  following  are  among  the  illegal  acts  upon  which  articles  of  impeachment 
were  founded  by  the  "Committee  on  Expenditures  in  the  State  Department," 
at  the  third  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress : 

As  Judge  of  the  Consular  Court  at  Shanghai,  in  the  settlement  of  the  estate  of  D.  R.  Shedding, 
formerly  an  American  citizen,  he  charged  and  exacted  from  Engene  McLaughlin,  executor  of 
Sheddings  will  and  his  administrator,  a  fee  of  S620  for  admitting  the  will  to  probate.  This  was  in 
1864.  At  the  time  this  charge  was  made  McLaughlin's  account  was  before  him  as  executor  for 
allowance,  and  was  allowed  by  Seward  for  five  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  Shedding's  estate,  when, 
in  fact,  under  the  law,  McLaughlin  was  only  entitled  to  one  per  cent.  Seward  retained  his  $B20. 
against  the  protest  of  T.  F.  Brown,  who  owned  one-half  of  the  Shedding  estate.  The  probate 
service  rendered  was  a  part  of  the  consul-general's  regular  judicial  duties,  and  for  which  he  was 
not  entitled  to  receive  one  cent. 

Benjamin  Pease,  charged  with  and  proved  to  be  guilty  of  piracy  and  murder,  was  the  same  year 
discharged  from  custody  and  permitted  to  go  at  large  without  trial. 

In  1875   Vice-Consul  Bradford  tried  and  sentenced  some  American  sailors  to  sixty  days  im- 

Erisonment  for  desertion  without  trial  or  hearing.  One  of  these  men  petitioned  Seward  for  a 
earing  to  show  bad  treatment  on  board  ship.  Seward  refused  the  hearing  and  caused  the  sentence 
of  the  petitioner  to  be  extended  to  ninety  days  at  hard  labor  on  bread  and  water,  and  the  sentence 
was  duly  executed. 

He  permitted  this  Vice-Consul  Bradford  to  sit  and  try  causes  and  pronounce  judgments  which 
were  executed;  also  a  man  named  George  Sporter  to  try  a  man  for  murder  and  sentence  him,  and 
enforced  the  sentence  in  both  cases.  Neither  of  these  men  had  authority  to  sit  as  judges,  and 
Seward  had  no  authority  to  permit  them  so  to  sit. 

HE   STOLE   $20,000   OP   GOVERNMENT  MONEY. 

In  1865,  he  took  $20,000,  being  moneys  of  the  United  States  and  known  as  the  Seamen's 
Relief  Fund,  of  which  he  was  disbursing  officer,  and  converted  it  to  his  own  use,  loaned  it  to  a  man 
named  Andrew  Anderson  and  to  the  firm  of  Clapp  &  Co.,  and  to  other  persons,  taking  mortgages 
in  his  own  name,  with  interest  at  eighteen  per  cent.,  which  he  pocketed  as  it  fell  due.  He  fore- 
closed the  mortgage  as  plaintiff  before  himself  as  judge,  ordered  sales  under  the  execution  of  the 
^reclosures,  purchased  the  property  sold  to  satisfy  the  judgments,  and  confirmed  the  titles  to 
himself  by  order  of  himself,  all  the  time  sitting  as  judge.  This  was  one  of  his  neatest  and  most 
skillful  operations. 

Oliver  B.  Bradford,  who  was  vice-consul  at  Shanghai  and  as  such  deputy  Consul-General  of  the 
United  States,  Clerk  of  the  Consular  Court,  and  Consular  Clerk  of  the  United  States,  associated 


GAKFIELD   CHAMPIONS   GEORGE    F.    SEWARD.  181 

himself  with  one  A.  A.  Hayes  and  others  in  an  unlawful  scheme  to  construct  a  railroad  from 
Woosung  to  Shanghai,  This  was  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  Chinese  authorities,  and  against 
treaty  stipulations;  but  Bradford  bought  the  right  of  way,  pretending  that  he  was  about  to  build  a 
common  highway.  Seward  was  well  aware  of  what  his  purpose  was,  and  aided  and  abetted  the 
scheme,  thereby  causing  great  scandal  and  exciting  the  indignation  of  the  Emperor  of  China. 

In  1871  Richard  Phenix  was  United  States  marshal  of  the  Consulate-General  at  Shanghai,  and 
as  such  entitled  to  fees  for  his  services,  the  salary  and  perquisites  of  his  office.  Seward  converted 
to  his  own  use  these  fees,  to  which  Phenix  was  entitled,  making  no  return  to  the  government 
therefor,  but  rendered  false  and  fraudulent  vouchers  therelor.  Seward,  knowing  that  the  fees  of 
Phenix  would  be  very  largely  in  excess  of  his  lawful  salary,  made  a  bargain  with  Phenix  by  which 
the  latter  received  a  stipulated  sum,  and  Seward  received  the  surplus  derived  from  Phanix's  fees, 
which  he  pocketed.  He  then  got  vouchers  from  Phenix  for  the  entire  amount  of  the  latter's  fees, 
which  he  forwarded  to  the  United  States  treasury  and  was  duly  credited  for. 

SHAVING  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

As  disbursing  officer  of  the  United  States,  charged  with  receipts  and  disbursements  on  account 
of  the  Consular  Court,  all  the  money  received  by  him  was  paid  in  Mexican  dollars.  Silver  was 
at  a  premium  over  American  gold  and  over  United  States  currency.  He  uniformly  paid  out  the 
same  ailver  he  received,  the  receipts  being  very  largely  over  the  payments.  But  when  he  made  out 
his  quarterly  accounts  of  receipts  and  disbursements,  he  doctored  them  to  make  them  show  that 
the  receipts  had  been  in  currency  of  the  United  States,  which  had  depreciated  below  the  value  of 
United  States  coin  ;  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  purchase  American  gold  at  a  premium  for  his 
disbursements. 

In  1876  Seward  became  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States 
to  China.  In  this  capacity  he  converted  to  his  own  use  the  salary  of  the  consul-general  at 
Shanghai  for  the  quarter  beginning  January  1st  and  ending  March  31st  of  that  year.  During  this 
quarter  O.  B.  Bradford  was  acting  consul-^neral  at  Shanghai,  and  Seward  forwarded,  or  caused  to 
be  forwarded  a  voucher  to  the  treasury  in  Bradford's  name  for  the  amount  which  he  had  thus  con- 
verted to  his  own  use.  This  compensation  did  not  suffice.  He  also  received  his  salary  as  United 
States  minister  at  Peking,  China,  for  and  during  :he  same  quarter,  the  amount  of  the  latter  being 
$2,637.36,  and  of  the  former  $1,249.98. 

FOR  SELF-PROTECTION  SAVES  BRADFORD. 

On  the  27th  of  March,  1877,  in  order  to  conceal  the  facts  that  while  'he  had  been  consul-general 
at  Shanghai  he  had  made  false  vouchers  and  neglected  to  pay  over  consular  moneys  in  his  hands, 
and  been  guilty  of  extortion  and  other  crimes  as  such  consul-general,  Seward  unlawfully 
removed  John  C.  Myers  from  the  office  of  consul-general  at  Shanghai,  and  appointed  in  his  place 
O.  B.  Bradford,  who  was  advised  of  every  one  of  his  misdemeanors. 

After  his  appointment  as  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  Pekin,  Seward 
interfered  in  behalf  of  O.  B.  Bradford,  vice  consul-general  at  Shanghai,  who  had  been  convicted 
on  a  charge  of  embezzlement  and  was  in  prison,  fie  left  his  post  as  minister  at  Pekin  and  went 
to  Shanghai,  where  he  unlavyf  uUy  endeavored  to  procure  Bradford's  release  and  discharge  from 
jail.  In  this  he  unlawfully  used  his  position  as  minister  to  obtain  the  discharge  of  a  felon,  know- 
ing him  to  be  guilty.  He  succeeded  iu  his  unlawful  purpose.  Bradford  was  released  through 
his  manipulation. 

Mr.  Springer's  committee,  investigating  and  controlling  the  accounts  of  the 
State  Department,  found  it  necessary  to  ask  some  questions  of  Mr.  George  F. 
Seward,  and  that  gentleman  was  subpoenaed  to  come  home  and  bring  his  books 
with  him.  He  came,  but  refused  to  show  his  books,  claiming  that  they  were  his 
private  property. 

THE  PART  GARFIELD  PLAYED. 

Mr.  Seward  was  then  held  to  be  contumacious,  and  was  placed  in  custody. 
While  so  under  arrest  and  in  charge  of  the  Sergeant  at- arms  of  the  House,  Mr. 
Springer,  as  a  question  of  privilege,  presented  articles  of  impeachment  against 
him,  containing  a  long  list  of  charges,  of  which  those  above  referred  to  are  a 
portion.  The  impeachment  articles  were  brought  forward  on  the  3d  of  March. 
1879.  Previous  to  that  date,  on  the  22d  of  February,  Mr.  Springer,  as  a  question 
of  privilege,  endeavored  to  have  Seward  brotight  before  the  bar  of  the  House  to 
show  cause  why  he  should  not  be  dealt  with  for  contempt.  When  he  presented 
the  proposed  order.  Gen.  James  A.  Garfield  sprang  to  his  feet,  saying: 

Mr.  Garfield:  Let  it  be  understood  that  all  points  of  order  are  reserved. 

Mr.  Springer  offered  the  report  of  the  committee,  with  the  views  of  the  minor- 
ity, which  were  ordered  to  be  printed. 

After  this  the  Republican  side  of  the  House,  lead  by  Gen.  Garfield,  Mr.  Hale 
and  others,  began  to  fillibuster  in  order  to  defeat  every  effort  to  bring  Sew- 
ard to  justice.     Only  one  week  of  the  session  was  left. 

On  the  24th  of  February  Mr.  Springer  called  up  the  reports  previously  sub- 
mitted with  reference  to  his  contumacy,  and  asked  that  the  order  directing 


182  GA.EPIELD    CHAMPIONS    GEORGE    F.    SEWARD. 

the  sergeant-at-arms  to  take  Seward  into  custody  and  bring  him  to  the  bar  of 

the  House,  as  recommended  by  the  committee,  be  adopted.     Thereupon  Mr.  Hale 

raised  the  question  of  consideration, 

Mr.  Garfield:  Allow  me  to  make  a  parliamentarv inquiry .  Does  the  Speaker  decide  that  if  the 
question  of  consideration  were  not  raised  it  would  be  competent  for  us  as  a  preliminary  proceeding 
to  bring  this  person  to  our  bar  before  we  decide  the  question  presented  in  this  case?  The  very 
question  how  pending  as  between  the  majority  and  minority  of  the  committee  is,  whether  there  is 
any  cause  for  oringiug  this  man  here  at  all?    We  ought  not  to  bring  him  here  if  there  is  a  proba 


_  ig 
bility  that  on  hearing  the  considerations,  pro  and  corT,  to  be  presented  by  the  two  branches  of  t'ie 
decide  that  there  is  nothing  requiring  him  to  be  brought  here 


_  aqu  _ 
fore  suggest  that  we  ought  not  to  be  called  upon  to  decide  the  question  in  "this  summary  way.  The 
reports 'have  only  come  oefore  us  to-day.  We  did  not  receive  the  Record  yesterday,  as  we  usually 
do  on  Sunday;  and  we  have  only  seen  these  reports  since  the  session  opened  this  morning.  I  hope 
the  gentlemen  on  both  sides  of  the  House  see  the  propriety  of  letting  this  questioa  lie  over  till  to- 
morrow, when  gentlemen  can  read  the  majority  and  minority  reports. 

The  Speaker  said  it  was  a  question  of  privilege. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Very  well;  let  it  lie  over  for  the  present. 

The  Speaker  said  the  refusal  of  a  witness  to  answer  had  always  been  considered  a  question  of 
privilege,  though  he  had  recognized  the  right  of  Mr.  Hale  to  raise  the  question  of  consideration. 

VERY  ANXIOUS  TO  KNOW. 

Mr.  Garfield:  We  certainly  ought  to  know  all  there  is  about  the  case  before  we  are  called  upon  to 
act. 

After  more  debate,  by  consent  the  matter  was  allowed  to  go  over,  to  be  called 
up  again  as  soon  as  the  Legislative  Bill  should  be  disposed  of. 

On  the  26th  of  February  Mr.  Springer  sent  a  preliminary  order  to  the  clerk's 
desk  requiring  George  F.  Seward  to  show  cause  why  he  refused  to  answer  ques- 
tions put  to  him  by  the  Committee  on  Expenditures  in  the  State  Department. 

Mr.  Conger  and  other  Republicans  instituted  dilatory  propositions,  which  were 
kept  up  until  an  adjournment  was  reached. 

On  the  27th  of  February  Mr.  Springer  again  called  up  the  Seward  matter. 

Mr.  Eugene  Hale  at  once  raised  the  question  of  consideration. 

Mr.  Bundy,  from  the  minority  of  the  committee,  submitted  a  resolution  de- 
claring that  the  reasons  already  given  by  Seward  for  refusing  to  answer  {i.  e.,that 
the  consular  books  wanted  were  his  private  books  and  therefore  privileged)  were 
sufficient  to  excuse  his  failure  to  produce  them. 

After  further  skirmishing,  Mr.  Springer  got  a  vote  by  yeas  and  nays  on  the 
question  of  consideration  raised  by  Mr.  Hale.  The  question  being  "Will  the  House 
proceed  to  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  privilege  presented  by  the  gentle- 
man from  Illinois  (Mr.  Springer)"  the  yeas  were  132,  nays  122,  not  voting  36. 
This  was  practically  a  party  vote,  only  one  Republican  (Mr.  Brogden,  N.  C), 
voting  with  the  Democrats.  Gen.  Garfield  resorted  to  his  usual  method  in  such 
cases,  and  on  the  yea-and-nay  call  dodged. 

The  main  question  was  then  seconded,  after  a  struggle  in  which  Mr.  Conger 
was  somewhat  conspicuous. 

Mr.  Springer  then  took  the  floor  and  addressed  the  House  upon  the  question 
of  contumacy  which  had  been  raised  by  Mr.  Seward's  refusal  to  exhibit  the  books 
of  the  Shanghai  Consulate  during  his  incumbency  of  that  office. 

A  long  debate  followed,  upon  the  conclusion  of  which  the  question  recurred 
upon  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Bundy,  declaring  that  Seward  was  excused  from  pro- 
ducing the  consular  books. 

On  this  question  the  yeas  were  119  to  nays  142,  not  voting  29.  This  was  also 
.a  party  vote,  and  Mr.  Garfield  voted  yea. 

So  the  Bundy  minority  report  was  disagreed  to. 

FILIBUSTERING  TO   SAVE  A  ROGUE. 

The  filibustering  continued  for  some  time. 

Mr.  Conger  moved  to  adjourn. 

Mr.  Springer:  Does  the  gentleman  mean  to  filibuster  on  this  question?     The  House  has 


GAKFIELD    CHAMPIONS    GEORGE    F.    SEWARD.  183 

ordered  a  recess  at  half -past  seven  o'clock.  The  House  has  not  adopted  the  resolutions  reported 
by  the  committee.  The  vote  just  taken  was  on  the  minority  reeofutions.  Does  the  gentleman 
Irom  Michigan  desire  to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  resolution  ? 

Mr.  Conger:  I  have  acted  advisedly. 

Mr.  Springer:  The  gentleman,  then,  desires  to  prevent  their  passage  ? 

Mr.  Conger:  I  will  answer  the  gentleman  after  we  have  taken  a  recess. 

The  Speaker  said  it  was  in  order  to  take  a  recess. 

Mr.  Luthell:  The  whole  object  is  to  filibuster  and  defeat  the  investigations  of  the  com- 
mittee. 

Mr.  Springer  insisted  that  a  vote  should  be  had  on  the  resolution  of  the  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee. 

Mr.  Conger  moved  to  take  a  recess,    which  was  lost  by  yeas  87,  nays  130,  not  voting  73. 

Mr.  Garfield  voted  yea. 

The  question  being  on  agreeing  to  the  resolution  of  Mr.  Springer,  to  cite  Seward  before  the 
bar  of  the  House  for  contumacy,  the  vote  was  taken  by  a  division  of  the  House,  resulting  in  yeas 
115,  nays  1,  the  Republicans  refusing  to  vote  to  prevent  a  quorum. 

Several  other  dilatory  motions  were  made,  followed  by  votes  which  disclosed 
the  want  of  a  quorum. 

Finally,  Mr.  Springer  succeeded  in  having  his  report  agreed  to  on  a  rising  vote 
of  105  yeas  to  47  nays,  five  votes  more  than  a  quorum. 

On  the  28th  of  February  the  sergeant-at-arms  presented  George  F.  Seward  at 
the  bar  of  the  House. 

He  was  told  by  the  Speaker  why  he  had  been  placed  under  arrest,  and  pre- 
sented in  response  a  written  defense  of  his  recusancy,  the  principal  feature  of 
which  was  a  quotation  from  the  6th  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  declaring  that 

No  person     *       *      *      s?uiU  be  compelled  in  any  criminal  case  to  be  a  witness  against  hiTuself. 

When  asked  by  the  Speaker  whether  he  declined  to  produce  the  books  he  had 
been  required  to  furnish, 


Mr.  Seward  said:   I  stand  here,  Mr.   Speaker,   for  my  rights  as  a  citizenand  an  officer.  -So 
iHg  as  persons  who  are  my  enemies  are  pursuing  me  befo 
and  papers  which  I  now  hold. 


long  as  persons  who  are  my  enemies  are  pursuing  me  before  that  committee,  I  shall  hold  all  books 


Debate  was  then  had,  during  which  Mr,  McMahon  asked  Mr.  Springer  if  the 
witness  had  made  answer  under  oath  that  they  were  private  or  public  books, 

THE  ROGUE   REFUSED  TO   CRIMINATE   HIMSELF. 

Mr.  Springer:  I  desire  to  explain  that  matter.  The  answer  is  just  this:  the  witness  was  not 
required  to  be  sworn  at  all  before  the  committee  in  the  first  instance;  he  was  only  asked  to  produce 
these  books,  and  a  subpoena  was  directed  to  him.  I  declined  to  ask  that  he  be  sworn;  but  us  chair- 
man of  the  committee  I  put  the  question  to  him  whether  he  would  produce  the  books.  To  tliat 
question  he  made  no  response  except  that  he  would  answer  by  his  counsel. 

I  then  asked  him  the  other  question,  whether  he  would  produce  the  books  at  some  convenient 
time,  at  a  meeting  of  the  committee  to  be  held  thereafter.  To  that  question  he  made  no  other 
response  than  an  answer  by  his  counsel.  Then,  by  order  of  the  committee,  I  asked  him  to  take  a 
qualified  oath  as  to  where  the  books  could  be  found.  He  declined  to  be  sworn  and  sat  mute. 
Another  general  oath  was  tendered  to  him,  not  because  the  committee  wanted  to  ask  him  any 
.question,  but  to  save  a  point  which  was  raised  by  a  member  of  the  committee,  that  unless  he  was 
sworn  he  could  not  be  regarded  as  a  witness.  He  refused  to  take  both  oaths,  and  the  only  object 
of  this  proceeding  is  to  secure  the  books.    That  is  all. 

Considerable  debate  followed,  when  Mr.  Springer  called  for  the  reading  of  his 
resolution,  declaring  the  answer  of  Seward  insufficient,  and  he  in  contempt, 
which  was  done. 

On  seconding  the  demand  for  the  previous  question  on  this  resolution,  tellers 
were  ordered,  and  the  House  refused  to  second  the  demand,  by  yeas  107,  nays 
110. 

Mr.  Bundy  offered  a  substitute  for  Mr.  Springer's  resolution,  which  directed 
that  the  answer  of  Seward  and  all  the  papers  and  evidence  in  the  case  be  referred 
to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  with  instructions  to  report  at  an  early  day  what 
action  the  House  ought  to  take.  The  resolution  was  agreed  to  by  yeas  112  to 
nays  108,  not  voting  70.     Mr.  Garfield  dodged  . 

On  March  1st  Mr.  Springer  raised  a  question  of  privilege  to  submit  the  report 
of  the  committee  in  reference  to  the  impeachment  of  George  F.  Seward. 


184  GARFIRLD    CHAMPIONS    GEORGE    F.    SEWARD. 

Mr.  Garfield  raised  the  point  of  order  that  the  House  was  then  executing  an 
order  under  a  suspension  of  the  rules 

Debate  followed  and  the  Speaker  ruled  that  a  question  of  privilege  tooK  pre- 
cedence of  any  other  business. 

Mb.  Gakfi&li):  Then  I  raise  tbe  question  of  consideration  npon  it.  The  debate  continued 
with  the  usual  dilatory  tactics,  terminating  in  a  motion  to  take  a  recess  till  9J-<^  o'clock  a.  m.  the 
next  day  (Sunday).  This  motion  was  agreed  to  by  yeas  89,  nays  84,  not  voting  117.  Mb.  Gabfield 
(Christian  Statesman)  voted  yjss. 

OARFIELD  LABORED  TO  DEFEAT  IMPEACHMENT. 

On  March  3d  Mr.  Springer  resumed  the  floor  on  the  privileged  question  for  presenting  articles 
of  impeachment  against  Creorge  F.  Seward.  The  articles  were  read,  as  also  were  the  views  of 
the  minority,  opposing  any  further  action  by  the  House  in  the  premises  beyond  a  reference  of  the 
matter  to  the  Judiciary  Committee.  Mr.  Springer  moved  the  previous  question  on  the  original 
resolution  of  impeachment,  and  also  on  the  amendment  offered  by  the  minority;  which  was  agreed 
to  and  the  main  question  ordered.  It  was  the  last  legislative  day.  The  filibustering  to  save 
Seward  was  likely  to  succeed.  Mr.  Springer  now  held  the  floor,  but  Mr.  Butler  (Mass.)  of  the 
Judiciary  Committee  claimed  the  right  to  make  a  report  from  that  Committee  concerning  the  re 
solution  of  contempt  which  had  been  referred  to  them,  with  instructions  to  report  at  an  early  day. 
Mr.  Butler  claimed  that  this  was  as  much  a  privileged  question  as  the  impeachment  matter.  I 
was  a  cognate  subject.  * 

A  good  deal  of  debate  followed  in  which,  in  order  to  further  delay  and  embarrass  the  proceedings 
Mb.  Gabfield  said:  ' 

Permit  me  to  say  a  single  word.  I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  this  House  to  the  fac^ 
that  here  is  a  proceeding  begun  in  the  first  place  by  bringing  a  party  before  the  house  for  contempt- 
He  is  under  arrest:  he  is  under  our  custody,  legally  and  technically.  Our  hand  is  upon  him;  he  is 
by  us  restrained  of  his  liberty.  Now,  while  that  restraint  is  still  upon  him,  while  he  is  still  not  at 
liberty,  a  proposition  is  made  here  to  impeach  him.  Now,  we  on  this  side  say  that  the  two  propo- 
sitions relating  to  this  party  are,  first,  the  question  of  personal  liberty;  and,  second,  the  judicial 
proceeding  against  him.  The  personal  liberty  feature  is  the  higher  privilege  and  ought  to  be  heard 
first.  A  man  ought  to  be  free  when  we  proceed  to  impeach  him.  To  put  him  in  jail  is  law;  to 
strike  him  while  he  is  in  jail,  is  to  say  that  we  will  follow  the  law  of  Rhadamanthus,  to  punish  and 
then  hear.  That  is  not  American  law,  and  is  not  American  liberty.  The  question  of  nis  liberty 
ought  to  be  heard  first. 

This  was  mere  buncomb.  It  had  just  been  announced  that  Seward  was  dis- 
charged from  arrest. 

The  Speaker  decided  that  the  Springer  resolutions  of  impeachment  were  of  higher  privilege 
than  the  proposed  report  of  Mr.  Butler. 
Mr.  Banks  appealed  from  the  decision. 
Mr.  Springer  moved  to  lay  the  appeal  on  the  table. 
Mr.  Banks  demanded  the  yeas  and  nays,  which  were  ordered. 

THEY  TOOK  THE   RESPONSIBILITY. 

After  further  debate  and  dilatory  proceedings,  Mr.  Springer  said : 

If  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  wish  to  filibuster  until  the  hour  of  adjournment  to-morrow, 
for  the  purpose  of  preventing  one  of  their  own  party  friends  for  being  impeached  for  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors,  they  can  do  so,  but  they  must  take  the  responsibility  for  it  before  the  country. 

The  filibustering  continued,  and  finally  took  the  shape  of  a  motion  by  Mr. 
Conger  for  a  recess  of  30  minntee,  which  was  not  agreed  to.  Yeas  17,  nays  221, 
not  voting  52. 

Gen.  Garfield  dodged  this  vote. 

The  House  then  voted  on  Mr.  Bundy's  substitute,  referring  the  whole  matter  to 
the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  it  was  rejected  by  yeas  99,  nays  120,  not  voting  71. 

Gen.  Garfield  voted  yea. 

More  dilatory  proceedings  followed,  and  Mr.  Conger  demanded  a  separate  vote 
on  the  impeachment  resolutions. 

Gen.  Garfield  insisted  on  voting  on  the  17  articles  of  impeachment  separately, 
and  then  upon  the  resolutions  of  impeachment  separately. 

The  Speaker  ruled  that  the  usual  proceeding  of  the  House  in  similar  cases 
must  be  followed;  that  is,  to  vote  on  the  resolutions  first  and  the  several  charges 
afterward. 

On  the  adoptiou  of  the  resolutions  the  Republicans  left  the  House  without  a 
quorum,  the  vote  standing:  yeas  109,  nays  16,  not  voting  165.   On  this  vote  Gen. 
Garfield  went  with  the  solid  republican  side  and  dodged. 
A  call  of  the  House  was  ordered,  and  then  withdrawn.    Another  vote  waa 


GA.RFIELD    CHAMPIONS    GEORGE   P.    SEWAKD.  185 

then  taken  on  agreeing  to  the  resolutions,  which  disclosed  another  lack  of  a 
quorum,  the  vote  standing  yeas  106,  nays  2,  not  voting  182.  Gen.  Garfield 
again  dodged.     There  was  more  filibustering  and  sharp  talk. 

Finally,  a  compromise  was  effected  by  which  the  main  question  was  recon- 
sidered, and  the  subject  was  postponed  untill  11  o'clock  a.  m. 

This  was  the  final  disposition  of  the  case.  It  was  impossible  to  secure  action 
on  the  impeachment  resolutions,  because  the  Republicans  would  always  leave  the 
House  without  a  quorum.  Mr.  Springer,  knowing  that  ^there  were  important 
measures  on  the  Speaker's  table  necessary  to  be  acted  on,  regular  appropriation 
bills,  conference  reports,  and  other  important  bills  which  it  was  imperatively 
necessary  to  pass,  did  not  desire  to  consume  in  a  fruitless  struggle  the  three  re- 
maining hours  of  the  session.  He  had  discharged  his  full  duty  in  the  premises. 
He  yielded  to  the  inevitable,  and  the  Republican  party,  with  James  A.  Garfield 
as  one  of  its  chief  managers,  took  the  responsibility  before  the  country  of  saving 
from  impeachment  an  officer  of  the  government,  tainted  with  every  kind  of  of- 
ficial malpractice,  guilty  of  numerous  misdemeanors.  To-day  Gcorge  F.  Seward 
is  the  representative  of  the  United  States  to  the  Empire  of  China.  The  failure  to 
impeach  him  gave  a  fraudulent  administration  the  opportunity  it  had  longed  for. 
Seward  went  back  to  China,  without  even  a  film  of  whitewash  to  cover  his  mul- 
titudinous official  misdeeds. 


186  THE    ELECTORAL    COMMISSION. 


THE  ELECTORAL  COMMISSION. 


GARFIELD  S  DOUBLE   COURSE. 

General  Garfield  as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  discussing 
the  Electoral  Commission  bill,  and  afterwards  as  a  member  of  the  Electoral 
Commission,  was  inconsistent.  It  would  be  unnatural  for  him  to  be  otherwise. 
He  believed  that  the  bill  as  it  was  reported  from  the  "Joint  Select  Committee  of 
the  two  Houses  on  Counting  the  Electoral  Votes,"  and  as  it  passed  and  became  a 
law,  gave  Congress  and  the  Commission  the  right  and  the  power  to  go  behind 
the  returns.  He  feared  the  Commission  would  exercise  this  power.  He  knew  if 
it  did,  Mr.  Tilden  must  be  declared  to  have  been  elected  President  of  the  United 
States,  for  Mr.  Garfield,  as  one  of  the  visiting  statesmen  to  Louisiana,  fully  un- 
derstood that  Mr.  Tilden  had  carried  the  electoral  vote  of  that  State.  Therefore 
he  opposed  the  bill  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  speaking  of  the  power 
this,t)!ill  conferred,  he  said: 

HE   DECLARED  IK  THE   HOUSE  Til  AT  THE  LAW  EMPOWERED  THE   COMMISSION  TO 
GO  BEHIND  THE  RETURNS. 

This  "bill  createa  and  places  in  the  control  of  Congress  the  enginery  by  which  Presidents  can 
be  made  and  nnmade  at  the  caprice  of  the  Senate  and  the  House.  It  grasps  all  the  power,  and 
holds  states  and  electors  as  tovs  in  its  hands.  It  assu?nes  the  Hght  of  Congress  to  go  down  into  the 
Colleges  an^  inquire  into  cdl  the  acts  and  facts  connected  with  their  work.  It  assumes  t/ie  right  of 
Congress  to  go  down  into  the  states  to  review  the  act  of  every  officer,  to  open  every  ballot  box,  and  to 
passjudgment  upon  every  ballot  cast  by  seven  tnilliotis  of  Americans.''''         *         *         *         * 

But  double  returns  from  a  state  are  to  be  eent  to  a  mixed  commission,  consisting  of  an  equal 
number  of  members  from  each  House  of  Confess  and  the  Supreme  Court.  That  commission  is  vir- 
tually clothed  with  2W2V€r  to  hear  and  determine  tlie  vote  of  any  state,  and  its  decision  is  the  law, 
finab  and  conclusive,  unless  both  Houses  shall  concur  in  reversing  the  decree.       *      *      *      * 

They  may  'take  into  view  such  petitions,  depositions,  and  other  papers,  if  any,  as  shall  by 
the  Constitution  be  competent  and  pertinent  in  such  consideration.'  They  may  also  send  for  per- 
sons and  papers,  because  they  haye  all  the  powers  possessed  by  the  two  Houses  or  either  of  them, 
and  this  House  certainly  has  shown  its  power  to  send  for  persons  and  papers  beyond  any  other  of 
its  great  powers. 

The  first  test  vote  on  the  Electoral  Commission  came  upon  the  question  whether 
it  would  receive  evidence  in  the  Florida  case.  By  a-vote  of  8  to  7  the  Commis- 
sion— 

Ordered,  That  no  evidence  will  be  received  or  considered  which  was  not  submitted  to  the  Con- 
vention of  the  two  Houses  by  th'i  President  of  the  Senate  except  such  as  relates  to  the  eligibility 
of  F.  C.  Humphreys,  one  of  the  Electors. 

The  only  thing  the  President  of  the  Senate  submitted  to  the  Convention  of  the 
two  Houses  was  the  certificates  of  Electoral  votes. 

HE   WENT   BACK  ON   HIMSELF   AS   A  MEMBER  OP   THE   COMMISSION. 

In  his  opinion  as  a  member  of  the  Commission,  on  this  question  of  receiving 
evidence,  General  Garfield  says — 

Though  I  opposed  the  bill  in  the  House  and  regarded  it,  as  I  still  do,  in  conflict  with  the  con- 
stitutional plan  of  counting  the  electoral  vote,  my  opinion  was  overruled  by  the  two  Houses  :  and 
shall  do  all  in  my  power  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  act  in  its  spirit  and  letter.  And  this 
being  one  to  correct  the  act  itself  to  ascertain  our  powers  and  duties  under  it. 

This  law  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  it  is  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the  two  Houses  of  Con 
gress  meeting  together,  to  count  the  votes  for  President  and  Vice-President. 


THE    ELECTOEAL   COiOHSSION^.  ISiT 

It  prescribes  the  order  of  proceeding  to  perform  that  duty.  When  the  certificates  of  any  state 
are  opened,  if  no  objection  be  made,  the  votes  of  that  state  shall  at  once  be  counted.  If  objection 
be  made,  two  modea  of  procedure  are  provided,  one  for  a  single  return,  and  another  for  a  double 
return.  The  two  Houses  pass  upon  objections  to  a  single  return  ;  this  Commission  is  required  to 
act  in  cases  of  double  returns.  In  either  case  the  action  is  to  be  according  to  the  Constitution  and 
the  law.  In  each  the  object  to  be  reached  is  to  count  the  lawful  votes  of  the  state.  The  provisions 
of  the  act  which  regulates  the  conduct  of  the  two  Houses  in  cases  of  single  returns  will  throw 
light  upon  the  duty  of  the  Commission  in  cases  of  double  returns.  The  first  section  of  the  act  pro- 
vides that  in  cases  where  there  is  but  one  return  from  a  state,  and  an  objection  is  made  to  the 
count,  the  two  Houses  shall  separate  and  each  shall  act  upon  such  objection.  The  fourth  section 
provides  that— 

When  the  two  Houses  separate  to  decide  upon  an  objection  that  may  have  been  made  to  the 
counting  of  any  electorial  vote,  or  votes,  from  any  state,  or  upon  an  objection  to  a  report  of  the 
commissioners,  or  other  questions  arising  under  this  act,  each  Senator  or  Representative  may  speak 
to  such  objection  or  question  ten  minutes,  and  not  oftener  than  once ;  but  after  such  debate  shall 
have  lasted  two  hours  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  each  House  to  put  the  main  question  without  further 
debate. 

A  PUERILE  ARGUMENT. 

Can  it  be  claimed  that  this  provision  implies  the  hearing  of  testimony  and  the  trial  of  a  contest  ? 
The  whole  time  allowed  to  the  two  Houses  to  decide  the  gravest  objections  that  may  be  raised  to 
the  counting  of  the  vote  of  any  state  or  of  any  elector  is  but  two  hours  ;  and  that  brief  period  is 
devoted,  not  to  the  hearing  of  evidences,  but  to  debate.  There  is  no  provision  in  the  section  for 
taking  testimony  or  trying  disputed  questions  of  fact.  The  reasonable  construction  of  the  section 
is  that  the  two  Houses  decide  any  question  of  law  or  any  matter  of  informality  which  may  appear 
on  the  face  of  the  certificate,  opened  by  the  president  of  the  Senate.  It  has  been  said  by  an 
honorable  member  of  the  Commission  that,  in  deciding  upon  an  objection  to  a  single  return,  the 
two  Houses  may  exercise  their  acknowledged  power  of  inquiry  by  sending  for  persons  and  papers, 
and  may  use  testimony  already  taken  by  their  committee ;  but  it  must  De  remembered  that  the 
contents  of  the  certificates  on  which  the  objection  is  based,  can  be  known  by  neither  House  nor  by 
any  member  of  either  House  until  it  is  opened  in  their  presence  ;  for  the  objection  provided  for  in 
the  act  is  "  to  any  vote  or  paper  from  a  state."  Certainly  it  will  not  be  claimed  that  any  testimony 
taken,  before  the  contents  of  the  sealed  package  are  made  known,  can  be  lawful  and  valid  testi- 
mony to  sustain  an  objection  made  afterward.  Such  testimony  might  be  ex  parte,  misleading  and 
false  ;  and  yet  in  the  two  hours  allowed  by  the  bill  it  might  be  wholly  impossible  to  procure  evi- 
dence to  overcome  it. 

As  a  member  of  the  House  General  Garfield  declared  upon  his  honor  that  the 
law  which  created  the  Commission  conferred  the  power  to  "go  down  into  the 
states  and  review  the  act  of  every  officer  to  open  every  ballot  box,  and  to  pass 
judgment  upon  every  ballot  cast  by  seven  millions  of  Americans."  *  *  * 
"That  the  commission  is  virtually  clothed  with  power  to  hear  and  determine  the 
vote  of  any  state."  *  *  *  "They  may  also  send  for  persons  and  papers, 
because  they  have  all  the  powers  possessed  by  the  two  Houses  or  either  of  them." 
Comment  on  such  inconsistency  certainly  is  unnecessary.  The  order  made  in  the 
Florida  case  was  repeated  in  the  Louisiana  case  by  the  same  8  to  7  vote,  General 
Garfield  of  course  voting  with  and  making  up  the  eighth. 

GARFIELD  CALLED  TO  ACCOUNT. 

Mr.  Hewitt,  of  New  York,  said  :  "Although  I  am  physically  in  no  condition  to 
address  the  House,  I  feel  nevertheless  that  I  have  a  duty,  a  painful  duty  to  per- 
form which  can  no  longer  be  deferred.     The  decision  rendered  this  day  is  the 

COMPLETION  OF  THE  FRAUDULENT  SCHEME 

for  counting  in  a  President  who  was  not  elected,  and  for  counting  out  a  President 
who  was  elected  by  the  votes  of  the  people  of  this  country.  The  consummation 
of  this  scheme  was  a  foregone  conclusion  from  the  hour  when  the  decision  in  the 
Florida  case  was  rendered.  It  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  there  is  in  this  country 
a  deep-seated  feeling  of  injury,  a  keen  sense  of  wrong.  It  comes  up  from  the 
heart  of  the  people,  from  every  class  ;  from  the  lawyer,  the  doctor,  the  clergy- 
man, as  well  as  from  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  and  the  laborer.  I  have  been 
overwhelmed  by  letters  from  every  part  of  the  country  appealing  to  me  to  do 
something  that  would  make  this  outrage  a  nullity.  These  people  feel,  not  that  they 
have  lost  the  fruits  of  victory ;  that  is  not  what  stirs  their  indignation — they  feel  that 
they  were  willing  to  confide  their  case  to  a  just  tribunal ;  that  they  did  confide 
their  case  to  a  tribunal  whose  judgment  is  not  a  just  one  ;  that  they  and  the 
members  of  this  House  who  voted  for  that  tribunal,  and  the  members  of  the  com- 


188  THE    ELECTORAL    COMMISSION. 

mittee  who  framed  the  bill  creating  it,  have  been  deceived.  They  ask  me  where 
the  responsibility  lies.  They  ask  me  whether  this  feeling  is  well  founded  ;  I  am 
compelled  to  say  that  it  is.  It  is  my  purpose  in  the  few  minutes  that  I  now  have 
to  try  to  fix  that  responsibility. "         *        *        *        * 

THE   RESPONSIBILITY   FIXED. 

"Now  as  to  the  three  judges.  I  propose  to  say  only  this  :  they  took  no  part  in 
the  formation  of  this  measure  ;  they  made  no  request  to  sit  upon  this  tribunal ; 
they  were  put  there,  so  far  as  we  know,  without  their  consent,  and  probably 
against  their  will.  Their  action,  therefore,  is  to  be  judged  not  by  us,  but  by  a 
higher  tribunal,  to  whom  they  must  render  their  account  at  the  last.  In  regard 
to  the  other  members  of  that  tribunal,  they  are  to  be  judged  by  the  record  which 
they  have  made  in  committee  and  in  the  discussions  of  the  two  Houses.  Of 
Judge  Edmunds  I  desire  to  bear  witness  that  at  no  time  to  my  knowledge  did  he 
express  an  opinion  as  to  the  power  of  this  Commission  to  go  behind  the  returns. 
It  might  possibly  have  been  inferred  from  his  actions  on  previous  occasions  that 
he  entertained  the  view  that  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  could  go  behind  the 
returns ;  but  neither  in  his  speech  on  the  bill  nor  elsewhere  do  I  know  that  he 
ever  expressed  that  view.  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  undoubtedly  expressed  the  opinion 
that  there  was  no  such  power. 

MR.    GARFIELD'S  POSITION. 

"Mr.  Garfield  in  the  discussion  in  this  House  unquestionably  expressed  the 
opinion  that  there  was  such  power.  Mr.  Morton,  in  the  discussion  in  the  Senate, 
undoubtedly  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  the  bounden  duty  of  the  tribunal 
to  go  behind  the  returns.  In  replying  to  the  Senator  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Thurman) 
he  stated  in  unmistakable  language  that  the  Senator  from  Ohio  had  declared  that 
it  was  the  judgment  of  every  Democratic  member  of  the  House  and  of  the  Senate 
that  there  was  power  to  go  behind  the  returns,  and  without  this  power  the  bill 
could  not  have  received  a  single  Democratic  vote  in  either  House  ;  and  it  was  the 
judgment  of  every  Democrat  who  sat  upon  the  committee  that  there  was  such 
power.     {Becord  Forty-fourth  Congress,  second  session,  vol.  5,  part  3,  page  1914.) 


GARFIELD  THE  CHIEF  OF  THE  CONSPIRATORS. 


HE  WAS  COUNSEL,  CONGRESSMAN  AND  JUDGE. 

Garfield's  nomination  means  the  indorsement  and  approval  in  the  most  positive  and 
offensive  manner  possible  of  the  presidential  fraud  of  1876-77.  He  Jiad  more  to  do 
with  it  than  any  other  man,  and  was  the  only  man  who  occupied  toward  it  a  double 
relation.  After  the  election  Garfield  went  to  New  Orleans  by  request  of  Gen.  Grant, 
without  authority  of  law,  as  a  partisan.  He  went  there  to  assist  his  party  in  making 
up  a  case,  and  ajter  his  return  to  Washington,  of  all  his  associates  he  was  tJhe  only 
man  who  took  his  seat  upon  the  Electoral  Commission.  By  every  sentiment  of  fair 
play  lie  shxmld  have  been  excluded  from  the  jury  box.  By  his  own  sworn  statement  of 
what  he  did  in  JSfew  Orleans,  Garfield  had  charge  of  the  returns  from  West  Felicia/na 
parish.  In  one  of  the  inner  rooms  of  Packard's  Custom  House  lie  did  his  work,  ex- 
amined the  affidavits,  and  when  tliey  were  not  sufficiently  fuU,  he  prepared  or  had 
prepared  additional  interrogatories  to  bring  tliem  within  the  rules  adopted  by  the  re- 
twning  board.  The  testimony,  so  received  by  Garfield,  went  back  to  tJie  returning 
board,  and  the  result  was  that  West  Feliciana  with  its  Democratic  majority  was 
thrown  out.  In  Washington,  Garfield's  vote  was  that  Congress  could  not  go  behind  tM 
returns  thus  made.  As  agent  for  his  party  he  helped  to  make  returnsby  manipulating 
the  evident/  and  as  juryman  for  the  nation  he  lueld  such  evidence  as  conclusive  and 
binding. 


THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES.  I89 


THKEE     MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 


I.     TROOPS  AT  THE  POLLS.     II.     PARTISAN  JURY  LAWS.     IIL     PARTISAN    ELECTION 

LAWS — GEN.  Garfield's  devious  course — his  inconsistent  record. 

A  majority  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  represented  by  the  Democratic 
majority  in  Congress,  complained  of ,  and  demanded  the  redress  of  threejnonst/ous 
/grievances : 

First.  The  power  conferred,  by  section  2002  Revised  Statutes,  upon,  and  exer- 
cised by,  the  Executive  Department  of  the  government,  to  use  the  military  and 
naval  forces  of  the  United  States  "to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls." 

Second.  The  power  conferred,  by  sections  820  and  821,  Revised  Statutes,  upon, 
and  exercised  by,  the  Judicial  Department  of  the  government,  to  pack  juries, 
and  thereby  interfere  with  and  pervert  the  administration  of  justice. 

Third.  The  power  conferred  by  sections  2016,  2017,  2018,  2019,  2020,  2021, 
2022,  2023,  2024,  2025,  2026,  2027,  2028  and  2031  and  5522  Revised  Statutes,  upon, 
and  exercised  by  Federal  officers,  appointed  by  irresponsible  partisans,  to  inter- 
fere with  state  elections,  and  to  intimidate,  persecute  and  control  duly  qualified 
electors  of  the  state. 

The  Democratic  majority  in  Congress  proposed  to  redress  these  grievances  by 
amending  the  sections  of  the  Revised  Statutes  which  made  this  possible.  "We 
print  the  sections  with  the  parts  to  be  repealed  in  italics. 

Section  2002,  Revised  Statutes,  is  as  follows : 

Sbc.  2002.  No  military  or  naval  officer,  or  other  person  engaged  in  the  civil,  military,  or  naval 
service  of  the  United  States,  shall  order,  bring,  keep,  or  have  under  his  authority  or  control,  any 
troops  or  armed  men,  at  the  place  where  any  general  or  special  election  is  held  in  any  state,  unless 
it  be  necessary  to  repel  the  armed  enemies  of  the  United  States,  or  to  keep  the  peace  at  Vie  polls. 

JURY    LAWS    TO    BE    REPEALED. 

Sections  820  and  821,  Revised  Statutes,  are  as  follows: 

Sec.  820.  The  following  shall  he  causes  of  disqualification  and  challenge  of  grand  and  petit  jurors 
in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  in  addition  to  the  causes  existing  by  virtue  of  section  eight  hundred 
and  twelve,  namely:  Without  duress  and  coercion  to  have  taken  up  arms  or  to  have  joined  any  insur 
rection  or  rebellion  against  the  United  States  ;  to  have  adhered  to  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  giv- 
ing it  aid  and  comfort;  to  have  given,  directly  or  indirectly,  any  assistance  in  money,  arms,  Jwrses, 
clothes,  or  anything  whatever,  to  or  for  the  use  or  benefit  of  any  person  whom  the  giver  of  such  assist- 
ance knew  to  have  joined,  or  to  be  about  to  join,  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  or  to  have  resisted,  or 
to  be  about  to  resist,  with  force  of  arms,  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  whom  7ie 
had  good  ground  to  believe  to  have  joined,  or  to  be  about  to  join,  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  or  to 
have  resisted,  or  to  be  about  to  resist,  with  force  of  arms,  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United 
States;  or  to  have  counseled  or  advised  any  person  to  join  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  or  to  resist 
with  force  of  arms  the  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Sec.  821.  At  every  term  of  any  court  of  the  United  States  tJie  district  attorney,  or  other  person  act- 
ing on  behalf  of  the  United  States  in  said  court,  may  trhove,  and  tJie  court,  in  their  discretion.  m<iy 
require  the  derk  to  tender  to  every  person  summoned  to  serve  as  a  grand  or  petit  juror,  or  venireman 
or  talesman,  in  said  court,  the  following  oath  or  affirmation,  namely:    "  Tou  do  solemnly  swear  (or 


190  THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES. 

affirm)  that  you  tviU  support  tJie  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  A?nerica;  that  you  have  riot, 
without  duress  and  constraint,  taken  tip  ai^ms  or  joined  any  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  tM 
United  States;  that  ymihavenot  adhered  to  any  insicn^ection  or  rebellion,  giving  it  aid  and  comfort; 
that  you  have  not,  directly  or  indirectly,  given  any  assistance  in  money  or  any  other  thing,  to  any 
person  or  persons  ivJiom  you  knew,  or  7iad  good  ground  to  believe,  to  have  joined,  or  to  be  about  to 
join,  said  bisui'rection  or  rebellion,  or  to  have  resisted,  or  to  be  about  to  resist,  ivithfoi'ce  of  arms,  the 
execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States;  and  that  youhavs  not  c»unseled  or  advised  any  person  to 
join  any  insurrection  or  rebellion  against,  or  to  resist  with  force  of  amis,  the  laws  of  the  United 
States."  Any  2)^rson  declining  to  take  said  oath  shall  be  discharged  by  the  court  from  serving  on  the 
grand  or  petit  jury,  or  venire,  to  which  he  may  have  been  summoned. 

SECTIONS    OF    FEDERAL    ELECTION    LAWS  TO   BE    AMENDED. 

Sections  2016  to  2028  and  2031  and  5522,  Revised  Statutes,  are  as  follows: 

Sec.  2016.  Tfie  supervisors  of  election,  so  a2)])ointed,  are  authorized  and  required  to  attend  at  all 
times  and  places  fixed  f(yr  the  registration  of  voters,  wTw,  being  registered,  would  be  entitled  to  vote  for 
a  representative  or  delegate  in  Congress,  and  to  challenge  any  person  offering  to  register;  to  attend 
at  all  times  and  places  when  the  names  of  registered  voters  may  be  marked  for  challenge,  and  to 
cause  such  names  registered  as  they  may  deem  prefer  to  be  so  marked;  to  make,  when  requii'ed,  the 
lists,  or  either  of  them,  provided  for  in  section  two  thousand  and  twenty-six,  and  verify  the  same; 
and  uj)on  any  occasion,  and  at  any  time  when  in  attendance  upon  the  duty  herein  2)resc?'ibed,  to 
personally  inspect  and  scrutinize  such  registry,  and  for  jmrposes  of  identification  to  affix  their  sig- 
nature to  eachjyage  of  tlie  original  list,  and  of  each  copy  of  any  such  list  of  registered  voters,  atmch 
tim£s,  upon  each  day  when  any  name  may  be  received,  entered,  or  registered,  and  in  such  manner  as 
will,  in  their  judgment,  detect  and  expose  the  improper  or  wrongful  rsiruyval  therefrom,  or  addiUan 
Uwreto,  of  any  name. 

Sec.  2017.  The  supervisors  of  election  are  authorized  and  required  to  attend  at  all  times  and 
places  for  holding  elections  of  representatives  or  delegates  in  Congress,  and  for  counting  the 
votes  cast  at  such  elections;  to  challenge  any  vote  offered  by  any  person  whose  legal  qualifications 
the  supervisors,  or  either  of  them,  may  doubt;  to  be  and  remain  where  the  ballot-boxes  are  kept  at 
all  times  after  the  polls  are  open  until  every  vote  cast  at  such  time  and  place  has  been  counted,  the 
canvass  of  all  votes  polled  wholly  completed,  and  the  proper  and  requisite  certificates  or  returns 
made,  whether  the  certificates  or  returns  be  required  under  any  law  of  the  United  States,  or  any 
State,  territorial,  or  municipal  law,  and  to  personally  inspect  and  scrutinize,  from  time  to  time, 
and  at  all  times,  on  the  day  of  election,  the  manner  in  which  the  voting  is  done,  and  the  way  and 
method  in  which  the  poll-books,  registry-list,  and  tallies  or  check-books,  whether  the  same  ai» 
required  by  any  law  of  the  United  States,  or  any  state,  territorial,  or  municipal  law,  are  kept. 

Sec.  2018.  To  the  end  that  each  candidate  for  the  office  of  representative  or  delegate  in  Congress 
may  optain  the  benefit  of  every  vote  for  him  cast,  the  sujyervisors  of  election  are,  and  each  qf  them  is, 
required  to  personaJJ^y  scrutinize,  count,  and  canvass  each  ballot  in  their  electiou  district  </r  voting 
•precinct  cast,  wJiatev&r  may  be  t/ie  indorsement  on  the  ballot,  or  in  ivhatever  box  it  may  have  been 
placed  or  be  found;  to  make  and  forward  to  the  officer  who,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  sec- 
tion two  thousand  and  twenty-five,  has  been  designated  as  the  chief  supervisor  of  the  judicial  district 
in  which  the  city  or  town  wJierein  they  w,ay  serve,  acts,  such  certificates  and  returns  of  all  such  bal- 
lots as  such  officer  may  direct  and  require,  and  to  attach  to  the  registry  list,  and  any  and  gU  copies 
thereof,  and  to  any  certificate,  statement,  or  return,  whether  the  same,  or  any  part  or  portion  thereof, 
be  required  by  any  law  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  state,  territorial,  or  municipal  law,  any  state- 
ment touching  the  truth  or  accuracy  of  the  registry,  or  the  truth  or  fairness  of  the  election  and  can- 
vass, which  the  supervisoi's  of  the  election,  or  either  (Jf  them,  mxiy  desire  to  make  or  attach,  or  which 
should  properly  and  hxmestly  be  made  or  attached,  in  order  that  the  facts  may  become  known. 

Sec.  2019.  The  better  to  enable  the  supervisors  of  election  to  discharge  their  duties,  they  are  at>- 
thorized  and  directed,  in  their  respective  election  districts  or  voting  precincts,  on  the  day  of  regis- 
tration, on  the  day  when  registered  voters  may  be  marked  to  be  challenged,  and  on  the  day  of  elec- 
tion, to  take,  occupy,  and  remain  in  such  position,  from  time  to  time,  whether  before  or  behind 
the  ballot-boxes,  as  will,  in  their  judgment,  best  enable  them  to  see  each  person  offering  himself 
for  re.gistration  or  offering  to  vote,  and  as  will  best  conduce  to  their  scrutinizing  the  manner  in 
which  the  registration  or  voting  is  being  conducted;  and  at  the  closing  of  the  polls  for  the  recep- 
tion of  votes,  they  are  required  to  place  themselves  in  such  position,  in  relation  to  the  ballot- 
boxes, /or  the  purjjose  of  engaging  in  the  work  of  canvassing  the  ballots,  as  will  enable  them  to  fully 
perform  the  duties  in  respect  to  such  canvass  provided  herein,  and  shall  there  remain  until  every 
duty  in  respect  to  such  canvass,  certificates,  returns  and  statements  has  been  wholly  completed. 

Sec.  2020.  When  in  any  election  district  or  voting  2)reci}ict  in  any  city  or  town,  f»r  which  there 
have  been  appointed  supervisors  of  election  for  any  electio?i  at  which  a  representative  or  delegate  in 


aHREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  lOl 

Congress  is  voted  f(/r,  the  suj)e7Tisors  of  election  are  not  allowed  to  exercise  and  discharge,  fuUy  and 
freely.,  and  witlwut  l/rihery,  solicitation,  int€rfe7'ence,  hindrance,  DWlestation,  violence  or  threats 
thereof,  on  the  part  of  any  person,  all  the  duties,  obligations,  and  jxnvei's  confei-red  upon  them  by  lato, 
the  supervisors  of  election  shall  make  2»'om2)t  report,  under  oath,  loithhi  ten  days  after  tJie  day  of 
election  to  the  officer  toho,  in  accordance  with  the  irrovisions  of  section  two  thousand  and  twenty-five, 
has  been  designated  as  the  chief  supervisor  of  the  judicial  district  in  w?iich  tlie  city  or  town  wherein 
they  served,  acts,  of  the  maimer  and  means  by  which  they  were  not  so  allowed  to  fully  and  freely  ea> 
ei'cise  and  discharge  the  duties  and  obligations  required  and  imjiosed  herein.  And  ujyon  receiving 
any  such  repoi^t,  the  chief  sujm'vism',  aciiig  both  in  such  capacity  and  officially  as  a  com?nissioner  of 
tlie  Circuit  Court,  shall foi'thwith  examine  into  all  the  facts;  and  lie  shall  have  jxywer  to  subjmna 
and  compel  the  attendance  before  him  of  any  witness,  and  to  administer  oaths  and  take  testi/nwiy  in 
respect  to  the  charges  made;  and,  prior  to  (he  assembling  of  the  Congress  for  which  any  such  repre- 
sentative or  delegate  was  voted  for,  he  shall  file  with  tlie  derk  of  the  House  of  Rep7'esentatives  all  the 
evidence  by  him  taken,  all  information  by  him  obtained,  and  all  reports  to  him  made. 

Sec.  3021.  Whenever  an  election  at  which  representatives  or  delegates  in  Congress  are  to  be  chmen 
is  held  in  any  city  or  town  of  tiventy  thousand  inhabitants  or  upward,  the  marshal  for  the  district  in 
which  the  city  or  town  is  situated  shall,  on  the  application,  in  writing,  of  at  least  two  citizens  resid' 
in//  in  such  city  or  town,  aj)point  special  deputy  marshals,  whose  duty  it  shall  be,  when  required 
thereto,  to  aid  and  assist  the  supervisors  of  election  in  the  verification  of  any  lists  of  2)ersons  who  may 
have  registered  or  voted;  to  attend  in  each  election  district  or  voting  jn'ecinct  at  the  times  arid  places 
fixed  for  the  registration  of  voters  and  at  all  times  or  places  when  and  where  the  registration  may  by 
law  be  scrutinized,  and  the  names  of  registered  voters  be  marked  for  challenge;  and  also  to  attend, 
at  all  times  for  hxMing  elections,  tlie  polls  in  such  district  or  precinct. 

Sec.  2022.  The  marshal  and  his  general  deputies,  and  such  special  deputies,  shall  keep  th£  peace, 
and  supjjort  and  jrrotect  the  supervisors  of  election  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties,  pre- 
serve order  at  such  jJlaces  of  registration  and  at  such  polls,  prevent  fraudulent  registration  and 
fraudulent  voting  thereat,  or  fraudulent  conduct  on  the  part  of  any  officer  of  election,  and  immediate- 
ly, either  at  the  place  of  registration  or  polling  place,  or  elsewhere,  and  either  before  or  after  register- 
ing or  voting,  to  ai^est  and  take  into  custody,  with  or  without  process,  any  person  who  commits,  or 
attempts  or  offers  to  commit,  any  of  the  acts  or  offenses  prohiMted  herein,  or  who  commits  offense 
against  the  laws  of  the  United  States;  but  rw  person  shall  be  arrested  without  jyrocess  for  any  offense 
not  committed  in  tlie  presence  of  the  m/irshal  or  his  general  or  special  deputies,  or  either  of  them,  or 
of  thesupervisorsofelection,or  either  of  them,  and,  for  the  purposes  of  arrest  or  the  preservation  of 
the  peace,  th^  supervisors  of  election  shall,  in  the  absence  of  the  marshal's  deputies,  or  if  required  to 
assist  such  deputies,  have  the  same  duties  and  powers  as  deputy  marshals;  nor  shall  any  person,  on 
the  day  of  such  election,  be  arrested  witlwut  process  for  any  offense  committed  on  the  day  of  registra- 
tion. 

Sec.  2023.  Whenever  any  arrest  is  made  under  any  provision  of  this  title,  the  person  so  arrested 
shxull  forthwith  be  brought  before  a  commissioner,  judge,  or  Court  qf  the  United-  States  for  examine 
Hon  of  tlie  offenses  alleged  against  him;  and  such  commissioner,  judge,  or  Court  shall  2>roceed  in  re- 
spect thereto  as  authorized  by  law  in  case  of  crimes  against  the  United  States. 

Sec.  2024.  The  marshal  or  his  general  deputies,  or  such  special  deputies  as  are  thereto  specially 
empowered  by  him,  in  writing,  and  under  his  hand  and  seal,  whenever  he  or  either  or  any  of  them  is 
forcibly  resisted  in  executing  their  duties  under  this  title,  or  shall,  by  violence,  threats,  or  m,enaces, 
be  2yreventedfi'om  executing  such  duties,  or  from  arresting  any  pte^rson  who  has  committed  any  offense 
for  which  the  marshal  or  his  general  or  his  special  deituties  are  authorized  to  make  such  arrest,  are, 
and  each  of  them  is,  empowered  to  summon  and  call  to  his  aid  the  bystanders  or  posse  comitatus  qf 
his  district. 

Sec.  2025.  The  Circuit  Courts  of  the  United  States  for  each  judicial  circuit  shall  nam^  and  appoint, 
on  or  before  the  first  day  of  May,  in  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-one,  and  thereafter  as  va- 
cancies may  from  any  cause  arise,  from  among  the  Circuit  Court  Commissioners  for  each  judicial 
district  in  each  judicial  circuit,  one  of  such  officers,  who  shall  be  known  for  tlie  duties  required  of  him 
under  this  title  as  the  chief  supervisor  of  elections  of  the  judicial  district  for  which  he  is  a  commis- 
sioner, and  shall,  so  long  as  capable  and  faithful,  discharge  the  duties  in  this  title  imposed. 

Sec.  2036.  The  chief  stqiervisor  shall  2irepare  and  furnish  all  necessary  books,  forms,  blanks,  and 
instructions  for  the  tise  and  direction  of  the  supervisors  of  election  in  the  several  cities  and  towns  in 
tjieir  respective  districts;  he  shall  receive  the  applidation  of  all  parties  for  appointment  to  su^h  posi- 
tions; upon  the  opening,  as  contemplated  in  section  two  thousand  and  twelve,  of  the  Circuit  Court  for 
the  judicial  circuit  in  which  the  commissioner  so  designated  acts,  he  shall  present  such  applications  to 
the  judge  thereof,  and  furnish  information  to  him  in  resj)ect  to  tlie  appointment  by  the  Court  cf  such 
supervisors  of  election;  he  shall  require  of  the  supervisors  of  election,  when  necessary,  lists  of  the  per- 
sons who  may  register  and  vote,  or  either,  in  their  respective  election  districts  or  voting  precincts,  and 
cause  the  names  of  those  iqxm  any  such  list  whose  right  to  register  or  vote  is  lionestly  doubted  to  be 


192  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

verified  by  proper  inqui?^  and  examination  at  the  repective  places 'by  them  assigned  as  their  resi- 
dences; and  he  shall  receive,  jireserve,  and  file  all  oaths  of  office  of  supervisors  of  election,  and  of  all 
special  deputy  marshals  apjxnnted  under  the  provisions  of  this  title,  and  all  certificates,  returns,  re- 
ports and  records  of  evei'y  kind  and  nature  contemplated  and  made  requisite  by  the  provisions  hereof, 
save  where  otherivise  herein  specially  directed. 

Sec.  2027.  All  United  States  marshals  and  commissioners  wTio  in  any  judicial  district  perf<yrm 
any  duties  under  the  preceding  ])rovisions  relating  to,  concerning, or  a^ecting  tlie  election  of  represent- 
atives or  delegates  in  tlie  Congress  of  the  United  States,  from  time  to  time,  and,  with  cdl  due  dili- 
geuce,  shall  forward  to  the  chief  supervisor  in  and  for  their  judicial  district,  all  complaints,  examina- 
tions, and  records  pertaining  thereto,  and  all  oaths  of  office  by  them  administered  to  any  siq^ervisor 
qf  election  or  special  deputy  marshal,  in  order  that  the  same  rnay  be  properly  preserved  and  filed. 

Sec.  2028.  No  person  shall  be  appointed  a  supervisor  of  election  or  a  deputy  marshal,  under  the 
preceding  provisions,  who  is  not,  at  the  time  of  his  appointment,  a  qualified  votei  of  the  city,  town, 
county,  parish,  election  district,  or  voting  precinct  in  which  his  duties  are  to  be  performed. 

Sec.  2031.  TJm^e  shall  be  allowed  and  paid  to  the  chief  supervisor,  for  his  services  as  such  officer, 
the  following  compensation,  apart  from  and  in  excess  of  all  fees  allowed  by  law  for  t/ie  performance  of 
any  duty  as  Circuit  Court  Commissioner;  For  filing  and  caring  for  every  return,  report,  r^ecord, 
document,  or  other  paper  required  to  be  filed  by  him  under  any  of  tlie  proceeding  provisions,  ten  cents; 
for  affixing  a  seal  to  any  paper,  record,  report,  or  instrument,  twenty  cents;  for  entering  and  index- 
ing the  records  of  his  office,  fifteen  cents  per  fdio;  and  for  arranging  and  transmitting  to  Congress,  as 
provided  for  in  section  two  thousand  and  twenty,  any  report,  statement,  recor^l,  return,  or  examina- 
tion, for'  each  fdio,  fift^n  cents;  and  for  any  copy  thereof,  or  of  any  paper  on  file,  a  like  sum.  And 
there  shall  be  allowed  and  paid  to  each  supervisor  of  election,  and  each  special  deputy  marshal  who 
is  appointed  and  performs  his  duty  under  tlie  preceding  pi-ovisions,  compensation  at  the  rate  of  five 
dollars  per  day  for  each  day  he  is  actually  on  duty,  not  exceedinp-  ten  days ;  but  no  compensation  shall 
be  allowed  in  any  case,  to  supervisors  of  election,  except  to  those  appointed  in  cities  or  towns  of 
twenty  thousand  or  more  inhabitants.  And  the  fees  of  the  chief  supervisors  shall  be  2Jaid  at  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States,  stich  accounts  to  be  made  out,  verified,  examined  and  certified  as  in 
the  case  of  accounts  of  commissioners,  save  that  the  examiruition  or  certificate  required  may  be  made 
by  either  the  circuit  or  district  judge. 

Sec.  5522.  Every  person,  whether  xoith  or  without  any  authority,  poiver  or  process,  or  pretended 
authority,  power,  or  process,  of  any  state,  territory,  or  municipality,  who  obstructs,  hinders,  assardts, 
or  by  briliery,  solicitation  or  otiverrvise,  interferes  with  or  prevents  the  supervisors  of  election,  or 
either  qf  them,  or  tlie  marshal  or  his  general  or  special  deputies,  or  either  of  them,  in  the  performance 
qfany  duty  required  of  them,  or  either  of  them,  or  which  he  or  tliey,  or  either  of  tJiem,  may  be  au- 
thoiized  to  perform  by  any  law  of  the  United  States,  in  the  execution  qf  process  or  otfierrvise,  or  who 
by  any  of  tlie  means  before  mentioned  hinders  or  perverts  the  free  attendance  and  'presence  at  such 
placesof  registration  or  at  such  polls  of  electimi,  or fuU  and  free  access  and  egress  to  and  from  any 
mch  place  of  registration  or  poll  of  election,  or  in  going  to  and  from  any  such  place  of. 
registration  or  poll  of  election,  or  to  and  from  any  room,  where  any  such  registration  or 
election  or  canvass  of  votes,  or  of  making  any  returns  or  certificates  thereof,  may  be  had,  or  wJio  mo- 
lests, interferes  with,  removes,  or  ejects  from  any  such  place  of  registratwn  or  poll  of  election,  or  of 
canvassing  votes  cast  thereat,  or  of  making  returns  or  certificates  thereof,  any  sujrervisor  of  election, 
the  marshal,  or  his  general  or  special  deputies,  or  either  of  them;  or  who  threatens,  or  attempts,  or  of: 
fers  so  to  do,  or  refuses  or  neglects  to  aid  and  assist  any  supervisor  of  election,  or  the  marsJial  or  his 
general  or  sjredal  deiruties,  or  eitlier  of  them,  in  the  performance  of  his  or  their  duties,  rvhcn  required 
by  him  or  them,  or  either  of  them,  to  give  such  aid  and  and  assistance,  shall  be  liable  to  instant  arrest 
without  process,  and  shall  be  punished  by  imp7isonment  not  more  than  two  years,  or  by  a  fine  of  not 
more  than  three  thousand  dollars,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  imprisonment,  and  shall  pay  the  cost  of 
the  prosecution. 

THE  HISTORY  OP  TROOPS  AT  THE  POLLS. 

The  history  of  section  2002  is  as  follows  :  During  the  war  and  after  the  war  in 
the  early  reconstruction  period  the  military  interfered  in  the  border  states  with 
elections.  This  was  particularly  the  case  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  West  Vir- 
ginia and  Kentucky.  Subordinate  army  officers  took  possession  of  the  polls  and 
arbitrarily  supervised  elections  and  in  their  discretion  directing  ballots  to  be  re- 
ceived or  rejected.  These  occurrences  took  place  in  states  where  the  reconstruc- 
tion acts  were  not  in  force  and  where  the  civil  authority  was  unobstructed  by 
disloyal  persons  and  where  it  ought  to  have  been  superior  to  the  military  power. 
These  illegal  and  high-handed  acts  excited  the  just  indignation  of  all  classes,  and 
when  reported  to  Congress  were  defended  by  no  one.    To  stop  their  recurrence 


THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES.  193^ 

Senator  Powell  of  Kentucky  introduced  at  the  first  session  of  the  Thirty-eighth 
Congress  a  bill  to  prevent  military  interference  in  elections  in  the  states.  He 
desired  to  have  it  go  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  hut  the  Republican  majority 
sent  it  to  the  Military  Committee.  This  was  in  1864,  when  the  war  fever  was 
still  at  a  white  heat.  It  was  claimed  that  the  rebellion  was  not  yet  at  an  end, 
that  a  spirit  of  defiance  still  existed  even  in  the  border  states  of  the  South  toward 
the  federal  authority,  and  that  it  would  be  unwise  to  lift  entirely  the  heavy  hand 
of  military  restraint.  The  Military  Committee  of  the  Senate  reported  adversely 
upon  Senator  Powell's  bill,  and,  after  much  discussion,  it  was  informally  laid 
aside.  On  June  23,  1864,  Senator  Powell  again  called  it  up,  and  after  amend- 
ment, it  was  passed.  The  essential  portion  of  the  bill,  as  Senator  Powell  pro- 
posed it,  was  as  follows  : 

"That  It  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  military  or  naval  ofllcer  of  the  United 
States,  or  other  person  engaged  in  the  civil,  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United 
States,  to  order,  bring,  keep  or  have  under  his  authority  or  control  any  troops  or 
armed  men  within  one  mile  of  the  place  where  any  general  or  special  election  is 
held  in  any  state  of  the  United  States  of  America,  unless  it  should  be  necessary 
to  repel  the  armed  enemies  of  the  United  States." 

Senator  Pomeroy,  of  Kansas,  successfully  moved  to  amend  the  clause  by  adding 
"or  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls,"  whereupon  Mr.  Powell  said  :  "  I  object  to 
that.  It  would  destroy  the  effect  of  the  bill.  The  state  authorities  can  keep 
peace  at  the  polls."  And  Senator  Saulsbury,  of  Delaware,  said:  "  That  is  the 
very  pretext  on  which  these  outrages  were  committed  in  my  state,  and  it  is  the 
very  same  pretext  that  will  be  put  forward  again. " 

Senator  Pomeroy  claimed  that  the  troops  had  been  used  in  the  territory  of 
Kansas  ostensibly  to  preserve  the  peace  at  the  polls,  and  he  thought  the  Demo- 
crats should  be  chary  of  legislating  now  altogether  to  prohibit  the  use  of  troops 
really  to  preserve  peace  at  the  polls. 

Senator  Howard,  of  Michigan,  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  explained 
that  the  adverse  report  from  his  committee  was  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  not  the 
right  of  an  enemy  of  the  country  to  vote  or  exercise  any  political  functions, 
whether  that  enemy  be  a  rebel,  a  traitor  in  arms  against  the  country,  and  hence 
a  domestic  enemy,  or  whether  he  be  a  public  enemy,  owing  allegiance  to  a  foreign 
government.  This,  he  said,  was  the  doctrine  of  his  report.  'But,"  he  con- 
tinued, "in  respect  to  all  persons  who  are  friends  of  the  government,  but  who 
may  happen  to  differ  upon  questions  of  administration,  the  report  does  declare, 
very  properly,  certainly,  that  there  should  be  no  interference,  either  of  the  mili- 
tary or  other  persons,  in  the  free  enjoyment  of  that  valuable  privilege." 

There  had  been  interference  on  the  part  of  the  military  in  elections  in  the 
border  states  of  Delaware,  Maryland  and  Kentucky,  states  that  were  not  in 
rebellion,  states  where  a  decided  majority  of  the  people  were  Union  in  faith  and 
practice.  It  was  to  forbid  the  employment  of  the  federal  troops  for  such  pur- 
poses in  those  states  that  this  law  was  proposed,  and  upon  which  this  discussion, 
as  epitomized  above,  was  had  in  the  Senate  on  the  22d  day  of  June,  1864,  twelve 
(iays  before  the  victory  was  won  by  the  Union  troops  over  the  rebels  at  Gettys- 
burg. While  this  very  discussion  was  going  on  in  the  Senate,  Lee's  army  was 
across  the  Potomac,  and  his  cavalry  was  raiding  into  Pennsylvania.  But  even  at 
this  critical  period.  Republican  Senators  like  John  P.  Hale  and  Henry  Wilson, 
voted  against  Pomeroy's  amendment  "  to  keep  peace  at  the  polls."  This  amend- 
ment, however,  was  adopted,  and  the  Democrats  satisfied  that  they  had  obtained 
all  that  they  could  hope  for — the  concession  of  the  principle  which  Howard's 


194  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

report  made,  that  the  presence  of  troops  at  the  polls  was  not  to  be  justified  save 
to  exclude  the  public  or  domestic  enemies  of  the  United  States  from  the  right  of 
suffrage — were  content  to  accept  a  substantial  gain,  the  positive  inhibition  of  the 
presence  of  troops  within  a  mile  of  the  polls,  save  to  quell  actual  riot.  The  bill 
passed  the  Senate  as  amended  by  Pomeroy,  by  a  vote  of  nineteen  to  thirteen— 
Hale,  Lane  of  Kansas,  Pomeroy,  Trumbull,  Ben  Wade,  Grimes,  Willey,  stalwart 
Republicans  of  that  day,  voting  in  the  affirmative.  There  was  a  subsequent 
attempt  to  reconsider  the  bill  in  the  Senate,  but  it  failed  ;  and  at  the  next  session 
of  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  it  passed  the  House,  and  was  approved  by  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  on  February  25,  1865. 

The  intent  and  purpose  of  this  law  was  to  restrict  the  power  of  the  military 
and  forbid  their  interference  at  the  polls.  The  concession  which  the  radical 
leaders  made,  the  relief  which  the  people  of  the  border  states  thereby  obtained 
was  so  great  the  Democrats  in  the  Senate  and  House  were  willing,  temporarily, 
to  yield  the  proviso  "  or  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls."  They,  however,  did  not 
concede  this  as  a  constitutional  right  of  the  executive  power,  they  said  then  that 
it  was  a  dangerous  innovation,  but  they  never  dreamed  that  these  eight  words 
"  or  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls  "  would  afford  an  opportunity  to  an  adminis- 
tration to  use  almost  the  entire  military  establishment  for  partisan  election  pur- 
poses in  the  Southern  states,  as  was  done  in  1876,  or  to  make  preparations  to  use 
the  army  and  navy  in  the  city  of  New  York  as  was  done  in  1870. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   JURY  LAWS. 

Sections  820  and  821  are  a  part  of  the  war  legislation  and  of  the  reconstruction 
measures.  They  were  a  part  of  the  extraonlinary  machinery  provided  for  the  en- 
forcement of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  They  were  so  manifestly  unjust,  un- 
necessary and  so  liable  to  be  improperly  used  for  partisan  or  arbitrary  purposes, 
that  a  Republican  Congress  in  18—  repealed  them.  They  were  re-enacted  and  be- 
came sections  820  and  821  of  the  Revised  Statutes  by  a  trick  or  a  mistake,  which 
no  one  has  ever  been  able  to  discover.  The  Revised  Statutes  being,  as  it  was  sup- 
posed, a  compilation  of  the  Statutes  then  in  force  and  unrepealed  was  enacted  as 
one  huge  law  in  1874.  They  were  the  work  of  two  or  three  commissions,  and  were 
accepted  by  Congress  upon  the  indorcement  of  the  Committee  on  Revision  of 
Laws — that  they  contained  nothing,  not  a  line  or  a  letter  which  was  not  then  the 
law  of  the  land.  In  the  Senate  this  huge  compilation  was  passed  without  being 
read,  without  even  removing  the  wrapper  in  which  it  came  from  the  printing 
office.  It  is  well  known  that  there  were  the  most  serious  errors,  willful  or 
otherwise,  and  that  great  interests  were  imperiled  thereby.  Many  of  these  addi- 
tions and  omissions  very  possibly  were  accidental  Two  distinguished  Republi- 
can lawyers  were  employed  and  paid  $10,000  each  to  revise  the  revision.  The 
law  directed  that  the  revised  revision  should  be  verbatim  et  literatim  et  punctuatum 
the  language  of  the  Statutes  at  Large,  which  were  unrepealed,  l)ut  with  the  modi- 
fications necessary  to  conform  them  to,  amendatory  acts  subsequently  passed. 
These  two  eminent  lawyers  employed  two  incompetent  persons,  one  a  huckster, 
the  other  nothing  in  particular,  neither  having  the  slightest  qualification  for  the 
important  work,  to  make  the  revision  of  the  revision.  Whether  by  the  ignorance 
of  these  incompetents,  or  by  design,  only  one  thing  is  certain — sections  820  and 
821  slipped  into  the  Revised  Statutes  and  were  re-enacted  in  1874. 

INTERESTING   HISTORY   OF   FEDERAL   ELECTION   LAWS. 

Sections  2016  to  2028  and  2031  and  5522  are  part  of  the  Federal  Election  Laws. 
Their  history  is  interesting.     They  were  framed  under  the  direction  of  a  shrewd 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  195 

lawyer,  but  John  I.  Davenport  appears  to  have  conceived  the  idea  and  with  other 
persons  employed  by  the  Union  League  Chib,  of  New  York  city,  to  have  sug- 
gested the  ingeniously  oppressive  and  expensive  features.  Davenport  is  un- 
scrupulous, ingenious  and  energetic.  The  laws  were  intended  to  serve  the 
lowest  partisan  ends,  but  they  were  chiefly  designed  to  put  money  in  Davenport's 
pocket.  They  have  served  both  purposes  admirably  well.  Prior  to  1868  Federal 
Election  Laws  were  unknown. 

Report  Xo.  800,  House  of  Reprepentatives,  first  session.  Forty-fourth  Congress, 
furnishes  the  history  of  the  conception,  formation  and  presentation  of  these  laws 
to  Congress.  Mr.  Samuel  J.  Glassey,  a  lawyer  of  New  York  city,  who  was  ex- 
amined by  the  Committee  on  Expenditures,  in  the  Department  of  Justice^  of 
the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  testified  : 

WHERE  AND  HOW  THE  LAWS  ORIGINATED. 

The  Union  League  Club,  on  the  evcnino;of  Thursday,  the  5th  of  November,  1868,  appointed  a 
ppecial  committee  to  take  measures  to  have  an  investigation  made  into  the  frauds  alleged  to  have 
been  committed  at  the  election  held  on  the  Tuesday  of  that  week,  two  days  before.  That  com- 
mittee was  composed  of  five  or  six  prominent  members  of  the  club,  all  gentlemen  well  known  in 
tne  community;  and  at  the  instance  of  that  committee,  I  was  retained  one  or  two  days  afterward 
to  act  as  counsel  for  the  Union  League  Club  to  conduct  that  investigation.  General  John  A.  Foe- 
ter,  a  well-known  lawyer  of  this  city  was  about  the  same  lime  retained  as  my  as.^ociate.  He  and  I 
had  a  consultation  together  on  the  day  after  we  were  respectively  informed  that  we  had  been 
selected  to  do  that  work,  and  arrived  at  an  underi^tanding  between  ourselves  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  it  should  be  done,  the  objects  to  be  sought,  the  methods  to  be  pursued,  and  immediately 
put  ourselves  in  communication  with  the  committee. 

All  those  concerned  in  pressing  the  investigation  were  active  Republicans,  and  we  looked  for 
Democratic  frauds,  although  we  invited  by  public  advertisement  information  as  to  frauds  perpe- 
trated by  both  parties. 

By  Mr.  Cochrane  :    Q.  State  what  you  know,  without  going  too  much  in  detail  ? 

A.  Two  acts  of  Congress,  passed  during  the  session  of  1870,  one  in  May  and  the  other  in 
July,  were  the  result  of  a  comparison  of  some  eight  or  ten  bills  which  the  different  members  of  the 
two  different  Houses  had  prepared  and  introduced  on  their  own  motion,  with  the  bills  drafted  to 
accomplish  the  same  object.  Mr.  Davenport,  in  this  same  employment,  acting  under  the  direc- 
tions of  the  club  committee,  and  especially  of  myself  and  General  Foster,  was  sent  to  Washington, 
his  expenses  being  paid  and  he  receiving  compensation  for  his  services,  to  attend  to  the  urging  of 
these  bills.  In  the  winter  of  1870  and  1871,  the  club  resolved  that  some  further  legislation  was  nec- 
essary on  the  subject,  and  in  December  of  1870  or  January  of  1871  Mr.  Davenport  wenc  to  Wash- 
ington again,  and  while  he  was  there  this  act  of  February  28,  1871,  was  passed.  The  concoction  of 
that  bill  1  had  very  little  to  do  with.  Some  part  of  it  was  drafted  by  Mr.  Davenport.  I  very  dis- 
tinctly remember  reading  over  the  section  relating  to  fees.  The  two  previous  acts  of  Congress, 
those  passed  in  May,  1870,  and  July,  1870,  I  knew  all  about. 

Q.  What  did  he  say  to  you  about  that  section  in  reference  to  fees  ? 

A.  That  if  he  could  get  that  clause  in  it  would  enable  him  to  make  $15,000  or  $20,000  at  the  time 
■of  every  general  election.  It  is  proper  to  say  that  these  first  two  bills  that  were  passed  in  1870 
were  very  carefully  considered,  not  only  by  (General  Foster  and  myself,  but  by  several  prominent 
lawyers,  who  were  members  of  the  club,  and  several  members  of  Congress  and  other  persons  of 
prominence. 

Q.  Was  he  not  appointed  supervisor  in  1871  ? 

A.  Yes,  sir  ;  I  think  so,  but  my  business  relations  with  him  closed  within  a  very  few  days  after 
that,  and  I  don't  think  that  I  was  aware  that  he  had  actually  received  the  appointment  when  I  dis- 
eolved  the  partnership.  Down  to  the  1st  of  May,  1871,  there  had  not  been  opportunity  or  occasion 
for  any  action,  officially  or  otherwise,  on  his  part,  in  relation  to  elections,  after  the  election  held  in 
the  fall  of  1870.  He  held  no  office  that  warranted  any  action  on  his  part  in  regard  to  elections  in 
any  way,  shape  or  manner.  The  act  passed  on  the  28th  of  February,  1871,  was  in  great  part  of  his 
designing— he  prepared  it,  and  at  the  instance  of  the  Union  League  Club  he  went  to  Washington 
and  attended  to  its  passage.  Some  time  during  the  spring  of  1871,  whether  before  or  after  the  Ist 
of  May  1  can't  now  distinctly  recollect,  I  heard  that  he  was  obtaining  information  from  the  census 
marshals  for  use  at  elections. 

DAVENPORT'S  PECUNIARY  INTEREST. 

The  Committee  on  Expenditures  in  the  Department  of  Justice  in  their  report 
to  the  House  say  : 

After  taking  Whitley's  (who  was  chief  of  the  secret  service)  testimony  on  the  23d  March,  1876, 
the  committee  recalled  him  about  the  13th  of  April,  and  he  testified  that  he  was  ordered  first  by 
Attorney-General  Akerman  and  afterwards  by  Attorney-General  Williams  to  pay  to  Davenport  the 
money  out  of  this  $50,000  annual  appropriation  ;  that  in  1871  he  paid  him  $5,000  ;  in  1872,  during 
the  presidential  campaign,  he  paid  nim  $20,000,  and  afterward,  in  the  next  year,  $4,000,  making  in 
all  $34,000.  He  says  he  did  not  know  what  Davenport  was  to  do  with  the  money,  but  he  always 
objected  to  paying  it  to  him.  He  testified  ihat  the  attorney -general  told  him  he  had  received  a  re- 
quest from  the  President  to  pay  it  to  Davenport,  and  he  (Whitley)  therefore  obeyed  orders.  He 
said  Davenport  was  a  politician  in  New  York,  and  was  in  no  way  connected  with  him  in  the  secret 
service  department. 

Notwithstanding  the  payment  of  $34,0(X)  of  government  money  out  of  the  Ku-klux  fund  to  Dav^ 
^finport,  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  in  the  Attorney-Generars  Office  or  any  department 


196  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

of  tlie  government  to  show  that  he  ever  received  a  dollar  of  this  fund  for  any  purpose  (see  pagers 
28,  part  2). 

Your  committee  is  much  impressed  with  the  conviction  that  Mr.  Davenport  was  not  wholly  un- 
selfish in  the  interest  he  took  in  the  passage  of  these  laws,  as  we  find  that  as  soon  as  the  laws  were 
passed  he  was  called  upon  to  fill  the  chief  offices  created  by  them,  until  now  he  holds  no  less  than 
four  offices,  to  wit.>  United  States  commissioner,  chief  supervisor  of  elections,  clerk  United  States- 
circuit  court,  and  master  in  chancery. 

The  first  of  these  laws  which  Mr.  Davenport  says  he  was  instrumental  in  having  passed  is  the. 
enforcement  act  of  May  3,  1870.  This  law  is  made  to  provide  in  section  9  for  an  increase  in  the. 
number  of  United  States  commissioners,  and  in  section  12  for  their  fees. 

Mr.  Davenport  says  (page  42),  in  answer  to  the  question,  "  How  long  have  you  been  United 
States  commissioner?"  "Some  time  in  1870, 1  think  about  August ;"  just  after  the  passage  of  the 
law.  The  next  law  which  he  was  instrumental  in  passing,  as  he  says,  is  the  act  to  amend  uie  natu- 
ralization laws,  which  provides  in  section  5  for  the  appointment  of  supervisors  of  elections. 

The  next  act  which  he  is  instrumental  in  passing  is  the  law  to  amend  an  act  "to  enforce  the 
right  of  citizens  to  vote,"  wherein  it  is  provided,  in  section  1.3,  that  the  court  shall  appoint  one  of 
these  United  States  commissioners  chief  supervisor  of  elections.  This  act  was  approved  February 
28,1871.  Mr.  Davenport  is  asked  (page  42),  "How  long  have  you  been  chief  supervisor  of  elec- 
tions ?"    He  answered,  "Ever  since  the  law  passed,  which,  I  think,  was  on  February  28,  1871." 

Mr.  Davenport  says  that  the  aforesaid  act  (under  which  he  was  appointed  chief  supervisor)  was 
amended  by  the  act  of  June  10, 1872,  chapter  415,  volume  17,  at  his  expense  of  $80  for  telegraphing^ 
to  and  from  Wasliins^ton. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  June  10,  1872,  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1872. 

This  amendment,  procured  by  Davenport,  under  the  head  of  "judiciary,"  as  he  says,  provide8-< 
"  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  courts,  &c.,  for  jurors  and  witnesses,"  &c.,  "and  for  the  ex- 
penses which  may  be  incurred  in  the  enforcement  of  the  act  relative  to  the  rights  of  the  citizens  to- 
vote,"  of  February  28,  1871  (providing  for  the  appointment  of  chief  supervisors),  as  above  given, 
"  $3,200,000;  of  which  sum  $200,000  shall  be  available  for  the  present  fiscal  year." 

Under  the  same  head,  page  350,  and  in  the  same  law,  is  the  appropriation  of  the  sum  of  $50,000, 
to  be  expended  under  the  direction  of  the  attorney-general,  for  what  is  known  as  the  Ku-klux 
fund,  for  the  "detection  and  prosecution  of  crime,"  &c. 

We  find  Davenport,  one  month  after  this,  gets  from  Whitley  as  shown  by  his  receipt,  $5,000; 
on  the  26th  of  September,  $10,000;  October  11,  $5,000;  in  all  $20,000,  during  the  presidential  cam- 
paign of  1872. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  testimony  shows  (see  page  142)  that,  in  the  winter  of  1871  and  1872,  Dav- 
enport got  from  the  committee  of  seventy  between  $8,0,0  and  $10,000  "for  services  performed." 
In  addition  to  this  sum  we  find  that  Mr.  Davenport  rendered  a  bill  to  the  government  for  the  elec- 
tion of  November,  1872,  which  is  given  on  page  34,  for  $18,630.35.  This  bill  is  for  expenses  incurred 
for  payments  to  himself,  which  are  provided  for  by  the  law  of  February  28,  1871,  section  14,  which 
he  was  instrumental  in  having  passed,  fixing  the  fees  of  chief  supervisor,  and  which  is  as  follows  : 

In  the  matter  of  the  account  of  John  I.  Davenport,  as  chief  supervisor  of  elections  southern  dis- 
trict of  New  York,  for  services  rendered  and  expenses  incurred  at  the  election  held  on  the  5th  day 
of  November,  1872,  at  which  representatives  in  Congress  were  chosen. 

The  United  States  to  John  I.  Davenport,  chief  supervisor  of  elections. 
For  services : 
To  filling  2,141  applications  for  appointment  as  United  States  supervisors,  at  ten  cents 

each  $214  la 

To  administering  3,888  oaths  to  supervisors  and  deputy  marshals,  at  ten  cents  each 388  80 

To  filling  3,888  oaths  of  supervisors  and  marshals,  at  ten  cents  each 388  80 

To  filling  3,505  registry  and  verification  books,  at  ten  cents  each 350  50 

To  filling  951  reports  of  examination  of  houses  and  voters  and  reports  of  supervisors, 

at  ten  cents  each 95  10 

To  filling  924  commissions  of  superviso»s,  at  ten  cents  each 92  40 

To  filling  2,590  returns  of  the  canvass,  at  ten  cents  each 259  00 

To  indexing  79,995  folios  of  records  of  my  office,  at  fifteen  cents  per  folio 11 ,999  1 5 

$13,787  85  . 
For  expenses : 
To  bill  of  J.  X.  Browne,  as  annexed 4,842  50 

Total  services  and  expenses $18,630  35 

In  addition  to  the  above  is  Marshal  Sharp's  account  furnished  for  the  same  election,  which  ac- 
count was  paid  upon  the  written  order  of  the  President,  under  the  provision  of  the  law  approved 
August  31,  1852. 

The  account  amounts  to  $15,132.20,  one  item  of  which  is  $1,991.50  for  carriages;  another  for  $440 
rent  of  rooms  at  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  for  chief  supervisor  of  elections  (Davenport)  as  headquarters, 
which  rooms  were  adjoining  the  rooms  of  the  Republican  State  Committee  at  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  . 
as  shown  by  Davenport's  testimony  (see  page  146). 

THE  marshal's  BILL  PAID  BY  ORDER  OF  GRANT. 

The  bill  of  Marshal  Sharpe  for  the  pay  of  their  deputy  marshals  was  not 
taxed  by  the  Circuit  Court  nor  allowed  by  the  First  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  whereupon  the  President,  General  Grant,  directed  it  to  be  paid. 

The  United  States  of  America  to  George  H.  Sharpe,  United  States  marshal  for  the  southern  district 

of  New  York,  Dr. 

For  the  payment  of  extraordinary  expenses  incurred  in  executing  the  laws  of  Congress  entitledN 
"  An  Act  to  enforce  the  right  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  in  the  several  states  of  this 
Union,  and  for  other  purposes,"  approved  May  31,  1870,  and  also  the  law  entitled  "An  Act  to» 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  197 

amend  the  natnralization  laws,  and  to  punieh  crimes  against  the  same,  and  for  other  purposes," 
approved  July  14,  1870,  at  the  election  held  for  representative  in  Congress,  November  8,  1870. 
~For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  sixth,  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth 
Congressional  districts  or  the  state  of  New  York,  as  per  rolls  of  the  several  districts  comprising 
the  same,  as  follows,  namely  : 

Tor  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  first  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No.  1 $4,500  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  second  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  2 3,510  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  third  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No.  3 2,400  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  fourth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 

annexed,  voucher  No.  4 2,100  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  fifth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No.  5 4,015  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  sixth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No.  6 1,355  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  iu  the  seventh  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  7 1,320  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  eighth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No.  8 3,150  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  ninth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No.  9 3,505  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  tenth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll  an- 
nexed, voucher  No  10 1,230  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  eleventh  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  11 , 1,155  00 

For  the  compenpation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  twelfth  Assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  12 2,570  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  thirteenth  assembly  district,  as  per 
roll  annexed,  voucher  No.  13 2,740  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  fourteenth  assembly  district,  as  per 
'  roll  annexed,  voucher  No.  14 1,765  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  fifteenth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  15 1,225  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  sixteenth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  16 1,635  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  seventeenth  assembly  district,  as  per 
roll  annexed,  voucher  No.  17 1,820  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  eighteenth  assembly  district,  as  per 
roll  annexed,  voucher  No.  18 1,690  00 

Por  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  nineteenth  assembly  district,  as  per 
roll  annexed,  voucher  No.  19 510  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  twentieth  assembly  district,  as  per  roll 
annexed,  voucher  No.  20  1,765  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  in  the  twenty-first  assembly  district,  as  per 
roll  annexe.!,  voucher  No.  21        1,585  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  'and  special  deputies  at  the  headquarters  of 
the  UnitecJ  States  marshal  during  the  same  election,  for  the  safe-keeping  and  convey- 
ance of  prisoners,  as  per  roll  annexed,  voucher  No.  22 420  00 

For  toe  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  and  special  deputies  in  the  several  assembly 
districts  above  named,  whose  names  were  transferred  from  the  rolls  above  stated,  as 
noted  thereon,  to  roll  No.  23  hereto  annexed  (see  affidavit  annexed  to  roll  23,  voucher 
No.23, 2,015  00 

For  the  compensation  of  deputy  marshals  and  special  deputies  in  the  several  ast^embly 
districts  above  named,  who.<e  names  appear  on  pay  roll  and  voucher  No.  24,  hereto 
annexed,  the  same  being  authorized  by  letter  of  the  attorney-general,  dated  January, 
1871,  a  copy  of  which  is  hereto  annexed,  voucher  No.  24 805  00 

Por  the  special  and  extraordinary  expenses  incurred  and  paid  by  me,  in  and  about  the 
execution  of  said  laws  at  said  election,  as  per  statement  and  vouchers  hereto  annexed, 
marked  Exhibit  A 1,962  48 

For  the  special  and  extraordinary  services  of  John  Sedgwick, Esq., as  special  counsel  for 
the  United  States  marshal  and  deputy  marshals,  as  per  voucher  annexed  (withdrawn 
by  marshal) 3,500  00 

Total 53,337  00 

Payment  of  the  within  account  allowed  under  the  special  taxation  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 
United  States  for  the  southern  district  of  New  York,  in  which  district  the  services  were  rendered, 
and  is  to  be  paid  from  the  appropriation  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  judiciary. 

An  advance  of  an  amount  sufficient  to  pay  the  same  is  authorized. 

U.  S.  GRANT. 

Executive  Mansion,  December  21,  1870. 

In  addition  to  the  above  the  following  account  was  allowed  and  paid  : 
The  United  States  to  George  L.  Sharpe,  United  States  marshal  southern  district  of  New  Toric,  Dr. 
Moneys  paid  out  during  the  election  for  representatives  in  Congress,  Novpmber  8,  1870,  under  the 

acts  of  Congress  relating  to  elections,  severally  approved  May  31,  1870,  and  July  14,  1870. 
To  carriages  for  conveyance  of  prisoners  to  this  office  on  arrest,  and  from  this  office  to 

county  jail,  as  per  voucher  annexed $18  00 

To  bills  of  Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  for  the  erection  of  four  special  oflBces 

and  connections  with  their  city  lines  ;  and  for   messages  eent  and  received,  on  day 

of  election,  as  per  voucher  annexed 336  98 


198  TIIKEE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

To  bill  of  M.  O.  Sullivan,  special  clerk,  for  making  and  copying  lists  of  commissions, 
filing  up  commissions,  correcting  lists  from  time  to  time  as  changes  were  made,  ren- 
dered necessary  by  refusals  to  act,  removals,  and  resignations,  and  filling  out  new 

commissions  therefor,  as  per  voucher  annexed 50  00 

To  bill  of  expenses  of  the  United  States  marshal,  George  H.  Sharpe,  in  proceeding  to 
Washington  and  back  twice  on  business  connected  with  the  election,  as  per  vouclier 

annexed 52  00 

To  bill  for  badges  of  chief  deputy  marshals,  as  per  voucher  annexed 44  00 

To  bill  for  badges  of  deputy  marshals,  as  per  voucher  annexed 1,250  00 

To  bill  of  printer,  G.  B.  Tripp,  for  commissions  for  supervisors  of  election  ;  for  com- 
missions of  deputy  marshals,  for  acts  of  Congress,  for  instructions  to  supervisors  and 
deputy  marshals,  as  per  voucher  annexed 363  50 

Total 2,014  48 

Deduct  items  No.  4  above— not  taxed 52  00 

Total  amonnt  of  voucher 1,962  48- 

The  total  amount  paid  in  1872  for  New  York  City  was  as  follows  : 

Amount  paid  deputy  marshals  on  district  rolls $50,500  00 

Amount  paid  deputy  marshals  on  supplementary  rolls 7,155  00 

Amount  paid  supervisors  of  elections  on  district  rolls 23,885  00 

Amount  paid  deputy  marshals  on  headquarters  rolls , 3,925  00 

Total 85.555  00 

To  extraordinary  expenses  incurred  in  enforcing  the  acts  of  Congress  in  relation  to  elec- 
tions at  the  election  held  in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the  5th  of  November,  1872 33,434  36 

Total $118,989  36 

In  1876  there  was  expended  in  the  same  way  for  New  York  city  $94,587.96. 
Of  this  Davenport  received  $19,383.36. 

In  1878  the  amount  paid  the  chief  supervisor  Davenport  was  not  reported  to 
Congress,  but  there  was  paid  to  supervisors  and  deputy  marshals  for  that  year 
in  New  York  City  $57,000.  In  1876  Davenport  was  paid  $19,383.36.  He  was  not 
paid  a  less  amount  in  1878. 

NO  NECESSITY  FOR  FEDERAL  ELECTION  LAWS. 

As  to  the  necessity  for  all  this  expenditure  of  money  in  New  York  City  Mr. 
Samuel  J.  Glassey,  who  was  employed  by  the  Union  League  Club  in  1868  to  work 
up  the  frauds  of  1868,  a  good  Republican,  testified  as  follows  : 

Q.  What  do  you  say  of  the  necessity  of  Federal  interference  in  elections  here  in  this  city  and 
the  considerable  expenditure  of  public  money  in  that  respect  at  the  present  time  ?  A.  Keeping  in 
view  the  laws  of  the  state  now  in  force. 

By  Mr.  Cochran  :  Q.  And  which  have  been  in  force  how  long?  A.  Since  1873.  I  regard  any 
action  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  as  wholly  unnecessary. 

By  Mr.  Meade  :  O.  An  expenditure  therefore  unnecessary  ?  A.  A  dead  waste  of  public  money, 
and  also  objectionable  as  affording  an  opportunity  to  the  person  who  happens  to  hold  the  office  of 
chief  supervisor  to  distribute  a  great  deal  of  patronage  among  the  most  dangerous  and  worthless 
class  in  the  community,  the  lower  breed  of  politicians. 

Q.  Right  there,  won't  you  illustrate  the  practical  operation  of  it  in  local  politics  of  employing 
these  marshals  ?  A.  In  a  city  like  this  there  are  always  hundreds  of  men  who  have  hardly  any 
regular  employment,  who  are  chronic  seekers  of  small  offices,  hangers-on  to  the  politicians  of  all 
grades  and  stripes.  About  the  time  of  election  they  make  a  little  money  by  doing  miscellaneous 
work  for  the  candidates.  It  is  from  that  class  of  men  that  these  supervisors  and  marshals, 
especially  the  marshals,  are  most  likely  to  be  selected.  Their  pay  is  a  per  diem  fixed  by  law,  and 
for  as  man}"^  days,  not  exceeding  ten,  as  the  marshal  and  chief  supervisor  may  choose  to  certify. 

Q.  Migiit  not  such  a  power  vested  in  the  marshal  be  used,  in  the  hands  of  an  improper  man,  for 
purposes  of  corruption  ?  A.  Unquestionably.  The  duties  of  a  deputy  marshal  are  purely  nomi- 
nal. They  have  no  authority  except  to  keep  the  peace  and  see  that  the  supervisors  are  not  inter- 
fered within  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  Except  under  such  exceptional  circumstances  as  ex- 
isted in  1870,  there  has  not  been  the  slightest  danger  of  the  breach  of  the  peace;  and,  besides  that, 
the  municipal  police,  which  is  a  regularly  organized  and  well-disciplined  force,  is  there  for  that 
special  purpose,  and  under  ordinary  circumstances,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  fairness  and 
efficiency  of  their  action.  If  there  should  be  a  contest  between  the  state  and  national  authorities, 
ten  policemen  would  be  worth  fifty  marshals.  In  other  words,  I  regard  the  marshals,  selected  as 
they  are  and  as  they  must  be,  as  purely  useless. 

The  Democratic  majority  in  Congress,  in  view  of  the  occurrences  of  1876  and 
in  previous  years,  and  respecting  the  demand  made  by  a  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  determined  to  repeal  the  obnoxious  features  of  the  laws  we 
have  quoted.  "We  will  take  up  these  laws  in  the  order  in  which  we  have  quoted 
them 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  199 

TROOPS  AT   THE   POLLS. 

Mrst.  Section  2002  Revised  Statutes.  This  section,  as  we  liave  shown,  was  in- 
tended to  prevent  the  interference  of  the  military  at  the  polls.  It  was,  neverthe- 
less, the  pretext  of  authority  for  all  the  lawless  invasions  of  the  rights  of  the  peo- 
ple of  which  Grant's  administration  was  guilty  in  the  employment  of  troops  to 
control  elections. 

THE  TROOPS  AT  A  NEW  YORK  ELECTION. 

At  the  Congressional  election  of  1870,  the  military  and  naval  forces  of  the 
United  States  were  threatened  to  be  used,  and  were  prepared  for  use  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  vide  the  following : 

BELKNAP'S    ORDER. 

[Official.] 

Wak  Department,  | 

Washington  City,  Oct.  27,  1870.  f 
Sir :  In  view  of  the  apprehension  that  there  may  be  possible  opposition  made  to  the  United 
States  laws  in  connection  with  the  coming  election  in  the  city  of  New  York,  November  8,  1870, 
the  President  directs  that  you  instruct  Brigadier-General  McDowell,  commanding  the  Department 
of  the  East,  to  hold  the  troops  in.that  vicinity  in  readmess  for  service  during  a  week,  if  necessary, 
to  protect  and  assist  the  civil  officers  of  the  United  States  in  their  duty  of  enforcing  the  laws. 
The  engineer  troops  and  all  others  in  the  harbor  of  New  York  and  vicinity  will,  for  the  occasion, 
be  at  his  command.  You  will  instruct  General  McDowell  to  confer  fully  beforehand  with  the 
United  States  Marshal  and  the  United  States  District  Attorney,  to  concert  with  them  proper  meas- 
ures, and  to  promptly  respond  to  any  call  made  upon  him  for  troops  by  the  marshal  during  the 
week  of  the  election,  ordering  them  in  such  numbers  and  to  such  points  in  the  city  as  the  marshal 
may  signify. 

The  President  hopes  that  the  use  of  the  United  States  troops  for  the  purpose  indicated  will 
never  be  required,  but  the  law  must  be  enforced,  and  he  therefore  expects  General  McDowell 
and  the  officers  and  troops  under  his  command,  while  using  the  utmost  discretion,  to  take  care 
that  the  purposes  of  the  government  to  enforce  the  law  is  fully  carried  out ;  but  in  the  performance 
of  this  duty  they  are  only  effectually  to  execute  the  measures  indicated  to  them  by  the  authorized 
civil  officers  of  the  United  States. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

WM.  W.  BELKNAP,  Secretary  of  War. 

CHAUNCEY  McKEEVER,  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 

General  W.  T.  Sherman, 

United  States  Army,  Washington.  D.  C. 

BY  COMMAND   OP    BRIGADIER-GENERAL   M'DOWELL. 
[Special  Orders,  No,  229.] 

Headquarters  os  the  Department  of  the  East,     I 
New  York  City,  November  5,  1870.  f 

1.  The  available  officers  and  two  hundred  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates  of  the  en- 
gineer troops  at  Willett's  Point,  New  York  Harbor,  will  come  to  the  headquarters  building  in  this 
city,  on  next  Monday  evening,  November  7,  so  as  to  arrive  at  10  P.  M.,  prepared  for  armea  service, 
and  remain  at  least  till  Wednesday  morning.  They  will  come  in  a  steamboat,  which  the  quarter- 
master's department  will  send  for  them,  anil  will  be  landed  at  the  foot  of  Spring  street  (Pier  No.  43 
North  river),  and  march  thence  and  take  the  station  which  may  be  shown  them  by  the  district 

?[uartermaster.    They  will  bring  a  day's  cooked  rations.    Facilities  will  be  afforded  in  the  building 
or  making  hot  coffee. 

2.  All  the  available  officers  and  the  men  of  the  Eighth  Infantry  will  be  brought  to  the  city  on 
Monday  the  the  7th  instant,  to  arrive  about  10  o'clock  P.  M.  They  will  come  prepared  for  armed 
service,  with  their  overcoats  and  blankets,  to  remain  at  least  till  Wednesday  morning  the  9th  in- 
stant. The  colonel,  with  five  companies  will  take  post  in  building  No.  161  Avenue  B,  near  the 
northeast  p orner  of  Tompkins  square,  and  the  lieutenant-colonel,  with  five  companies,  will  take 
post  in  buildings  Nos.  322,  324,  and  326  East  Forty -fifth  street,  between  First  and  Second  avenues. 

3.  The  available  officers  and  men  of  the  companies  of  the  First  Artillery  at  Forts  Hamilton, 
Wadsworth,  and  Wood,  under  Colonel  Vogdesor  the  senior  officer,  will  come  to  the  city  on  Mon- 
day evening,  the  7th  instant,  to  arrive  by  about  10  P.  M.,  prepared  for  armed  service,  and  to  remain 
at  least  till  Wednesday  morning.  They  will  take  post  at  building  No.  294  Broadway,  near  the  cor- 
ner of  Reade  street,  and  will  land  at  the  wharf  most  convenient  for  their  reaching  that  point.  They 
will  bring  with  them  a  day's  cooked  rations  and  their  camp-kettles  for  making  coffee.  •  The  district 
quartermaster  will  furnish  drays  to  carry  their  effects  from  the  steamboat. 

4.  The  troops  above  indicated,  and  the  Fifth  Artillery  from  Fort  Trumbull  and  Fort  Adams, 
are  to  be  brought  here  to  aid  the  United  States  civil  officers  in  the  execution  of  their  duty  in  en- 
forcing the  United  States  laws  ;  audit  cannot  be  too  strongly  impressed  on  them  that  the  duty 
they  have  to  perform  is  one  of  exceeding  delicacy  and  of  the  highest  importance,  and  that  it  may 
depend  largely  on  their  fidelity  and  good  conduct  that  peace  is  maintained.  They  will  be  held  for 
service  at  literally  a  moment's  notice  ;  and  from  the  time  of  their  arrival  not  a  man  will  be  al- 
lowed to  leave  the  building  on  any  account,  or  for  any  purpose  whatever,  unless  under  a  com- 
missioned officer. 

5.  Commanders  of  the  stations  above  named  will,  immediately  on  their  arrival,  send  a  report  of 
the  fact  to  department  headquarters. 

By  command  of  Brigadier-General  McDowell. 

ROBERT  C.  PERRY,  Acting  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 


200  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEYANCES. 

THE   tribune's  ACCOUNT   OF    THE   COMING   OF   TROOPS. 

The  New  York  Tribune,  Nov.  9,  1870,  says : 

The  troops  came  on  Monday  night  (the  night  before  the  election)  and  disembarked  silently  to 
their  several  quarters.  During  the  day  perfect  order  reigned.  The  headquarters  of  the  department, 
at  the  corner  of  Houston  and  Greene  streets,  presented  a  quiet  appearance.  The  stairways,  how- 
ever, leading  to  the  two  upper  stories  of  the  building,  were  packed  with  troops.  The  engineer  de- 
partment from  Willett's  Point,  numbering  three  hundred  men,  with  companies  H  and  I  of  the  Fifth 
United  States  Artillery  from  Fort  Trumbull,  New  London,  Connecticut,  all  under  command  of  Col. 
Kiddoe,  were  quartered  in  the  halls  and  on  the  stairs.  Their  arms  were  stacked,  and  the  men  were 
scattered  around  on  benches  and  on  the  floor,  or  stood  in  groups  engaged  in  conversation.  All  were 
armed  with  the  latest  improved  needle-gun,  and  furnished  with  forty  rounds  of  ammunition,  with, 
one  hundred  rounds  a  man  in  reserve. 

At  pier  No.  27  North  River,  companies  A,  B,  and  L,  of  the  Fifth  United  States  Artillery,  from 
Port  Adams,  Newport,  were  quartered  on  the  steamer  Metis.  In  addition  to  these  was  Dupont's 
Light  Battery  of  four  guns.  No  one  was  allowed  to  leave  the  boat  or  to  enter  without  a  pass.  The 
men  were  in  the  lower  part  of  the  boat  and  the  officers  were  in  the  cabin  under  Col.  Hunt. 

Companies  B,  C,  D,  H,  and  M.  of  the  First  United  States  Artillery,  Col.  Vogdes,  from  Forts 
Hamilton  and  Wadsworth,  New  York  Harbor,  were  stationed  in  the  three  upper  siories  of  No.  294 
Broadway. 

At  No.  161  Avenue  B,  near  Tompkins  square,  there  were  stationed  the  first  five  companies  of  the 
Eighth  Infantry,  Col  onel  Bomf ord  in  command.  This  regiment  came  from  David's  Island,  and  was 
armed  with  the  needle-gun.  They  were  quartered  in  the  hall  over  a  lager  beer  saloon,  and  company 
A  was  kept  under  arms  ready  for  marching  orders.  The  remainin,^  five  companies  of  the  regiment 
were  on  Forty-fifth  street,  between  First  and  Second  avenues,  in  the  large  room  of  a  brewery. 
Guards  were,  as  in  all  cases,  starioned  at  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  stairs,  and  all  who  applied  for 
entrance  were  taken  under  guard  before  Colonel  Edie.  Long  rows  of  stacked  arms  extended  the 
whole  length  of  the  hall.  An  ample  supply  of  ammunition  was  brought  to  the  plaae,  amounting  in 
the  aggregate  to  one  hundred  and  forty  rounds  for  each  man. 

The  Tribune  goes  on  to  say : 

In  the  river  and  harbor,  the  frigates  Guerriere  and  Narragansett  were  at  anchor  at  the  foot  of 
Chambers  street.  North  River,  and  Wall  street.  East  River,  respectively.  The  port-holes  were  all 
closed,  however,  and  every  appearance  of  warlike  preparation  on  board  was  avoided.  None  other 
than  the  troops  regularly  stationed  there  were  on  Governor's  Island. 

GOVERNOR  HOFFMAN'S  ELOQUENT  PROTEST. 

The  Democratic  governor  of  New  York,  Mr.  Hoffman,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
legislature  in  January  following,  in  his  message,  speaking  of  this  outrageous  vi- 
olation of  law,  said : 

Since  the  adjournment  of  the  legislature,  the  Federal  government  has  assumed  to  interfere  di- 
rectly, by  its  officers  and  armed  forces,  with  elections  in  this  state.  The  pretext  was  fear  that  the 
Tight  of  suffrage  would,  in  some  way.  be  denied  to  the  class  of  persons  upon  whom  it  had  been  con- 
ferred by  the  fifteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  was  a  mere  pretext; 
for  our  state  legislature  at  its  last  session  promptly  altered  our  election  laws  to  conform  with  that 
amendment  so  soon  as  it  was  declared  adopted.  Moreover,  this  class  of  voters  had  exercised  their 
new  right  freely  and  without  the  least  molestation  at  our  state  election,  which  took  place  in  May 
last. 

Congress,  nevertheless,  enacted  a  law  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  supervising  the  election  of 
Congressmen  only;  and  the  President  was  authorized  to  employ  the  army  and  navy  to  enforce  cer- 
tain of  its  provisions.  Under  color  of  this  act,  the  President  and  other  United  States  officials 
claimed  the  right  to  supervise  the  entire  election,  not  only  for  representatives  in  Congress,  but  for 
state  and  local  officers.  In  the  city  of  New  York,  special  preparations  were  made  to  enforce  this 
■claim.  A  large  number  of  United  States  deputy  marshals  and  supervisors  were  appointed,  many 
of  whom  were  men  of  well  known  disreputable  characters,  and  some  of  whom  had  been  convicted 
•criminals;  a  class  of  dangerous  men  never  before  chosen  by  any  ruling  authority,  in  any  commu- 
nity, as  conservators  of  the  peace.  They  were  instructed,  under  advice  of  the  Attorney-General  of 
the  United  States,  to  submit  to  no  interference  from  any  quarter  under  state  or  municipal  author- 
ity. Orders  were  issued  which  authorized  them,  in  the  discretion  of  each  one  of  them,  to  arrest 
at  the  polls,  citizens  claiming  the  right  to  vote,  as  well  as  the  inspectors  who  were  charged  by  law 
with  the  custody  of  the  ballot-boxes.  These  arrests  were  to  be  effected  without  process  of  law  is- 
sued upon  formal  complaints. 

Then  telling  what  steps  he  had  taken  with  the  best  organized  regiments  of  New 
York,  to  guard  all  the  rights  of  every  citizen,  he  said : 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  by  the  President's  orders.  United  States  troops  were  brought  from  dis- 
tant posts  and  quartered  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  ships  of  war  were  anchored  in  its  harbor.  It 
was  certainly  not  unreasonable  to  expect  that  the  first  drop  of  citizens'  blood  shed  in  the  city  of 
New  York  by  Federal  troops  in  time  of  peace,  might  lead  to  terrible  results,  involving  great  loss  of 
life  and  incalculable  destruction  of  property. 

************* 

At  the  last  moment,  that  is  to  say,  the  afternoon  immediately  before  the  election,  the  ofticers  of 
the  United  States  fortunately  and  wisely  abandoned  the  extreme  ground  they  had  taken,  and  en- 
tered into  a  stipulation  with  the  local  authorities  of  New  York  City  in  my  presence,' v^hich 
resulted  in  preventing  any  armed  interference  by  troops,  either  of  the  United  States  or  of  the 
state. 

To  depend  for  the  peace  and  order  of  localities  on  the  Federal  army  is  not  self-government;  to- 
substitute  the  regular  soldier  with  his  musket  as  a  peace  officer  in  place  of  the  constable  with  hia 
writ,  is  not  to  preserve  the  peace,  but  to  establish  the  condition  of  war;  to  surrender  elections  to 


THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES.  201 

"the  control  of  the  President,  supported  by  armed  forces,  is  to  surrender  liberty  and  to  abandon  a 
.republic. 

TROOPS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA  AND  GOVERNOR  GEARY'S  PROTEST. 

In  the  preceding  year,  1869,  when  an  election  for  governor  and  state  officers 
:alone,  was  to  be  held  in  the  state  of  Pennsylvania,  an  armed  body  of  marines 
^ere  brought  to  the  polls  in  the  third  precinct  of  the  fifth  ward  of  Philadelphia. 
This  armed  body  of  Federal  troops  took  possession  of  the  polls  and  kept  them 
closed  for  an  hour,  and  when  they  did  allow  the  election  to  proceed  they  exer- 
cised the  right  to  allow  or  disallow  citizens  to  vote. 

In  commenting  upon  this  extraordinary  and  outrageous  interference  of  the 

Pederal  soldiery,  Gen.  John  W.  Geary,  the  Republican  governor  of  Pennsylvania, 

in  his  next  annual  message  to  the  legislature  of  that  state,  said: 

The  employment  of  United  States  troops  at  elections,  without  the  consent  of  the  local  and  state 
governments,  has  recently  received  considerable  attention  and  reprehension.  It  is  regarded  as  an 
interference  with  the  sovereign  rights  of  the  states  which  was  rot  contemplated  by  the  founders  of 
the  general  government,  and  if  persisted  in  must  lead  to  results  disastrous  to  peace  and  harmony. 
The  practice  is  one  so  serious  in  its  character,  and  so  injurious  in  its  tendencies,  as  to  merit  prompt 
consideration  and  decisive  action,  not  only  by  the  General  Assembly,  but  by  Congress.  One  of  the 
complaints  of  the  colonists  against  the  British  king  was  the  oppression  growing  out  of  the  assump- 
tion of  this  power.  They  said:  "  He  has  kept  among,  us  in  times  of  peace,  standing  armies  with- 
out the  consent  of  our  legislatures,"  and  what  is  especially  pertinent  to  the  case  m  point,  "he 
has  affected  to  render  the  military  independent  of,  and  superior  to  the  civil  power."  The  alleged 
authority  for  the  use  of  troops  at  our  state  elections  is  derived  from  the  tenth  section  of  an  Act  of 
Congress,  approved  May  31,  1870,  entitled,  *'  An  Act  to  enforce  the  right  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States  to  vote  in  the  several  states  of  the  Union,  and  for  other  purposes,"  which  authorizes  United 
States  marshals  to  call  to  their  assistance  "  such  portion  of  the  land  and  naval  forces  of  the  United 
States,  or  of  the  militia,  as  may  be  necessary  to  the  performance  of  the  duty  with  which  they  are 
charged,  and  to  insure  a  faithful  observance  of  the  fifteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States."  But  it  must  be  a  forced  construction  of  this  law  that  will  justify  the  presence  of 
armed  national  forces  at  our  places  of  election  when  no  necessity  exists  therefor,  and  where  their 
presence  is  calculated  to  provoke  collision.  With  a  good  President,  the  exercise  of  the  power  re- 
ferred to  might  have  no  injurious  results,  but  in  the  hands  of  a  bad  man,  governed  by  personal 
ambition,  it  might  prove  exceedingly  calamitous.  Unconsciously,  a  good  President  might  be  in- 
duced to  employ  it  wrongfully;  a  bad  one  would  be  almost  certain  to  use  it  for  his  own  advancement. 
Under  any  circumstances,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  unsafe  and  antagonistic  to  the  principles  that  should 
govern  our  Republican  institutions.  At  the  last  October  election  United  States  troops  were  sta- 
tioned in  Philadelphia  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  enforcing  the  election  laws.  This  was  done  with- 
out the  consent,  or  even  the  knowledge  of  the  civil  authorities  of  either  the  city  or  the  state,  and 
without  any  expressed  desire  on  the  part  of  the  citizens,  and,  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  without 
existing  necessity.  From  a  conscientious  conviction  of  its  importance,  I  have  called  your  attention 
to  this  subject.  A  neglect  to  have  done  so  might  have  been  construed  as  an  indorsement  of  a 
measure  that  meets  my  unqualified  disapproval.  The  civil  authorities  of  Pennsylvania  have  always 
been,  and  are  still,  competent  to  protect  its  citizens  in  the  exercise  of  their  elective  franchise,  and 
the  proper  and  only  time  for  the  United  States  military  forces  to  intervene  Would  be  when  the 
power  of  the  commonwealth  is  exhausted,  and  their  aid  is  lawfully  required. 

Brightly,  in  his  Digest  of  American  Election  Cases,  an  eminent  and  impartial 

legal  authority,  says: 

Perhaps  there  is  no  better  proof  of  the  extent  to  which  the  principles  of  civil  and  political  liberty 
have  passed  from  the  remembrance  of  the  American  people,  than  the  fact  recorded  in  the  daily 
newspapers,  without  comment,  that  at  the  municipal  election  of  the  city  of  Charleston,  held  on  the 
2d  of  AugU!?t,  1871,  six  years  after  the  close  of  the  civil  war,  a  body  of  Federal  troops  was  stationed 
at  each  precinct,  to  prevent  violence.  And  this  without  shadow  of  authority,  and  without  its  ex- 
citing the  slightest  emotion  in  the  citizens  of  what  is  claimed  to  be  a  free  country. 

THE   USE  OP   TROOPS   IN    VIRGINIA  DEFENDED   BY  GRANT. 

The  troops  of  the  United  States  were  sent  to  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1876,  to  control  the  elections.  They  performed  the  work  of  intimidating 
voters.  Gen.  Grant,  in  his  special  message  to  Congress,  December  14, 1876,  ad- 
vocated and  defended  the  right  of  the  Executive  to  thus  employ  the  military  arm 
of  the  Federal  government.     He  said : 

These  inclosures  will  give  all  the  information  called  for  by  the  resolution,  and  I  confidently 
believe  will  justify  the  action  taken.  It  is  well  understood  that  the  presence  of  United  States 
troops  at  polling  places  never  prevented  the  free  exercise  of  the  franchise  by  any  citizen,  of  what- 
ever political  faith.  If,  then,  they  have  had  any  effect  whatever  upon  the  ballot  cast,  it  has  been 
to  insure  protection  to  the  citizen  casting  it  in  giving  it  to  the  candidate  of  his  unbiased  choice 
without  fear,  and  thus  securing  the  very  essence  of  liberty.  It  may  be  the  presence  of  twenty-four 
United  States  soldiers  under  the  command  of  a  captain  and  lieutenant,  quartered  in  the  custom- 
house at  Petersburgh,  Virginia,  on  the  7th  of  November,  at  a  considerable  distance  from  any  poll- 
ing place,  without  any  interference  on  their  part  whatever,  and  without  going  near  the  polls  during 
the  election,  may  ham  secured  a  different  result  from  what  would  have  been  obtaiTiedi/they  had  not 


202  THBEE    MONSTKOUS    GRIEVANCES. 

been  there  (to  maintain  the  peace  in  case  of  riot)  on  the  face  of  the  returns.  But  if  such  is  the  case, 
it  is  only  proof  that  in  this  one  congressional  district  in  the  state  of  Virginia  the  legal  and  consti- 
tutional voters  have  been  able  to  return  as  elected  the  candidates  of  their  choice. 

U.  S.  GRANT. 
Executive  Mansion,  December  14, 1878. 

ORDER  OF  GENERAL   SHERMAN,    DATED   DECEMBER  11,    1876. 

To  a  more  complete  imderstandinw  of  the  case,  I  will  add  that  on  the  2d  of  November  a  gentle- 
man came  tome  from  the  Attorney-General,  representing  that  there  was  reason  to  apprehend  a 
breach  of  the  peace  at  Petersburgh,  Virginia,  aad  asking  a  detachment  of  troops  to  be  sent  there. 
You  being  then  absent,  I  saw  Judge  Taft  in  person,  and  he  advised  that  a  company  of  soldiers  be 
sent  to  Petersburgh,  if  practicable;  and  the  next  day,  being  in  New  York  city,  I  saw  General  Han- 
cock in  person,  and  after  some  inquiries  as  to  the  troops  available,  I  ordered  him  to  send  the  above- 
designated  company  to  Petersburgh,  to  remain  during  the  election  of  November  7,  and  then  return 
to  its  post. 

I  inclose  a  copy  of  his  orders;  also  copies  of  General  Orders  Nos.  85  and  96,  which  include  all 
the  orders  and  instructions  made  to  troops  serving  in  districts  where  disturbances  were  appre- 
hended. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  T.  SHERMAN,  General. 
Hon.  J.  D.  Cameron,  Secretary  of  War. 

OW   THE   TROOPS  WERE  EMPLOYED. 

How  the  United  States  troops  were  for  years  used  to  control  elections  in  Louis- 
iana, South  Carolina,  Florida,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  every  other 
Southern  state,  everybody  knows.  In  the  state  of  Georgia  a  Federal  army  of- 
ficer, acting  under  orders  from  Washington  invaded  her  legislative  halls  and 
turned  out  nineteen  duly  elected  representatives,  and  set  up  and  maintained  by 
Federal  bayonets  a  railroad  official  as  Speaker  of  the  Georgia  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. In  1872  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  sent  the  following 
telegram  to  the  United  States  marshal  at  New  Orleans  : 

Department  op  Justice,  December  3, 1872, 
S.  B.  Packard,  Esq.,  United  States  Marshal,  New  Orleans,  Louisiana. 

You  are  to  enforce  the  decrees  and  mandates  of  the  United  States  courts,  no  matter  by  whom  re- 
sisted, and  General  Emory  will  furnish  you  with  all  necessary  troops  for  that  purpose. 

GEO.  H.  WILLIAMS,  Attorney-General. 

The  people  of  Louisiana  had  elected  a  Conservative  Republican  Governor  and 
Legislature.  The  Federal  officials  were  determined  to  nullify  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple and  install  as  Governor  Wm.  Pitt  Kellogg  and  a  Radical  Legislature.  To  do 
this  it  was  necessary  to  obtain  an  illegal  order  from  the  Judge  of  the  United 
States  District  court.  An  infamous  creature  named  Durell  issued  that  order  at 
his  boarding  house  at  midnight,  and  it  will  be  known  through  all  coming  time 
as  Durell's  infamous  midnight  order.  The  Senate  Committee  on  Privileges  and 
Elections  subsequently  inquired  into  all  these  proceedings  in  connection  with  the 
election  of  a  United  States  Senator.  The  majority  of  the  committee  in  this  re- 
port, which  was  signed  by  Senators  Carpenter,  Anthony  and  Alcorn,  all  Re- 
publicans, say  of  Durell's  order  : 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  irregular,  illegal  and  in  every  way  inexcusable  act  on 
the  part  of  the  Judge  conceding  the  power  of  the  court  to  make  such  an  order.  The  Judge  out  of 
cofiirt  had  no  more  authority  to  make  it  than  had  the  marshal.  It  has  not  even  the  form  of  judicial 
process.  It  was  not  sealed,  nor  was  it  signed  by  the  clerk,  and  had  no  more  legal  effect  than  an 
order  issued  by  any  private  citizen. 

WHAT  FOLLOWED  THE  INFAMOUS  ORDER. 

Yet  upon  this  order  the  United  States  troops  ordered  from  Pensacola  Bay, 
Florida,  reached  New  Orleans  just  after  it  was  issued,  and  acting  under  the  or- 
ders of  the  marshal  took  possession  of  the  State  House  and  set  up  and  maintained 
the  Kellogg  government.  The  order  of  Attorney- General  Williams  above  quoted 
was  the  authority  of  the  marshal  for  this  high  handed  and  illegal  act.  The  troops 
from  Florida  were  ordered  to  New  Orleans  before,  showing  that  there  was  con- 
cert between  the  Federal  administration  in  Washington  and  the  conspirators 
against  free  government  in  Louisiana.     Judge  Trumbull,  of  Illinois,  a  member  of 


THREE   MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  20S 

the  Senate  Committee  on  Privileges  and  Elections,  in  his  report  said  of  these 
proceedings  : 

This  dispatch,  so  far  as  the  evidence  shows,  was  not  responsive  to  any  call  for  troops,  there  had 
been  no  resistance  to  any  process  of  the  United  States  courts,  nor  does  it  appear  that  any  was  threat- 
ened. R.  H.  Jackson,  a  captain  in  the  First  Artillery,  United  States  Army,  testified  that  he  went 
to  New  Orleans  on  the  night  of  December  5  with  two  batteries  of  his  regiment  and  eighty-six  men. 

The  same  night,  December  5,  between  nine  and  eleven  o'clock.  Judge  Durell.  at  his  private  lodg- 
ings, issued  his  order  which,  for  want  of  jurisdiction,  was  void,  and  entitled  to  no  respect  from 
anybody,  directing  the  United  States  marshal  forthwith  to  take  possession  of  the  State-House,  to 
hold  the  same  until  the  further  order  of  the  court,  and  prevent  all  unlawful  assemblage  of  persons 
therein,  having  reference  to  the  persons  returned  as  elected  to  the  legislature  according  to  the  offi- 
cial returns.  Captain  Jackson  testifies  that  he  took  possession  of  the  State-House  at  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  6th,  with  instructions  to  take  and  hold  it  under  the  direction  of  the 
United  States  marshaland  to  act  in  obedience  to  his  orders.  He  further  testified  that  he  was  not 
stationed  in  the  State-House  to  prevent  riots,  but  to  hold  the  building,  and  that  if  a  riot  had  occurred 
in  front  of  the  building  he  would  not  have  interfered.  He  posted  two  soldiers  at  the  entrance  door, 
who  guarded  it  with  crossed  bayonets,  and  suffered  no  one  to  enter  the  building  except  by  permis- 
sion of  the  United  States  marshal,  one  of  whose  dejjuties  was  at  all  times  present.  These  troops 
continued  to  occupy  the  State-House  for  more  than  six  weeks,  until  January  21.  and  it  is  manifest, 
from  the  whole  testimony,  that  they  were  not  there  to  preserve  the  peace  but  to  carry  out  the 
illegal  orders  of  Judge  Durell,  and  prevent  the  legally  elected  members  of  the  legislature  from 
assembling  and  organizing.  , 

In  South  Carolina,  in  1876,  the  troops  of  the  United  States  were  stationed  at 
SIXTY-SIX  different  polling  places  and  openly  employed  to  intimidate  both  white 
and  black  electors.  These  troops  were  sent  there  without  the  state  legislature 
having  been  convened,  or  attempted  to  be  convened,  as  the  Constitution  requires 
to  be  done  before  the  governor  is  authorized  to  ask  the  President  for  troops. 
They  were  sent  also  at  a  time  when  every  judge  in  South  Carolina,  all  Republi- 
cans except  one,  had  certified  that  the  state  was  in  peace  and  quiet,  and  in  ready 
obedience  to  the  civil  processes  of  the  law. 

THE   CROWNING  ACT   OP   INFAMY, 

in  all  this  series  of  infamous  acts,  was  the  bringing  of  and  the  quartering  of 
United  States  troops  in  the  city  of  Washington,  in  December,  1876,  for  the 
avowed  purpose  of  overawing  and  intimidating  the  Democratic  majority  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  to  enforce  the  right  of  the  President  of  the  Senate 
to  count  the  electoral  vote,  register  the  fraudulent  counts  of  the  returning 
Boards,  and  complete  the  work  of  fraud  and  force.  On  December  10,  1876, 
Grant,  in  conversation  with  an  Associated  Press  reporter,  said  :  "There  are  six 
HUNDRED  or  EIGHT  HUNDRED  troops  iu  Washington.  If  there  should  be  any 
necessity  for  more,  I  will  order  them  hither."  The  report  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment, July  10,  1876,  shows  there  were  no  soldiers  in  Washington.  The  same 
authority,  January  9,  1877,  shows  that  there  were  771  solders  at  the  Washington 
Arsenal,  At  the  same  date  there  were  1,466  in  South  Carolina  and  1,391  in 
Louisiana. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER  ON  THE  USB  OP  TROOPS. 

The  employment  of  the  military  power  for  such  purposes  has  been  condemned 

by  all  the  eminent  statesmen  of  the  republic.     We  will  only  quote  from  other 

than  Democratic  sources.     Daniel  Webster,  in  his  Bunker  Hill  oration,  said  : 

Quite  too  frequent  resort  s  made  to  military  force  ;  and  quite  too  much  of  the  substance  of  the 
people  is  consumed  in  maintaining  armies,  not  for  defence  against  foreign  aggression,  but  fer 
enforcing  obedience  to  domestic  authority.  Standing  armies  are  the  oppressive  instruments  for 
governing  the  people  in  the  hands  of  hereditary  and  arbitrary  monarchs.    A  military  republic,  a 

fovemment  founded  on  mock  elections  and  supported  only  by  the  sword,  is  a  movement  indeed, 
ut  a  retrograde  and  di.«astrous  movement,  from  the  regular  and  old-fashioned  monarchical  systems. 
If  men  would  enjoy  the  blessings  of  republican  government  they  must  govern  themselves  by  rea- 
son, by  mutual  counsel  and  consultation,  by  a  sense  and  feeling  of  general  interest,  and  by  the 
acquiescence  of  the  minority  in  the  will  of  the  majority,  properly  expressed  ;  and,  above  all,  the 
military  must  be  kept,  accordiner  to  the  language  of  our  bill  of  rights,  in  strict  subordination  to  the 
civil  authority.  Wherever  thislesson  is  not  both  learned  and  practiced  there  can  be  no  political 
freedom.  Absurd,  preposterous  is  it,  a  scoff  and  a  satire  on  free  forms  of  constitutional  libery,  for 
frames  of  government  to  be  prescribed  by  military  leaders,  and  the  the  right  of  suffrage  to  be  exer- 
cised at  the  point  of  the  Bword.— Works  of  Daniel  Webster,  volume  1,  pages  98  and  99. 


204  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

MR.    EVARTS'    ELOQUENT   PROTEST. 

The  present  Secretary  of  State,  Hon,  Wm.  M.  Evarts,  speaking  to  the  citizens 
of  New  York  City,  on  the  occasion  of  an  indignation  meeting  held  to  condemn 
the  illegal  interference  of  the  United  States  troops,  commanded  by  General  De 
Trobriand,  acting  under  the  order  of  General  Grant,  in  January,  1875,  in  turning 
out  the  legally  elected  legislature  of  Louisiana  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  said : 

I  must  confess  that  the  news  that  came  from  Louisiana  a  few  daj' s  ago  has  profoundly  alarmed 
me.  A  thing  has  happened  which  has  never  happened  in  this  country  before,  and  which  nobody, 
I  trust,  ever  thought  possible. 

When  the  legislature  convened— and  I  repeat,  it  convened  according  to  law,  at  the  time  and  in 
the  place  fixed  by  law,  called  to  order  by  the  very  officer  designated  by  law— those  persons  were 
claimants  for  seats  on  the  ground  of  the  votes  they  had;  some  of  them  presenting  claims  so  strong 
on  the  ground  of  majorities  so  large  that  even  such  a  returning  board  as  Louisiana  had  did  not 
■dare  to  decide  against  them;  and  when  they  had  been  seated  in  the  legislature  organized  as  I 
■have  described,  United  States  soldiers  with  fixed  bayonets  decided  the  case  against  them  and  took 
them  out  of  the  legislative  hall  by  force.  When  that  had  been  done  the  conservative  members  left 
that  hall  in  a  body  with  a  solemn  protest.  The  United  States  soldiery  kept  possession  of  it;  and 
then,  under  their  protection,  the  Republicans  organized  the  legislature  to  suit  themselves. 

There  is  another  thing  which  especially  the  American  peojne  hold  sacred  as  the  life  element  of 
their  republican  freedom.  It  is  the  right  to  govern  and  administer  their  local  affairs  independ- 
■ently,  through  the  exercise  of  that  self-goveenment  which  lives  and  has  its  being  in  the  organism 
of  the  states;  and,  therefore,  we  find  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Republic  the  power  of  the  Na- 
tional government  to  interfere  in  state  aft'airs  most  scrupulously  limited  to  well-defined  cases  and 
the  observance  of  certain  strictly  prescribed  fonns;  and  if  these  limitations  be  arbitrarily  disre- 
garded by  the  national  authority,  and  if  such  violation  be  permitted  by  the  Congress  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  we  shall  surely  have  reason  to  say  that  our  system  of  republican  government  is  in 
danger. 

I  cannot,  therefore,  escape  from  the  deliberate  conviction,  a  conviction  conscienticmsly  formed, 
that  the  deed  done  on  the  4th  of  January,  in  the  State-House  of  the  state  of  Louisiana,  by  the 
anilitary  forces  of  the  United  States  constitutes  a  gross  and  manifest  violation  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  of  this  Republic.  We  have  an  act  before  us  indicating  a  spirit  in  our  government 
which  either  ignores  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  or  so  interprets  them  that  they  cease  to  be  the 
^fiafeguard  of  the  independence  of  legislation  and  the  rights  and  liberties  of  our  people.  And  that 
spirit  shows  itself  in  a  shape  more  afarmibg  still  in  the  instrument  the  Executive  has  chosen  to 
•execute  his  behests. 

On  all  sides  you  can  hear  the  question  asked,  "If  this  can  be  done  in  Louisiana,  and  if  such 
things  be  sustained  by  Congress,  now  long  will  it  be  before  it  can  be  done  in  Massachusetts  and 
in  Ohio?  How  long  before  the  constitutional  rights  of  all  the  states  and  the  self-government  of 
all  the  people  may  be  trampled  under  foot?  How  long  before  a  general  in  the  army  may  sit  in  the 
<chair  you  occupy,  sir,  to  decide  contested  election  cases  for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing  a  ma- 
jority in  the  Senate?  How  long  before  a  soldier  may  stalk  into  the  national  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, and,  pointing  to  the  Speaker's  mace,  say,  *  take  away  that  bauble  ?'  " 

HOW  TO  PRESERVE  OUR  LIBERTIES. 

************* 
And  now  the  culminating  glory  to-day— I  do  not  know  whether  it  will  be  the  culminating  glory 
to-morrow;  Federal  soldiers,  with  fixed  bayonets,  marching  into  the  legislative  halls  of  a  state, 
and  invading  the  legislature  assembled  in  the  place,  and  at  the  time  fixed  by  law,  dragging  out  of 
the  body,  by  force,  men  universally  recognized  as  claimants  for  membership,  and  having  been 
seated;  soldiers  deciding  contested-election  cases  and  organizing  a  legislative  body;  the  lieuten- 
ant-general suggesting  to  tbe  President  to  outlaw  by  proclamation  a  numerous  class  of  people  by 
the  wholesale  that  he  may  try  them  by  drumhead  court-martial,  and  then  the  Secretary  of  War 
informing  the  lieu; enant-general  by  telegraph  that  "all  of  us,"  the  whole  government,  have  full 
xjonfidence  in  his  judgment  and  wisdom.  And,  after  all  this,  the  whites  of  the  South  gradually 
driven  to  look  upon  the  national  government  as  their  implacable  and  unscrupulous  enemy,  and 
the  people  of  tlie  whole  country  full  of  alarm  and  anxiety  about  the  safety  of  republican  institu- 
tions and  the  rights  of  every  man  in  the  land. 

He  who  in  a  place  like  ours  fails  to  stop  or  even  justifies  a  blow  at  the  fundamental  laws  of  the 
land,  makes  himself  the  accomplice  of  those  who  strike  at  the  life  of  the  Republic  and  the  liberties 
of  the  people. 

************* 

If  you  really  think  that  the  peace  and  order  of  society  in  this  country  can  no  longer  be  main- 
tained through  the  self-government  of  the  people  under  the  Constitution  and  the  impartial  enforce- 
mentof  constitutional  laws;  if  you  really  think  that  this  old  machinery  of  free  government  can  no 
ionger  be  trusted  with  its  most  important  functions,  and  that  such  transgressions  on  the  part  of 
those  in  i)ower  as  now  pass  before  us  are  right  and  necessary  for  the  public  welfare,  then,  gentle- 
men, admit  than  the  government  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people,  is  a  miscarriage. 
Admit  that  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  this  Republic  must  be  the  confession  of  its  failure,  and 
makeupyour  minds  to  change  the  form  as  well  as  the  nature  of  our  institutions;  for  to  play  at 
republic  longer  would  then  be  a  cruel  mockery.  But  I  entreat  you  do  not  delude  yourselves  and 
others  with  the  thought  that  by  following  the  fatal  road  upon  which  we  are  now  marching  you 
can  still  preserve  those  institutions;  for  I  tell  you,  and  the  history  of  struggling  mankind  bears  me 
out,  where  the  terms  of  constitutional  government  can  be  violated  with  impunity,  there  the  spirit 
of  constitutional  government  will  soon  be  dead. 

CARL  SCHURZ  ON  THE  USE  OP  TROOPS. 

The  present  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  speaking  of  these  things  in  the  South 
and  elsewhere,  said : 


THREE   MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  2 OS- 

United  States  soldiers,  with  fixed  bayonets,  decided  the  case  against  them,  and  took  them  one 
of  the  legislative  hall  by  force.  *  *  *  I  cannot,  therefore,  escape  from  the  deliberate 
conviction— a  conviction  conscientiously  formed— that  the  deed  done  on  the  4th  of  January,  in  the 
State-House  of  Louisiana,  by  the  military  forces  of  the  United  States,  constitutes  a  gross  and  man- 
ifest violation  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  this  Republic,  *  *  *  if  this  can  be  done- 
in  Louisiana,  and  if  such  things  be  sustained  by  Congress,  how  long  will  it  be  before  it  can  be- 
done  in  Massachusetts  and  Ohio? 

He  who,  in  a  place  like  ours,  fails  to  stop,  or  even  justifies  a  blow  at  the  fundamental  laws  of  the 
land,  makes  himself  the  accomplice  of  those  who  strike  at  the  life  of  the  Republic  and  at  the  lib- 
erties of  the  people. 

JUDGE  M'CREARY  ON  TROOPS  AT  THE  POLLS. 

Hon.  George  W.  McCreary,  late  Secretary  of  War,  and  recently  appointed 
United  States  Judge,  in  his  book  on  Contested  Elections,  says: 

There  can,  however,  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  law  looks  with  great  disfavor  upon  anything  like 
an  interference  by  the  military  with  the  freedom  of  an  election.  An  armed  force  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  polls  is  almost  of  necessity  a  menace  to  the  voters  and  an  interference  with  their  free- 
dom and  independence,  and  if  such  armed  force  be  in  the  hands  of  or  under  the  control  of  the 
partisan  friends  of  any  particular  candidate,  the  probability  of  improper  influence  becomes  still 
stronger. 

THE  ENGLISH  LAW. 

Blackstone,  the  most  eminent  of  English  authorities  in  his  commentaries  says  : 
And  as  it  is  essential  to  the  very  being  of  Parliament  that  elections  should  be  absolutely  free,^ 
therefore  all  undue  influences  upon  the  electors  are  illegal  and  strongly  prohibited.  *  *  *  As 
soon,  therefore,  as  the  time  and  place  of  election,  either  in  counties  or  boroughs,  are  fixed,  all 
soldiers  quartered  in  the  place  are  to  remove  at  least  one  day  before  the  election  to  the  distance  of 
two  miles  or  more  ;  and  not  to  return  till  one  day  after  the  election  is  ended. 

OTHER  EMINENT  AUTHORITIES. 

Dr.  Liefber,  in  his  work  on  civil  liberty  and  self-government,  in  speaking  of 

elections,  says  : 

It  is  especially  necessary  that  the  army  be  in  abeyance,  as  it  were,  with  reference  to  all  subjects- 
and  movements  appertaining  to  the  question  at  issue.  The  English  law  requires  the  removal  of 
the  garrison  from  every  place  where  common  election  for  Parliament  is  gomg  on.  Much  more^ 
necessary  is  the  total  neutrality  of  the  army  in  an  election  of  the  sort  of  which  we  now  treat. 

Judge  Cooley,  in  his  work  on  Constitutional  limitations,  under  the  title  of  the 

"Freedom  of  Elections,"  on  page  614  says  : 

And  with  a  just  sense  of  the  danger  of  military  interference  where  a  trust  is  to  be  exercised,  the 
highest  as  well  as  the  most  delicate  in  the  whole  machinery  of  the  government,  it  has  not  been 
thought  unwise  to  prohibit  the  militia  being  called  out  on  election  days,  even  though  for  no  other 
purpose  than  for  enrolling  and  organizing  them. 

The  ordinary  police  is  the  peace  force  of  the  state,  and  its  presence  suggests  order,  individual 
safety,  and  public  security  ;  but  when  the  militia  appear  upon  the  stage,  even  though  composed  of 
citizen  militia,  the  circumstances  must  be  assumed  to  be  extraordmary,  and  there  is  always  an 
appearance  of  threatening  and  dangerous  compulsion  which  might  easily  interfere  seriously  with 
that  calm  and  unimpassioned  discharge  of  the  elector's  duty  which  the  law  so  justly  favors.  The 
soldier  in  organized  ranks  can  know  no  law  but  such  as  is  given  him  by  his  commanding  ofllcer, 
and  when  he  appears  at  the  polls  there  is  necessarily  a  suggestion  of  the  presence  of  an  enemy, 
against  whom  he  may  be  compelled  to  exercise  the  most  extreme  and  destructive  force,  and  that 
enemy  must  generally  be  the  party  out  of  power,  while  the  authority  that  commands  the  force 
directed  against  them  will  be  the  "executive  power  of  the  state  for  the  time  being  wielded  by  their 
opponents. 

8EN-\T0R  SEWARD  ON  THE   USE   OP  MILITARY. 

Mr.  William  H.  Seward,  from  his  place  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in 
discussing  the  Kansas  troubles  in  1856,  declared  that — 

The  time  was,  and  that  not  long  ago.  when  a  proposition  to  employ  the  standing  army  of  the 
United  States  as  a  domestic  police  would  have  been  universally  denounced  as  a  premature  revela- 
tion of  a  plot,  darkly  contrived  in  the  chambers  of  conspiracy,  to  subvert  the  liberties  of  the  people 
and  to  overthrow  the  Republic  itself. 

Civil  liberty  and  a  standinq  army  for  the  purpose  of  civil  police  Jiave  never  yet  stood  together,  and 
never  can  stand  together.  If  I  am  to  choose,  sir,  between  upholding  laws  in  any  part  of  this 
Republic  which  cannot  be  maintained  without  a  standing  army,  or  relinquishing  the  laws  them- 
selves, I  give  up  the  laws  at  once,  by  whomsoever  they  are  made  and  by  whatever  authority;  for- 
either  our  system  of  government  is  radically  wrong,  or  such  laws  are  unjust,  unequal,  aud  per- 
nicious. 

*********** 

If  the  founders  of  the  Constitution  had  been  told  that  within  seventy  years  from  the  day  on 
which  they  laid  its  solid  foundation  and  raised  its  majestic  columns  a  standing  army  would  have 
been  found  necessary  and  indispensable  merely  to  execute  municipal  laws,  they  would  have  turned 
shuddering  away  from  the  massive  despotism  which  they  had  erected. 

HIGH  MILITARY  AUTHORITY. 

Captain  O'Brien,  (who  distinguished  himself  as  a  soldier  at  Buena  Vista^ 
Mexico),  in  his  very  able  work  on  "  American  Military  Law,"  in  his  chapter  (2> 
on  "restraints  of  executive,"  says  : 


206  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

Congress  may  declare  when  and  for  what  objects  the  arm}'^  is  to  be  used,  and  for  what  purposes 
it  may  not  be  used,  and  thus  chart  out  accurately  the  limits  of  executive  power.  And  even  within 
these  limits  the  action  of  the  Executive,  indirectly  but  absolutely,  depends  on  the  concurrence  of 
Congress,  which  must  appropriate  funds  for  the  purpose  before  even  a  corporal's  guard  can  be 
moved. 

REPUBLICAN   INCONSISTENCY. 

The  Democrats  in  Congress  proposed  to  strike  out  of  section  3002  Revised 
Statutes  the  words,  "or  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls."  They  proposed  to  do 
this  by  placing  the  repealing  clause  on  the  Army  Appropriation  Bill.  Thereupon 
the  Republican  leaders  in  Congress  set  up  the  cry  that  this  was  revolutionary  to 
enact  general  legislation  on  appropriation  bills.  They  all  at  once  saw  in  "riders " 
upon  appropriation  bills  a  dreadful  evil,  although  in  the  course  of  a  few  years 
preceding  the  Republican  majority  in  Congress,  had  enacted  general  legislation 
upon  many  bills,  to  the  extent  of  387  different  provisions  of  law.  Every  promi- 
nent member  of  the  party  who  had  ever  served  in  a  Republican  Congress,  from 
]VIr.  Hayes  down  have  not  only  advocated,  but  voted  for  these  riders  on  approp- 
riation bills.  Moreover,  .Secretary  of  State  Evarts  had  declared  upon  a  memor- 
able occasion  the  control  of  the  purse  was  given  to  the  House  in  this  republic, 
and  to  the  House  of  Commons  in  England  for  the  very  purpose  of  enabling  that 
branch  of  the  legislature  to  compel  redress  of  grievances.     He  said  : 

What  use  is  it  to  give  the  purse  and  the  sword  to  the  House  of  Commons  if  the  King  or  the 
President  by  military  power  can  determine  what  shall  be  the  constitution  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons or  the  House  of  Congress  ?  And  that  is  what  they  fought  for  in  England.  *  *  *  And  for 
this  reason  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  justified  in  assuming  that  the  supreme  civil  power 
shall  dominate  over  the  military,  and  that  no  merging  of  them  or  interference  with  them  shall  be 
permitted 

The  very  Federal  Election  Laws  were  enacted  by  being  placed  as  riders  on 

appropriation  bills.     Indeed  the  great  majority  of  the  infamous  legislation  of  the 

Republican  majority  in  Congress  during  the  past  fifteen  years  was  enacted  in  the 

.same  way. 

THE  ISSUE   SQUARELY  MADE.      ' 

The  Democrats  began  this  memorable  contest  for  the  rights  of  the  people,  this 
struggle  for  human  liberty  at  the  last  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress.  They 
were  bitterly  fought  by  the  Republicans.  The  bill  passed  the  House  with  the 
repealing  clause  on  it.  The  Republican  Senate  would  not  accept  it.  The  bill 
went  to  a  conference  committee  which  could  not  agree.  On  the  final  disagreeing 
report  from  this  conference  committee,  Hon.  Abram  S.  Hewitt  said  : 

The  conferees,  on  the  part  of  the  Senate,  declined  to  agree  to  the  repeal  of  so  much  of  the  two 
sections  of  the  revised  Statutes  as  authorized  troops  to  be  present  at  the  polls.  The  issue,  there- 
fore, was  fairly  and  clearly  defined.  *  *  *  This  presents  an  issue  which 
involves  the  very  essence  of  free  government.  The  difference  between  a  despotic  government  and 
a  free  government  is  this,  that  in  a  despotism  the  military  power  is  superior  to  the  civil  ;  in  a  free 
government  the  civil  dominates  the  military  power.  And  this  principle  is  one  which  we  never 
fought  for.  It  came  to  us  as  an  inheritance  from  our  fathers.  It  was  so  well  recognized  that 
when  the  Constitution  was  framed  it  was  not  even  deemed  necessary  to  insert  an  article  to  that 
effect.  *  *  *  *  No  English  speaking  man  for  two  hundred  years  has 
questioned  the  principle  that  soldiers  should  never  be  present  at  the  polls.  And  the  question 
could  never  have  been  raised  in  this  country,  the  demand  could  never  have  been  made  in  our 
land,  but  for  the  unhappy  calamity  of  a  civil  war.  In  time  of  civil  war  all  political  rights  must  be 
surrendered  to  the  necessities  of  the  conflict.  And  so  it  was  here.  We  surrendered  the  right  we 
had  inherited,  and  which  up  to  that  hour  we  had  exercised,  that  no  soldier  should  show  himself  at 
the  polls.  *  *  *  Now,  for  fifteen  years  we  have  been  striving  to  recover  that 
lost  ground.  We  have  made  gigantic  efforts  ;  sacrifices  such  as  the  world  never  saw,  to  get  back 
to  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  and  yet  we  have  done  nothing  for  the  resumption  of  our 
political  rights— the  rights  which  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of  this  government.  The  time  has  come 
to  recover  this  lost  ground  ;  and  I  think  it  is  a  reproach  to  our  patriotism  that  the  resumption  of 
specie  payments  should  have  preceded  the  resumption  of  the  rights  necessary  for  the  preservation 
of  free  government.  Can  we  surrender  this  question  ?  Would  we  be  justified  by  the  people  of 
this  country,  now  that  the  issue  has  been  raised,  in  conceding  the  principle  m  time  of  profound 
pcaee,  fifteen  years  after  the  close  of  the  civil  war,  that  soldiers  may  be  ordered  by  the  executive 
powertothepollson  the  day  of  election.  *  *  *  If  the  provision  authorizing  the 
presence  of  troops  at  the  polls  shall  remain  upon  our  statute  books  when  an  unscrupulous  executive— 
and  we  may  have  such  an  one— shall  occupy  the  pre.«idential  chair,  with  this  power  to  control  the 
troops  at  the  polls,  the  people  of  this  country  will  never  elect  his  successor.  That  danger  confronts 
us.    We  are  asked  why  we  press  this  iasuc  now.     We  press  it  now  because  we  have  had  an  admon- 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  207 

ition  that  when  the  Army  Bill  failed  in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  the  army  was  maintained  with- 
out law  for  months,  nearly  to  the  time  of  the  nest  election,  before  Congress  was  called  together 
and  provision  could  be  made  for  its  support.  *  *  *  j(  jg  fQj.  jj^^t  reason  that 

the  conferees,  on  the  part  of  the  House,  have  felt  themselves  constrained  to  plant  themselves 
firmly  upon  the  ground  that  they  would  never  yield  this  position  ;  and  I  trust  that  they  will  be 
sustained  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  this  House.  The  issue  thus  made  is  one  which  we  are  ready 
to  accept  before  the  country.  Let  the  people  decide  whether  they  are  prepared  to  surrender  the 
sacred  right  of  untrammelea  suffrage,  which  this  bill  seeks  to  guard,  and  the  provisions  which  m 
the  Legislative  Bill  are  designed  to  maintain  unimpaired  the  trial  by  jury,  which  is  the  great 
achievement  of  our  race.  Unless  the  blood  which  courses  in  our  veins  has  degenerated  from  the 
vital  fluid  whiah  has  made  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  great  and  free,  I  cannot  doubt  the  result  of  the 
appeal  which  I  now  make  to  the  country    {Record,  ml.  8,  Part  3,  'M  sess.  45lh  Cong.,  pp.  2380-81). 

GENERAL   GARFIELD'S  DEVIOUS  COURSE. 

The  record  of  James  A.  Garfield  on  the  question  of  "Troops  at  the  Polls"  is 
characteristic  of  the  man.  We  propose  briefly  to  trace  it  through  all  his  devious 
course,  and  mark  his  glaring  inconsistencies. 

General  Garfield  followed  Mr.  Hewitt,  and  in  reply  to  the  speech  we  have 

quoted  from  above  said : 

Gentlemen  talk  as  though  these  sections  (2002-3)  had  been  adopted  to  empower  the  army  to 
interfere  with  the  freedom  of  elections  (we  have  shown  that  they  were  not)  ;  on  the  contrary,  they 
were  in  precisely  the  opposite  direction.  It  should  be  remembered  that  these  sections  were 
enacted  in  1865  (how,  we  have  shown)  ;  when  the  roar  of  battle  was  still  in  our  ears  ;  when  our 
guns  were  still  smoking;  when  none  of  the  state-  in  rebellion  had  been  reconstructed  ;  when 
none  of  them  had  been  restored  to  their  place  in  the  circle  of  the  Union;  when  all  was  chaos; 
when,  from  governor  down  to  the  humblest  officer  in  any  one  of  those  states,  there  was  no  one 
bore,  in  the  new  order  of  things,  anv  recognized  authority;  when  even  the  machinery  for  the 
services  of  ordinary  civil  processes  had  all  to  be  set  up  anew;  wheu,  by  the  necessity  of  the  case, 
the  military  occupation  or  all  that  part  of  the  country  was  indispensable,  even  in  the  view  of  the 
most  extreme  opposers  of  the  Union.  *  *  *  Perhaps  the  law  is  now  as  neces- 

sary as  it  was  in  1865.  [How  could  it  be  in  view  of  what  he  had  just  said  ?]  /  am  free  to  admit, 
far  one,  that  these  enactments  were  passed  at  a  period  so  different  from  the  present,  that  probably 
we  can,  withmit  serious  harm  in  any  direction,  muster  them  out  as  we  mustered  out  of  service  the  vic- 
torious armies  when  the  war  was  done.  For  myself,  I  see  no  serious  2>ractical  objection  to  letting  these 
sections  go,  though  I  do  not  quite  see  how  anybody  can  say  that,  while  a  state  may  call  out  its  own 
militia  to  keep  the  peace  at  its  own  polls,  and  nobody  calls  that  tyranny;  nobody  calls  that 
■wickedness,  injustice  and  a  menace  to  civil  liberty  ;  so  it  seems  to  me  that  a  nation,  when 
it  has  its  own  elections,  which  its  own  constitution  says  it  may  regulate  as*  to  time,  place  and  man- 
ner of  holding  them,  may,  with  great  propriety,  use  its  own  military  force  to  keep  the  peace  at 
the  polls.  That  is  all  there  is  in  these  sections  that  any  gentlemen  have  complained  of.  Now,  I 
believe  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  one  will  say  that  any  citizen,  during  the  thirteen  years  and 
more  that  this  law  has  stood  on  our  statute  booK,  has  been  denied  the  full  and  free  exercise  of  the 
elective  franchise  in  consequence  of  the  presence  of  armed  soldiers  of  the  United  States  near  the 
polls.  If  there  has  been  such  a  case,  I  will  join  with  any  man,  of  any  party,  in  deprecating  it,  in 
deploring  it,  in  doing  what  I  can  to  prevent  its  recurrence.  But  lest' it  should  be  a  rock  of  offence 
4ind  a  stone  of  stumbling  to  any  man  in  this  co^mtry,  I,  for  one,  would  be  willing  to  let  it  go  out  oj 
the  law  rather  than  even  appear  to  sin  against  the  liberty  of  the  citizen. 

WHAT   GENERAL   GARFIELD  MUST   HAVE   KNOWN. 

The  Statement  of  General  Garfield  that  he  did  not  believe  that  one  citizen  had 
been  denied  full  and  free  sufi'rage  by  the  presence  of  troops  at  the  polls  is  paral- 
leled only  by  his  other  statement  about  all  the  states  having  the  right  to  call  out 
their  militia,  and  have  them  near  or  at  the  polls.  He  knew  better  in  both 
cases.     The  laws  of  the  following  states  must  have  been  familiar  to  him : 

NEW  YORK. 

If  any  officer  or  other  person  shall  call  out  or  order  any  of  the  militia  of  this  state  to  appear 
and  exercise  on  any  day  during  any  election  to  be  held  by  virtue  of  this  chapter,  or  within  live 
days  previous  thereto,  except  m  cases  of  invasion  or  insurrection,  he  shall  forfeit  the  sum  of 
$500  for  every  such  oS.Qu»<i.— {Revised  Statutes  of  New  York  State,  chapter  6,  title  7,  section  5, 
page  448.) 

MAINE. 

If  any  officer  of  the  militia  parades  his  men  or  exercises  any  military  command  on  a  day  of 
election  of  a  public  officer,  as  described  in  section  102  of  chapter  10,  and  not  thereby  excepted,  or 
except  in  time  of  war  or  public  danger,  he  shall  for  each  offense  forfeit  not  less  than  $10,  nor  more 
than  fSfiO.— {Revised  Statutes  of  Maine,  chapter  4,  section  65,  page  104.) 

PENNSYLVANIA. 
No  body  of  troops  in  the  army  of  the  United  States,  or  of  this  commonwealth,  shall  be  present, 
either  armed  or  unarmed,  at  any  place  of  election  within  this  commonwealth  during  the  time  of 
such  election.  P?-(wicfe<Z,  That  nothing  herein  contained  nhall  be  so  construed  as  to  prevent  any 
officer  or  soldier  from  exercising  the  right  of  suffrage  in  the  election  district  to  which  he  may 
belong,  if  otherwise  qualified  according  to  la.\v.—{Brightley's  Pardon's  Digest,  1872;  Pennsylvania; 
eection  124,  page  562.) 


208  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

NEW  JERSEY. 

No  8uch  election  shall  be  appointed  to  be  held  on  any  day  on  which  the  militia  of  thi3  state 
shall  be  required  to  do  military  duty,  nor  shall  the  militia  of  this  state  be  required  to  do  military- 
duty  on  any  day  on  which  any  such  election  shall  be  appointed  to  be  held.— {Dixon's  Digest;  Nevsr 
Jersey,  revision  of  1871;  an  act  to  regulate  elections;  section  33,  page  262.) 

ILLINOIS. 

Electors  shall  in  all  cases,  except  treason,  felony,  or  breach  of  the  peace,  be  privileged  from 
arrest  during  their  attendance  at  elections,  and  in  going  to  and  returning:  from  the  same,  and  no- 
elector  shall  be  obliged  to  do  military  duty  on  the  days  of  election,  except  in  time  of  war  or  public 
da.ngeT.—{Bevised  Statutes  of  Illinois  1874,  Constitution  1870,  article  7,  section  3.) 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

No  meeting  for  the  election  of  national,  state,  district,  county,  city,  or  town  officers  shall  be  held: 
on  a  day  upon  which  the  militia  of  the  commonwealth  are  by  law  required  to  do  military  duty. — 
{General  Statutes  of  Massachusetts,  1860,  section  l,page  58.) 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OP  NEW  YORK. 
All  elections  ought  to  be  free;  and  no  person,  by  force  of  arms,  malice,  menacing,  or  other_. 
wise,  shall  presume  to  disturb  or  hinder  any  citizen  of  this    state  in  the  free  exercise  of  the  right 
of  suffrage. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  DELAWARE. 
Art.  28.  To  prevent  any  violence  or  force  being  used  at  the  said  elections  no  persons  shall' 
come  armed  to  any  of  them,  and  no  muster  of  the  militia  shall  be  made  on  that  day;  nor  shall  any 
battalion  or  company  give  in  their  votes  immediately  succeeding  each  otlier,  if  any  other  voter, 
who  offers  to  vote,  objects  thereto,  nor  shall  any  battalion  or  company,  in  the  pay  of  the  continent, 
or  of  this  or  any  other  state,  be  suffered  to  remain  at  the  time  and  place  of  holding  the  said  elec- 
tions, nor  within  one  mile  of  the  said  places  respectively,  for  twenty-fonr  hours  before  the  opening 
of  said  elections,  nor  within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  same  are  closed,  so  as  in  any  manner  to- 
impede  the  freely  and  conveniently  carrying  on  the  said  elections;  Provided,  always.  That  every  elec- 
tor may,  in  a  peaceable  and  orderly  manner,  give  in  his  vote  on  the  said  day  of  election. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OP  ARKANSAS. 

Elections  shall  be  free  and  equal  No  power,  civil  or  military,  shall  ever  interfere  to  prevent  the 
free  exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OP  GEORGIA. 
Freedom  from  arrest  on  the  day  of  election  is  guaranteed. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OP  MICHIGAN. 

No  military  duty  exacted  on  election  days,  save  in  time  of  war,  and  freedom  from  arrest  guar- 
anteed. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OP  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Elections  shall  be  free  and  equal;  and  no  power,  civil  or  military,  shall  at  any  time  interfere  to 
prevent  the  free  exercise  of  suffrage.  Electors  shall  in  all  cases,  except  treason,  felony,  and  breacU 
of  surety  of  the  peace,  be  privileged  from  arrest  daring  their  attendance  on  elections  and  in  gomg 
to  and  returning  therefrom. 

These  same  provisions  in  spirit  and  substance  are  to  be  found  in  the  laws  and 
constitutions  of  almost  every  state  in  the  Union. 

Notwithstanding  Gen.  Garfield's  declaration  that  he  was  ready  to  vote  for  the 
repeal  of  that  part  of  section  2003  Revised  Statutes  which  permits  ' '  troops  at  the 
polls,"  he  did  not,  and  he  stood  with  his  side  in  support  of  the  Senate's  refusal  to- 
agree,  and  the  Army  Bill  failed  at  the  last  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress. 

GENERAL  GARPIELD  GOES  BACK  ON  HIMSELP. 

There  was  a  called  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress.     The  Army  Bill  was 

reported  by  Mr.  Sparks,  of  Illinois,  from  the  Committee  of  Appropriations.     At. 

the  suggestion  of  Gen.   Garfield  general  debate  was  closed  upon  the  whole  bill, 

except  the  clause  in  regard  to  troops  at  the  polls.     It  was  precisely  the  same 

clause  that  was  in  the  Army  Bill  at  the  last  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress.  In 

discussing  this  provision  at  the  called  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  Gen. 

Garfield  said  : 

"  The  question.  Mr.  Chairman,  may  be  asked,  Why  make  any  special  resistance  to  the  clanses 
of  legislation  in  this  bill  which  a  good  many  gentlemen  on  this  side  declared  at  the  last  session 
they  cared  but  little  about,  and  regarded  as  of  very  little  practical  importance,  because  for  years 
there  had  been  no  actual  use  for  any  part  of  these  laws,  and  they  had  no  expectation  there  would 
be  any  ?  It  may  be  asked,  Why  make  any  controversy  on  either  side  ?  So  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned. Mr.  Chairman,  I  desire  to  say  ihiti:  We  recognize  the  other  side  as  accomplished  parlia- 
mentarians and  strategists,  who  have  adopted  with  skill  and  adroitness  their  plan  of  assault.    You. 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  209 

have  placed  in  the  front,  one  of  the  least  objectionable  of  your  measures*  but  your  whole  pro 
gramme  has  been  announced,  and  we  reply  to  your  whole  order  of  battle.  The  logic  of  your  po" 
sition  compels  us  to  meet  you  as  promptly  on  the  skirmish  line  as  afterward  when  our  intrench- 
ments  are  assailed;  and,  therefore,  at  the  outset,  we  plant  our  case  upon  the  general  ground  upon 
which  we  have  chosen  to  defend  it. 

"  Ge)itlemen  :  We  have  calmly  surveyed  this  new  field  of  conflict;  we  have  tried  to  count  the 
cost  of  the  struggle,  as  we  did  that  of  1861,  before  we  took  up  your  gage  of  battle. 
Though  no  human  foresight  could  forecast  the  awful  loss  of  blood  and  treasure,  yet,  in 
the  name  of  liberty  and  union,  we  accepted  the  issue  and  fought  it  out  to  the  end.  We 
made  the  appeal  to  our  august  sovereign,  to  the  omnipotent  public  opinion  of  America, 
to  determine  whether  the  Union  should  perish  at  your  hands.  You  know  the  result.  And  now 
lawfully,  in  the  exercise  of  our  right  as  representatives,  we  take  up  the  gage  you  have  this  day 
thrown  down  and  appeal  again  to  our  common  sovereign  to  determine  whether  you  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  destroy  the  principle  of  free  consent  in  legislation  under  the  threat  of  starving  the 
government  to  death. 

We  are  ready  to  pass  these  bills  for  the  support  of  the  government  at  any  hour  when  you  will 
offer  them  in  the  ordinary  way,  by  the  methods  prescribed  by  the  constitution.  If  you  offer  those 
other  propositions  of  legislation  as  separate  measures,  we  Mill  meet  you  in  the  fraternal  spirit  of 
fair  debate  and  will  discuss  their  merits.  Some  of  your  measures  many  of  us  will  vote  for  in 
separate  bills.  But  you  shall  not  coerce  any  independent  branch  of  this  government,  even  by  the 
threat  of  starvation,  to  consent  to  surrender  its  voluntary  powers  until  the  question  has  been 
appealed  to  the  sovereign  and  decided  in  your  favor.  On  this  ground  we  plant  ourselves,  and 
here  we  will  stand  to  the  end. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  avowed  object  of  this  new  revolution  is  to  destroy  all  the  defenses 
which  the  nation  has  placed  around  its  ballot-box  to  guard  the  fountain  of  its  own  life.  You  say 
that  the  United  States  shall  not  employ  even  its  civil  power  to  keep  peace  at  the  polls.  You  say 
that  the  marshals  shall  have  no  power  either  to  arrest  rioters  or  criminals,  who  seek  to  destroy  the 
freedom  and  purity  of  the  ballot-box  {Cong.  Record,  vol.  9,  part  1,  1st  Sess.  4!dth  Cong.,  pp. 
217  and  218). 

THE  MISERABLE  PRETEXT. 

In  concluding  his  speech  in  reply  to  General  Garfield,  Mr.  McMahon  said: 

The  pretext  that  it  is  necessary  to  have  troops  at  the  polls  to  preserve  the  peace,  and  that  super- 
visors and  deputy  marshals  are  necessary  to  preserve  the  purity  of  elections,  is  only  a  bold  pretense 
not  believed  by  those  who  urge  it.  The  great  mass  of  the  American  people  require  constant 
urging  to  bring  them  to  the  polls.  We  often  spend  months  in  an  active  canvass  to  convince  them 
of  the  duty  of  attending  elections.  If  the  people  find  troops  stationed  there  under  the  command 
of  the  President  of  the  opposite  party— often,  as  we  know,  one  of  the  most  active  though  quiet 
workers  for  the  success  of  the  party— they  will  become  indifferent  or  timorous,  and  relinquish 
their  right.  If  the  naturalized  citizen  knows  that  he  is  to  be  subjected  to  the  danger  of  arrest  by 
persons  in  authority,  purposely  appointed  by  leaders  or  the  opposite  party  to  diminish  the  number 
of  .votes  against  it,  he  will  remain  at  home  rather  than  take  the  risk  of  the  trouble  or  inconve- 
nience to  which  he  may  be  put.  The  result  will  finally  be  that  the  adherents  of  the  party  in  power 
will  be  the  only  ones  to  approach  the  polls,  and  power  once  gained  will  be  thus  perpetuated  forever. 

Against  any  authorized  interference  between  the  voter  and  the  ballot-box,  we  have  raised  our 
protest.  The  citizen  should  be  as  free  as  air.  The  penalties  against  illegal  voting  are  ample.  The 
state  laws  to  preserve  the  peace  are  ample.  Riots  will  occur,  and  illegal  voting  will  take  place. 
Punish  the  guilty;  but  let  the  ballot-box  be  free,  and  put  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  honest 
voter . 

Because  these  are  fundamental  propositions,  and  concern  the  very  existence  of  the  government, 
we  are  making  the  contest  that  is  now  before  us.  We  appeal  to  the  people,  and  by  their  judgment 
are  willing  to  abide  {Ibid.,  p.  123). 

THE  REVOLUTION  GARFIELD  DREADS. 

In  the  course  of  the  same  debate  Mr.  Muldrow  said : 

The  distinguished  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Garfield)  recognized  the  importance  of,  and 
makes  no  argument  against,  the  impolicy  of  the  proposed  legislation,  but  confines  himself  to 
holding  up  the  specter  of  revolution.  How  can  it  be  called  revolution  for  the  legislature  of  this 
country  to  insist  upon  the  repeal  of  obnoxious  laws  before  furnishinsr  the  means  to  execute  them, 
is  past  my  comprehension.  I  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  called  revolution  for  the  lower  house  of 
Congress  and  the  Senate  to  pass  a  bill  repealing  certain  objectionable  features  of  certain  laws  now 
upon  the  statute  books.  They  have  abundant  precedents  for  doing  it  in  the  manner  in  which  they 
now  propose.  They  have  the  example  of  former  Congresses,  and  especially  former  Republican 
Congresses. 

*  *  **  *  *  *  *  *  *  * 

The  revolution  they  expect  is  one  of  converting  tyranny  into  freedom,  of  having  it  understood 
that  the  military  arm  of  the  government  shall  be  held  in  subordination  to  that  of  the  civil  arm; 
that  we  shall  return  to  that  condition  of  things  which  recognizes  the  fact  that  all  republican  gov- 
ernments must  re-t  upon  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  this  is  the  revolution  to  which  the 
Democracy  of  this  country  is  pledged,  and  this  is  the  revolution  that  the  people  of  this  country 
will  uphold. 

The  gentleman  from  Ohio  himself  voted  against  this  bill  when  it  originally  passed,  as  he  stated 
himself  on  the  floor  of  the  House  on  Saturday.  I  presume,  then,  that  he  has  no  objection,  per  se, 
to  the  repeal  of  tha  bill. 

Mr.  Garfield:  If  the  gentleman  will  allow  me,  I  will  say  that  I  will  vote  with  pleasure  for  the 
repeal  of  the  bill,  and  in  doing  so  I  will  act  consistently  with  my  former  course. 

Mr.  Muldrow:  If  the  gentleman  objects  to  the  method  only,  he  should  not  complain  of  that,  for 
he  sanctioned  it  himself  in  1872  {Ibid.,  page  146). 

GARFIELD  AGAIN  HELD  UP. 

In  the  course  of  this  same  debate,  Mr.  Townshend,  of  Illinois,  said: 


210  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

It  is  asserted  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  that  the  method  by  which  we  are  seeking  to  repeal 
these  laws  is  "revolutionary."  If  this  method  be  revolutionary,  I  want  to  know  the  fact;  and  I 
wish,  further,  to  look  beyond  the  present,  and  ascertain  who  are  the  authors  of  this  "revolution- 
ary "  method.  I  have  before  me  records  showing  that  this  is  no  new  invention,  originating  with 
the  Democratic  party  of  the  Forty-fifth  or  Forty-sixth  Congress.  I  have  before  me  records  showing 
that  this  method  of  legislation  has  been  practiced  in  the  past;  and  I  say  now,  in  passing,  that  if 
the  President  vetoes  these  two  bills  because  of  the  provisions  we  propose  to  tack  on  to  them,  it 
cannot  be  for  the  reason  that  he  regards  the  method  by  which  we  endeavor  to  effect  this  object  as 
"revolutionary."  He  will  not  veto  them  for  any  such  reason  if  he  is  guided  by  his  own  action  in 
the  past,  and  by  the  precedents  and  practices  of  the  Republican  party  itself  in  Congress. 

The  gentleman  from  Ohio  had  an  opportunity,  on  the  4th  day  of  March  last,  to  pass  his  opinion 
npon  them.  And  what  was  the  position  taken  by  him  then?  It  is  the  same  provision,  except 
simply  this  modification  with  regard  to  the  appointment  of  the  two  supervisors  which  are  retained 
in  this  bill,  but  whose  offices  were  abolished  by  the  bill  then  under  consideration.  What  was  the 
language  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  on  the  4th  day  of  March  last,  when  the  bill  was  more  objec- 
tionable from  his  standpoint  than  it  is  now?    I  read  it  from  the  Record: 

"I  am  free  to  admit,  for  one,  that  these  enactments  were  passed  at  a  period  so  different  from  the 
present  that  probably  we  can,  without  serious  harm  in  any  direction,  muster  them  out,  as  we  mns- 
tered  out  of  service  the  victorious  armies  when  the  war  was  done.  For  myself,  I  see  no  serious 
practical  objection  to  letting  these  sections  go,'"  etc. 

On  the  4th  of  March  last,  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  thought  these  amendments  were  harmless 
and  might  well  be  "mustered  out,"  but  on  last  Saturday  he  pictured  in  frightful  colors  the  dark 
and  damning  treason  that  was  nursed  in  our  effort  here  to  place  a  clause  repealing  them  in  this 
appropriation  bill.    (Ibid,  pp.  169-70.) 

A  TEMPEST     IN  A  TEAPOT. 

Mr.  Buckner  also  alluded  to  Mr.  Garfield's  change  of  front,  and  said: 
In  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Garfield)  not  a  month  since  would 
have  consented  to  this  amendment  as  to  the  use  of  the  miliiary  at  the  polls,  and  would  also  have 
been  willing  to  give  his  sanction  to  this  assumed  "  coercion  "  of  the  Executive,  how  does  it  happen 
that  this  able  leader  of  the  minority  then  and  now  can  justify  himself  for  his  extraordinary  speech 
of  last  week? 

How  can  he  who,  as  Chairman  of  the  Appropriations  Committee  for  years,  adopted  time  and  again 
this  mode  of  legislation,  and  who  but  yesterday  was  ready  to  consent  to  the  passage  of  the  identical 
bill  now  before  this  committee,  denounce  the  action  of  the  majority  as  "  revolutionary?  "  With 
what  grace  can  he  charge  that  we  are  attempting  to  repeat  the  history  of  1861  by  "  starving"  the 
Union  to  death,  instead  of  "  shooting"  it  to  death?  Never  before,  Mr.  Chairman,  has  this  House 
witnessed  such  a  tempest  in  a  teapot.  Never  before  has  the  country  seen  such  an  exhibition  of 
extreme  partisanship  and  electioneering  clap-trap  at  the  expense  of  consistency  and  common 
fairness,  and  I  venture  to  say  it  will  never  again  witness  an  attempt  to  engage  in  such  a  gigantic 
speculation  with  so  small  a  capital,  or  to  deduce  such  unjust  conclusions  from  such  false  and 

groundless  assumptions.    The  distinguished  gentleman  from  Ohio  will  pardon  me  for  reminding 
im  that  he  has  commenced  the  presidential  campaign  a  year  too  soon,  and  that  he  ought  not  to 
attempt  the  impossible  feat  of  jumping  over  the  stile  before  he  gets  to  it.     {Ibid,  p.  177.) 

The  vote  was  taken  on  the  bill,  and  General  Garfield  voted,  no  !  It  passed  the 
Senate  with  the  House  amendment,  went  to  the  de  facto  President,  who  vetoed 
it.  The  repealing  act,  was  then  passed  as  an  independent  measure,  and  was  again 
vetoed. 

SENATOR  THURMAN  ON  HAYES's  VETOES. 

Senator  Thurman,  that  able  constitutional  lawyer  and  eminent  jurist,  in  speak- 
ing of  these  veto  messages  of  Mr.  Hayes,  says  : 

There  are  some  other  things  about  these  messages  which  are  very  peculiar.  I  think  everybody 
that  read  the  first  message  understood  the  President  as  saying  that  under  existing  law,  troops  could 
not  be  used  at  elections,  i)ut  now,  in  the  second  message,  he  tells  us  in  effect  that  the  Constitution 
will  be  overthrown,  for  the  post-office  in  Fremout,  Ohio,  and  the  po?>t-offices  in  all  the  other  cross- 
roads villages  may  be  taken  by  a  mob  if  he  is  not  allowed  to  employ  the  military  there  on  election 
days.  It  is  necessary  that  the  power  to  use  the  military  at  elections  ehall  be  preserved  in  order 
that  he  may  defend  the  public  property.  Sir,  was  there  ever  so  transparent  a  sham— I  will  not  say 
contemptible.  I  want  to  speak  respectfully  of  the  Executive  ;  but  \va^  there  ever  such  transparent 
sophistry,  if  it  can  be  dignified  with  that  name,  a?*  this  pretense  that  it  is  necessary  there  shall  be 
in  the  statute  book  a  power  to  use  the  troops  to  preserve  the  peace  at  elections,  for  that  is  the  point, 
and  that  you  shall  not  abolish  that  power  for  fear  the  President  cannot  defend  the  post-offices  and 
custom  houses  with  the  troops  if  a  mob  should  assail  them  ?  So  help  me  Heaven,  I  cannot  get 
down  quite  to  the  level  of  that  argument. 

A  RIDER   GARFIELD  VOTED   FOR. 

On  June  6,  1877,  Mr.  Clymer  reported  another  army  bill  from  the  Committee  of 

Appropriations.     The  following  proviso  was  attached.     There  was  an  agreement 

that  all  discussion  of  this  clause  should  be  reserved  till  the  bill  had  been  completed 

in  the  Committee  of  the  "Whole.     The  clause  was  as  follows  : 

Sec.  6.  That  no  money  appropriated  in  this  act  is  appropriated,  or  shall  be  paid,  for  the  subsist- 
ence, equipment,  transportation  or  compensation  of  any  portion  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States 
to  be  used  as  a  police  force  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls  at  any  election  held  within  any  state. 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  211 

ADMITS  HE   IS   IN   FAVOR   OF    TROOPS   AT   THE   POLLS. 

In  discussing  this  proviso  General  Garfield  said  : 

My  first  observation  is,  that  this  section  does  not  prof esl  to  repeal,  and  does  not  repeal  any  law 
of  the  United  States.  There  is  not  now,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  there  never  was  on  oar  statute  book, 
a  law  which  authorized  the  use  of  the  army  "  as  a  police  force"  at  the  polls,  and  even  if  this  section 
were  a  repealing  clause,  there  is  nothing  on  which  it  can  operate  as  a  repeal.  But  whatever  the 
section  prohibits  is  in  the  form  of  a  limitation  for  the  coming  year  on  the  objects  to  which  the 
appropriations  here  made  are  to  be  applied.  It  is  declared  that  this  money  is  not  '•  appropriated  for 
the  subsistence,  etc.,  of  any  portion  of  the  army  to  be  used  as  a  police  force  to  keep  the  peace  at 
the  polls."  I  affirm  without  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  this  limited  and  indirect  prohi- 
bition does  not  apply  to  any  law  or  to  any  practice  known. 

Mr.  Hawley  :  Not  since  the  Kansas  troubles. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  Certainly,  not  since  the  Kansas  troubles.  And  furthermore  I  do  not  know  of  a 
man  in  this  House  who  is  in  favor  of  using  the  army  of  the  United  States  as  an  ordinary  police 
force  to  run  elections. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

The  proposition  to  use  our  army  as  a  police;  to  send  them  out  and  station  them  one  by  one  at 
the  polls  to  run  the  elections  as  a  police,  is  a  fiction  so  absurd  that  I  trust  no  man  on  this  side  of 
the  House  will  give  the  least  color  to  the  assumption  that  he  favors  it  by  holding  that  this  sixth 
«ection  repeals,  suspends,  or  modifies  any  existing  statute. 

Mr.  Williams,  of  Wisconsin:  Will  my  distinguished  friend  allow  me  to  submit  to  him  one 
question,  which  he  will  understand  I  put  in  the  utmost  good  faith. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Certainly. 

M.  Williams:  It  is  this:  Are  you  now  in  favor  of  using  any  portion  of  the  army  of  the  tJnited 
States  at  any  time  under  any  circumstances,  in  any  emergency,  to  keep  peace  at  the  polls? 

Mr.  Garfield :  Not  in  the  sense  of  using  that  army  as  an  ordinary  police  force. 

Mr.  Williams:  In  any  form  or  manner? 

Mr.  Carlisle:  This  section  does  not  refer  to  the  use  of  the  army  as  an  ordinary  police  force. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  will  refer,  my  friend 

Mr.  Williams:  I  do  not  mean  as  an  ordinary  civil  police  force,  but  in  any  form  whatever.  Is  the 
gentleman  in  favor  of  using  the  army  in  any  form  whatever  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls? 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  am  in  favor  of  using  the  army  and  the  navy,  and  all  the  militia  of  the  United 
States,  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  any  one  of  them  and  all  of  them,  everywhere,  and 
at  all  times  when  the  civil  force  is  inadequate,  but  not  until  then. 

Mr.  Williams:  Including  the  keeping  of  the  peace  at  the  j)olls? 

Mr.  Garfield :  If  there  be  any  law  that  authorizes  the  President  to  use  the  army  as  an  ordinary 
police  force  for  that  purpose,  I  am  in  favor  of  enforcing  it. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Gen.  Garfield,  after  all  his  equivocations,  all  his 
evasions  and  protestations  to  the  contrary,  was  forced  to  admit  that  he  was  in 
favor  of  using  the  troops  "to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls."  How  the  army  had 
been  used  for  that  purpose  we  have  already  shown.  However,  he  voted  as  did 
nearly  all  the  Republicans,  for  the  proviso  above  quoted — but  with  the  declara- 
tion that  it  changed  no  law  and  had  no  legal  effect  whatever. 

STILL  MORE  INCONSISTENCIES. 

In  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  the  fight  was  renewed.  The 
Army  Bill  was  reported  by  Mr.  Clymer  April  7th,  1880.  A  suggestion  was  made 
as  before  that  the  right  to  discuss  the  political  features  of  the  bill  should  be  re- 
served.   The  following  colloquy  took  place  between  Mr.  Garfield  and  Mr.  Sparks: 

Mr.  Garfield  :  Let  me  suggest  to  the  gentleman,  when  the  political  irider.  if  it  is  to  be  offered. 
Is  reached,  it  can  be  introduced  and  printed,  and  passed  over  informally  until  we  have  gone  through 
with  the  bill  regularly.    Then  we  can  take  up  the  proposed  amendment  and  discuss  it. 

Mr.  Sparks  :  I  presume,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  rider  the  gentleman  speaks  of  is  a  proposition  in 
regard  to  which  he  congratulated  himself  last  session  that  fewer  Republicans  voted  against  it  than 
Democrats. 

Mr.  Garfield :  I  do  not,  of  course,  know  what  the  gentleman's  rider  is. 

Mr.  Sparks :  I  remarked  just  now  that  I  remember  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  congratulated  him- 
self and  his  side  of  the  House  that  fewer  Republicans  voted  against  this  rider  than  Democrats  did 
in  the  last  Congress. 

Mr.  Garfield :  We  will  be  ready  to  attend  to  any  question  when  it  arises. 

April  8th  the  following  amendment  was  offered  by  Mr.  Sparks,  the  Chairman 
of  the  Military  Committee : 

Sec.  2.  That  no  money  appropriated  in  this  act  is  appropriated  or  shall  be  paid  for  the  subsist- 
ence, equipment,  transportation,  or  compensation  of  any  portion  of  the  army  of  the  United 
States  to  be  used  as  a  police  force  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls  at  anv  election  held  within  any 
state. 

It  was  the  same  amendment  that  was  offered  in  the  former  session,  for  which 
Mr.  Garfield  voted.     A  point  of  order  was  immediately  raised  against  it. 

Mr.  Garfield,  who  had  previously  expressed  his  willingness  to  have  the  law  re- 
jpealed,  did  all  he  could  to  have  a  point  of  order  sustained  that  the  amendment 


212  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

did  not  come  from  any  standing  committee  of  the  House.  He  tried  to  make  it 
appear  that  Mr.  Sparks  was  not  authorized  to  offer  the  amendment.  His  oppo- 
sition was  factious  and  his  points  technical  to  the  last  degree.  He  consumed 
hours  in  discussing  them.  The  point  he  made  was  that  the  new  rules  which  had^ 
been  adopted  a  few  days  previous  took  away  tlie  jurisdiction  of  the  Military 
Committee.  The  chairman,  Mr.  Carlisle,  of  Kentucky,  one  of  the  ablest  parlia- 
mentarians in  the  House,  as  well  as  one  of  the  best  lawyers,  ruled  that  Gen.  Gar- 
field's point  of  order  was  not  well  taken.  Although  he  had  voted  for  the  same 
proviso  on  the  Army  Bill  at  the  previous  session  he  did  not  vote  at  all  this  time, 
but  DODGED.  The  proviso  was  adopted  and  is  in  the  bill  as  it  passed  the  Senate; 
and  was  approved  by  the  President. 

THE   ODIOUS  AND   DANGEROUS  JURY  LAWS. 

Second.  We  next  come  to  consider  Sections  820  and  821  Revised  Statutes.  It< 
certainly  is  not  necessary  to  say  anything  about  the  importance  of  impartial, 
juries.  All  English  people  regard  trial  by  jury  as  the  great  bulwark  of  their 
liberty.  It  stands  in  the  grandest  of  all  monuments  of  English  courage  and  love ' 
of  liberty — Magna  Charta — and  Sir  Edward  Coke  says  that  its  insertion  there  was 
but  an  aflSrmation  of  the  undoubted  and  prescriptive  right  of  all  Englishmen.  It 
not  only  stands  in  Magna  Charta  but  in  the  Act  of  Settlement,  in  our  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  our  Constitution,  as  it  stood  in  the  constitution  of  everyone 
of  the  original  thirteen  states,  and  as  it  stands  in  the  constitution  of  every  state 
of  the  Union  to-day.  Why  is  it  that  we  attach  so  much  importance  to  the  right 
of  a  trial  by  our  peers — an  impartial,  unbiased  jury  ?  Because  in  all  ages  of  the 
history  of  English  speaking  people  that  right  has  been  found  to  be  the  great 
shield  of  protection  against  oppression  by  the  government.  No  people  who  have 
had  and  maintained  unimpaired  that  right  have  ever  lost  their  liberty.  Hallam^, 
the  philosophic  author  of  English  constitutional  history,  says  : 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OP  IMPARTIAL  JURIES. 

Civil  liberty  in  the  kingdom  has  two  direct  guarantees  :  the  open  administration  of  justice  ac- 
cording to  known  laws,  truly  interpreted,  and  fair  construction  of  evidence  ;  and  the  right  of 
parliament,  without  let  or  hindrance  or  interruption,  to  inquire  into  and. obtain  redress  of  public 
grievances.  Of  these  the  first  is  by  far  the  most  indespensible  ;  nor  can  the  subjects  of  any  state 
be  reckoned  to  enjoy  a  real  freedom  where  this  condition  is  not  found  in  its  judicial  institution 
and  in  their  constant  exercise.  *  *  * 

I  have  found  it  impossible  not  to  anticipate,  in  more  places  than  one,  some  of  these  glaring 
transgressions  of  natural  as  well  as  positive  law  that  rendered  our  courts  of  justice  in  cases  of 
treason  little  better  than  the  caverns  of  murderers.  Whoever  was  arraigned  at  the  bar  was  almost 
certain  to  meet  a  virulent  prosecutor,  a  judge  hardly  distinguishable  from  the  prosecutor  except 
by  his  ermine,  and  a  passive,  pucillanimous  jury.  *  *  *  There  is  no  room  for 

wonder  at  any  verdict  that  could  be  returned  by  ajnry  when  we  consider  what  means  the  govern- 
ment possessed  of  securing  it.  The  sheriff  returned  a  panel  either  according  to  express  directions, 
of  which  we  have  proofs,  or  to  what  he  judged  himself  of  the  crown's  intention  and  interest. 

If  a  verdict  had  gone  against  the  prosecution  in  a  matter  of  moment,  the  jurors  must  have  laid 
their  account  with  appearing  before  the  star  chamber  ;  lucky  if  they  should  escape,  on  humble  re- 
traction, with  sharp  words,  Instead  of  enormous  fines  and  indefinite  imprisonment.  The  control 
of  this  arbitrary  tribunal  bound  down  and  rendered  impotent  all  the  minor  jurisdictions.  That 
primeval  institution,  those  inquests  by  twelve  true  men,  the  unadulterated  voice  of  the  people,  re- 
sponsible alone  to  God  and  their  conscience,  which  should  be  heard  in  the  sanctuaries  of  justice, 
as  fountains  springing  fresh  from  the  lap  of  earth,  became  like  waters  constrained  in  their  course 
by  art,  stagnant  and  impure.  Until  this  weight  that  hung  on  the  Constitution  should  be  taken  off,, 
there  was  literally  no  prospect  of  enjoying  with  security  those  civil  privileges  which  it  held  forth. 

SENATOR  THURMAN  ON  THE  JURY  LAWS. 

Senator  Thunnan,  speaking  of  the  provisions  incorporated  in  the  Legislative, 

Executive  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill  repealing  these  objectionable  election 

laws  which  so  mysteriously  crept  back  into  the  statute  book,  said  : 

Now,  what  does  the  provision  in  this  bill  propose  ?  First,  that  sections  820  and  821  shall  be  re- 
pealed outright.  Ought  they  not  to  be  repealed  ?  We  did  repeal  section  820,  but  it  passed  into  the 
Revised  Statutes  without  a  man  here  knowing  that  it  was  brought  back  into  the  statute  book.  It 
was  one  of  those  mysterious  transactions  that  occurred  in  making  up  that  book,  such  as  the  strik- 
ing out  of  the  word  "  white  "  from  the  naturalization  laws  after  Congress  had  expressly  refused  to»' 


THEEE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  213 

•«trike  it  out,  like  tlie  demonetization  of  silver  which  Congress  had  not  demonitized.  It  was  one  of 
the  marvelous  things  of  that  revision  of  1874  which  I  saw  lie  on  that  desk  tied  up  as  it  came  from 
the  printing  office,  and  passed  by  the  Senate  without  the  cords  that  bound  the  wrapper  ever  being 
untied  or  cut,  read  by  its  title  alone,  because  there  was  no  time  to  read  more  and  because  no  Senator 
supposed  it  was  necessary  to  read  more,  as  it  professed  to  make  no  change  in  existing  law.  And 
60  this  section  820  stole  back  into  the  statute  law  of  this  laud. 

What  is  it  ?    It  reads  : 

"Section  820.  The  following  shall  be  causes  of  disqualification  and  challenge  of  grand  and  petit 
jurors  in  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  in  addition  to  the  causes  existing  Toy  virtue  of  section 
\812,  namely : 

"  Withont  duress  or  coercion  to  have  taken  up  arms  or  to  have  joined  any  insurrection  or  rebellion 
against  the  United  States  ;  to  have  adhered  to  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  giving  it  aid  and  com- 
fort ;  to  have  given,  directly  or  indirectly,  any  assistance  in  money,  arms,  horses,  clothes,  or  any- 
thing whatever  to  or  for  the  use  or  benefit  of  any  person  whom  the  giver  of  such  assistance  knew  to 
iave  joined,  or  to  be  about  to  join,  any  insurrsction  or  rebellion,  or  to  have  resisted,  or  to  be  about 
to  resist,  with  force  of  arms,  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  whom  he  had  good 
ground  to  believe  to  have  joined,  or  to  be  about  to  join,  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  or  to  have  re- 
sisted, or  to  be  about  to  resist,  with  force  of  arms,  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  United  States  ; 
or  to  have  counseled  or  advised  any  person  to  join  any  insurrection  or  rebellion,  or  to  resist  with, 
force  of  arms  the  laws  of  the  United  States." 

Now,  sir,  mark  it.  The  suit  may  be  between  a  boy  ten  years  of  age  and  another  boy  of  the  same 
age.  both  born  long  after  the  rebellion  ;  it  may  relate  to  their  estate  with  which  the  rebellion  had 
nothing  to  do  ;  they  and  their  guardians  who  prosecute  or  defend  for  them  may  be  perfectly  satis- 
fied with  the  jury  ;  the  lawyer  on  one  side  may  be  perfectly  satisfied  ;  but  some  lawyer  on  the  other 
side  may  get  up  and  say  to  a  juror,  "You,  sir,  gave  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  a  weary  confederate  sol- 
dier on  a  hot  summer  day,  and  thus  you  gave  aid  to  the  rebellion,  and  you  cannot  sit  to  try  this 
question  as  to  the  property  of  these  boys  who  were  not  then  born."  That  is  your  statute  ;  and 
that  any  man  can  stand  up  for  one  moment  at  this  day,  fourteen  years  after  the  close  of  the  rebel- 
lion, to  defend  such  a  provision  as  that  makes  me  wonder  at  the  extent  of  human  audacity. 

HOW   THEY  MIGHT  WORK. 

But  what  is  section  821  ?  Section  821  is  even  worse  than  820  in  some  respects.  Section  820  only 
gives  a  right  to  one  of  the  parties  to  challenge  a  juror.  It  makes  aiding  or  comforting  the  rebellion 
a  principal  cause  of  challenge,  and  that  principal  cause  of  challenge  can  only  be  insisted  on  by  one 
of  the  parties  to  the  suit  \  but  section  821  introduces  a  new  figure  on  the  scene.  Suppose  again 
these  two  boys  with  their  guardians  trying  a  suit,  the  title  to  a  piece  of  land  in  the  state  of  Onio, 
and  a  jury  is  called  and  the  boys  are  satisfied  that  the  jurors  are  good  men  and  true,  and  their 
friends  and  their  lawyers  are  satii^fied  that  they  are  good  men  and  true,  and  they  all,  lawyers,  friends 
and  parties,  want  them  to  try  the  case,  then,  just  as  they  are  to  be  sworn,  in  steps  the  District  At- 
torney of  the  United  States,  or  any  other  person  acting  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  and  says  : 
"  May  it  please  your  Honer,  there  are  men  on  that  jury  who  gave  aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebellion ; 
they  gave  a  pair  of  shoes  to  a  poor  confederate  famishing  soldier  when  his  feet  were  bleeding  in  the 
frost  and  the  enow  ;  they  were  so  vile  as  to  believe  that  the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  was 
told  for  our  edification  and  example,  and  they  assuaged  the  dying  agony  of  a  poor  confederate  with 
a  cap  of  cold  water  ;  they  are  men  who  aided  the  rebellion,  and  I  demand  that  your  honor  shall  di- 
rect that  every  man  in  that  jury  shall  take  the  iron-clad  oath  or  be  compelled  to  leave  the  jury- 
box."  And  if  the  judge  is  a  fool  or  a  knave,  or  if  he  is  under  the  influence  of  passion,  or  prejudice, 
or  fear  of  consequences,  he  may  make  the  order  and  enforce  it.  Let  no  man  say  that  this  is  an  im- 
possible supposition.  Such  an  order  has  been  made  and  enforced  since  we  assembled  in  this  Cham- 
ber ;  not  in  Ohio,  it  is  true,  but  in  another  state. 

Mr.  President,  ought  that  to  be  the  law  ?  Ought  that  to  be  the  law  in  a  country  that  has  the 
least  pretense  to  call  itself  civilized,  I  will  not  say  free  ?  I  say  it  would  disgrace  the  kingdom  of 
Dahomey,  much  more  the  United  States  of  America.  I  do  not  speak  now  of  whether  there  was  a 
necessity  lor  that  law  at  the  time  it  was  enacted— although  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  it 
would  not  have  been  far  better  to  have  suffered  the  evils  that  might  result  from  an  occasional  case 
of  a  rebel  sitting  on  a  jury  than  to  set  the  example  of  passing  such  a  law— but  if  it  were  justifiable 
then,  the  moment  that  peace  was  restored,  the  moment  that  we  once  more  looked  upon  a  united, 
harmonious,  and  a  fraternal  people,  that  law  ought  to  have  been  swept  from  the  statute  book.  It 
was  due  to  the  national  character,  it  was  due  to  justice,  it  was  due  to  civilization  that  that  law 
should  cease  to  exist.  The  only  wonder  is  that  it  did  not  cease  to  exist  long  ago.  We  propose  now 
that  it  shall  cease  to  exist.  Pray,  is  it  not  time  ?  Pray,  is  this  demand  for  an  honest,  impartial 
jury  ;  pray,  is  this  demand  that  we  go  back  to  the  old  and  well-trodden  p.tths  of  justice  and  legal 
decision,  a  matter  that  should  fire  the  Northern  mind  and  set  all  the  demagogues  in  the  whole  laud 
north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  to  declaiming  against  this  side  of  the  Chamber  ? 

THE  REMEDY. 
So  much  for  the  law  as  it  exists.  What  is  the  remedy  ?  It  is  not  easy  to  provide  a  remedy  ;  but 
one  thing  is  certain,  experience  has  proved  that  when  you  frame  a  jury  system  under  which  there 
may  be  many  political  questions  or  political  trials,  or  danger  of  political  bias  or  prejudice,  it  is  es- 
sential that  you  shall  provide  in  some  way  that  the  juries  shall  not  consist  of  men  of  one  political 
party  alone.  That  experience  proves.  Is  there  anything  strange  in  our  taking  no:  ice  of  the  exist- 
ence of  political  parties  ?  Why,  sir,  do  we  not  take  notice  of  it  in  one  way  or  another,  directly  or 
indirectly,  in  many  of  the  states  of  the  Union,  and  in  the  laws  of  the  United  States  themselves  ? 
Do  we  not  provide,  directly  or  indirectly,  in  divers  states  of  the  United  States,  that  judges  of  elec- 
tion shall  be  of  different 'political  parties  ?  Do  we  not  in  our  own  election  laws  provide  that  the 
supervisors  of  election  shall  be  of  oifferent  political  parlies  ?  We  are,  as  practical  men,  compelled 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  there  are  in  this  country  great  political  partie.«,  as  there  have  been  in  every 
free  country  that  ever  existed.  To  ignore  that  is  to  ignore  as  plain  a  fact  as  t-xMH  on  the  face  of 
the  earth,  and  therefore  the  proposition  in  the  pendintr  bill  that  the  names  of  the  jurors  shall  be 
placed  in  a  box  by  the  clerk  of  the  court  and  by  a  jury  commissioner,  to  be  appointed  by  the  judge, 
who  shall  be  of  the  principal  political  party  opposed  to  that  to  which  the  cierk  belongs,  and  that 
they  shall  put  in  names  alternately  until  the  proper  number  is  placed  in  the  box,  is  not  obnoxious 
to  criticism  because  it  recognizes  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  political  parties. 


214  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

It  required  the  struggle  of  nearly  a  whole  year  in  Congress  to  get  these  reforms 
■which  Senator  Thurman  demonstrated  to  be  so  necessary  in  our  judiciary.  As 
long  as  there  was  a  decent  pretext  for  opposing  them  they  were  opposed.  The 
legislative  bill  containing  them  was  vetoed  by  the  de  facto  President.  It  was  not  till 
the  jury  bill  was  enacted  as  an  independent  measure  that  it  was  approved.  Had 
not  the  Republicans  felt  that  they  had  a  suflBcient  record  to  defend  in  upholding 
the  monstrous  claim  of  the  right  to  combat  elections  with  Federal  troops,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  these  jury  reforms  would  have  been  secured. 

THE  FEDERAL  ELECTION  LAWS. 
Third.— The  consideration  of  the  Federal  Election  Laws,  sections  2016  to  2028, 
and  2031  and  5522,  Revised  Statutes,  is  our  last  duty.     The  claim  of  constitu- 
tional authority  for  these  laws  is  based  upon  article  2,  section  1,  clause  2  of  the 
Constitution.     It  is  as  follows  : 

Each  state  shall  appoint,  in  snch  manner  as  the  legislature  thereof  may  direct,  a  number  of 
electors,  equal  to  the  whole  number  of  Senators  and  Representatives  to  which  the  state  may  be 
entitled  in  the  Congress. 

The  word  "manner"  in  this  clause  of  the  Constitution  is  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  Republican  leaders  base  the  entire  superstructure  of  Federal  Election 
Laws.  These  laws,  be  it  remembered,  not  only  give  the  federal  officials  appointed 
under  them — the  chief  supervisors  of  elections,  the  supervisors  of  elections  and  the 
deputy  marshals— the  power  not  only  to  control  elections  for  representatives,  but 
for  presidential  electors,  and  executive  officers  of  the  states  and  members  of  the 
state  legislatures.  The  elections  for  these  state  officials  are  in  almost  every 
state  held  at  the  same  time  and  place  as  the  elections  for  members  of  Congress. 
These  federal  officers  supervising,  regulating  and  controlling,  not  only  the  elec- 
tion officers  of  the  state,  but  the  registration  of  voters  which  precedes  the  elec- 
tion as  well,  therefore  exercise  an  unwarranted  power,  even  admitting  their 
constitutional  right  to  interfere  at  federal  elections,  in  deciding  state  elections. 

SENATOR  THURMAN 'S  UNANSWERABLE  ARGUMENT. 

It  was  upon  this  ground  that  Senator  Thurman  based  his  unanswerable  argu- 
ment against  the  Federal  Election  Laws.    He  said  : 

I  go  to  another  proposition  which  T  hold  is  capable  of  demonstration,  and  that  is,  that  whether 
the  right  of  Congress  to  regulate  the  manner  of  congressional  elections  when  there  is  no  default  on 
the  part  of  the  state  exists  or  does  not  exist,  the  law  which  this  bill  proposes  to  repeal  is  not  con- 
stitutional exercise  of  the  power,  for  it  ift  fundamental  that  Congress  cannot  under  article  1,  sec- 
tion 4,  interfere  in  any  manner  with  the  election  of  state  officers.  It  can  no  more  do  it,  under  pre- 
tense of  regulating  congressional  elections,  than  it  can  when  no  Congressmen  are  to  be  elected.  It. 
follows  that  any  regulation  of  congressional  elections  enacted  by  Congress  must  be  so  framed  as 
not  to  interfere  with  the  election  of  state  officers.  If  it  do  so  interfere,  it  is  unconstitutional. 
Upon  that  I  stand  with  a  cbnscionsness  of  being  in  the  right  that  I  hope  is  not  presumptuous,  To 
me  no  legal  proposition  ever  appeared  clearer.  There  are  two  classes  of  elections  in  this  country. 
There  is  an  election  for  federal  officers.  Representatives  and  Senators  in  the  Congress,  and  electors 
of  President  and  Vice-President ;  if  the  latter  can  properly  be  called  Federal  officers.  There  is 
another  class  of  elections  for  the  officers  of  a  state  and  her  sub-divisions.  With  the  elections  of 
this  latter  class.  Congress  under  this  clause  of  the  Constitution  has  no  more  right  to  interfere  than 
it  has  to  interfere  with  the  elections  in  France.  So  far  as  it  can  interfere  at  all,  it  is  under  the  Fif- 
teenth Amendment,  and  that  is  simply  to  guarantee  the  right  of  men  otherwise  qualified  against  a. 
discrimination  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  But  that  guarantee,  I 
have  shown,  has  nothing  to  do  here.  Here  the  question  is  not  about  objections  of  race,  color,  or 
previous  condition  of  servitude,  but  it  is  whether  Congress  under  the  pretense  of  regulating  con- 
gressional elections  can  in  effect  regulate  the  elections  of  state  officers  too,  and  that  in  direct  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  and  the  rights  of  the  states. 

Sir,  did  our  farthers  ever  think  for  a  moment  when  they  were  placing  that  provision  in  the  Con- 
stitution authorizing  Congress  to  make  regulations  in  respect  of  the  times,  places,  and  manner  of 
electing  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  or  Senators  in  Congress  that  they  were  giving: 
Congress  plenary  power  over  the  election  of  state  officers  ? 

WAS  THAT  THEIR  OPINION  ?  ' 

That  it  was  not  their  opinion  we  may  easily  see  by  the  forcible  language  in  this  same  flfty-eighth 
number  of  the  Federalist. 

Suppose  an  article  had  been  introduced  into  the  Constitution  empowering  the  United  States  to 
regulate  the  elections  for  the  p^ticular  states,  would  any  man  have  hesitated  to  condemn  it  both  a& 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  215 

an  unwarantable  transposition  of  power  and  as  a  premeditated  engine  for  the  destruction  of  the 
state  government  ?  The  violation  of  principle  in  this  case  would  have  required  no  comment,  and 
to  an  unbiased  observer  it  will  not  be  less  apparent  in  the  project  of  subjecting  the  existence  of 
the  national  government  in  a  similar  respect  to  the  pleasure  of  the  state  governments.  An  impar- 
tial view  of  tne  matter  cannot  fail  to  result  in  a  conviction  that  each,  as  far  as  possible,  ought  to 
depend  on  itself  for  its  own  preservation. 

If  our  forefathers  in  the  convention  should  have  put  a  clause  in  the  Constitution  that  would 
warrant  what  these  laws  attempt,  they  knejv  that  the  whole  instrument  would  be  rejected,  and 
rejected  with  scorn  and  indignation.  Sir,  I  ask  what  do  these  laws  effect  ?  Do  they  not  interfere 
with  the  election  of  state  officers  ?  How  is  it  that  when  thousands,  I  believe  I  am  not  going  too 
far  in  saying  thousands,  of  men  who  claimed  the  right  to  vote,  and  who  so  far  as  we  know  had  the 
right  to  vote,  at  the  last  election  in  the  city  of  New  York,  were  arrested  by  Federal  officers,  dragged 
from  the  polls  before  Mr.  Commissioner  Davenport,  put  in  a  cage,  as  many  as  the  cage  would  hold, 
kept  there  until  the  election  was  over,  and  others  only  admitted  to  bail  on  the  condition  that  they 
would  promise  not  to  vote,  others  again  only  on  condition  that  they  would  surrender  their  naturaliz- 
ation papers— papers  that  he  had  no  more  right  to  take  from  them  than  he  had  to  take  their  goods 
and  chattels— when  that  was  done,  was  that  not  interference  with  the  election  of  the  officers  of  the 
state  ?  Was  that  simply  a  regulation  of  the  matter  of  electing  members  of  Congi'ess  ?  Was  that 
not  an  interference  with  the  election  of  the  members  of  the  legislature  of  the  state  who  were  to  be 
chosen  at  that  election  ?  Was  it  not  an  interference  with  the  election  of  one  of  the  judges  of  the 
highest  judicial  tribunal  of  that  state  then  to  be  chosen  ?  Was  it  not  an  interference  with  the  elec- 
tion of  every  state  officer  who  was  voted  for  at  that  election  ?  Who  can  deny  it  ?  Nobody  can. 
And,  sir,  will  you  tell  me  that  Congress,  under  the  power  to  regulate  the  manner  of  elections  in  the 
choice  of  members  of  Congress,  can  frame  a  law  in  such  wise  as  really  to  authorize  a  deputy  mar- 
shal of  the  United  States  to  tear  the  state  judges  of  election  from  their  seats  and  confine  them  in 
prison  and  stop  the  election,  and  that  all  that  is  not  interfering  with  the  rights  of  the  states  to  hold 
their  election  for  state  officers  according  to  their  own  laws  ?  Will  you  tell  me  that  that  is  the  exer- 
cise of  the  power  to  regulate  the  manner  of  electing  members  of  Congress  ?  No,  sir,  it  will  not 
stand  one  moment's  examination.  There  are  some  things  so  clear  that  argument  upon  them  is 
useless. 

ANOTHER    POINT    WAS  MADE   CLEAR 

by  Senator  Wallace.     The  undue  authority  exercised  by  these  Federal  ofBcers, 

acting  under  the  Federal  Election  laws,  would  enable  them  to  nullify  the  laws 

of  the  states  in  regard  to  the  qualifications  of  voters.     Congress  has  no  such 

power.      Article  1,   section  3,   of  the  Constitution  says  the  qualifications  of 

electors  for  members  of  Congress  shall  be  the  same  as  the  qualifications  requisite 

for  electors  of  the  most  numerous  branch  of  the  state  legislature.     Remarking 

on  this,  Senator  Wallace  said : 

The  electors  for  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  are  those  who  are  qualified 
electors  for  the  legislatures  of  the  states.  Qualified  how  ?  Qualified  by  whom  ?  Qualified  by  the 
Federal  government  ?  A  qualification  created  in  an  act  of  Congress  enforced  by  the  marshals  at 
the  point  of  the  bayonet  ?  No,  sir  ;  but  qualified  by  the  states.  The  electors  for  the  members  of 
the  legislatures  of  the  states  are  the  electors  for  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
they  are  to  be  qualified  by  and  under  the  constitutions  of  the  states.  If  you  have  no  qualifications 
of  electors  for  the  members  of  the  legislatures  of  the  states,  you  have  under  the  Constitution  no 
criterion  to  determine  who  are  to  be  electors  for  members  of  Congress.  Where  are  your  qualified 
electors  then  y  They  have  vanished  and  gone.  There  can  be  no  electors  for  members  of  the  lower 
House  if  there  be  no  electors  for  the  state  legislatures.  There  is  no  measure  or  criterion  of  quali- 
fication except  as  it  IS  found  in  the  clause  quoted,  which  provides  that  the  electors  for  members  of 
the  United  States  House  of  Representatives  are  the  electors  of  the  state  who  are  qualified  by  state 
constitutions  and  state  laws  to  vote  for  members  of  the  legislature.  If  there  be  none  of  these, 
there  can  be  none  for  members  of  the  Federal  house,  and  it  logically  follows,  that  the  existence  of 
the  state  legislatures  is  vital  to  the  existence  of  that  branch  of  the  Federal  government,  for  in 
their  absence  you  have  no  criterion,  no  qualification  under  the  Constitution  itself.  Do  we  presume 
to  exercise  that  power  here  ?  Do  we  assert  that  we  can  grasp  that  power  and  regulate  by  a  Federal 
statute  the  qualifications  of  voters  ?  If  we  do,  we  make  a  consolidate^  government  out  of  a 
Democratic  republic. 

OLD  FEDERAL  THEORIES  IN  NEW  FORMS. 

National  power  over  the  voter  as  such,  or  national  elections  as  such,  are  neW forms  of  old  federal 
theories.  In  the  laws  we  propose  to  repeal,  and  in  kindred  enactments  in  1870  and  1871,  the 
revamped  doctrines  of  the  federalism  of  1798  first  finds  statutory  existence.  The  universal  practice 
of  the  government  since  1801  has  been  against  any  such  theory  as  is  found  in  these  statutes. 
National  electors  would  require  national  citizenship  for  qualification.  How  absurd  a  theory,  that 
a  man  may  be  a  citizen  of  the  state  and  not  of  the  tfnited  States  and  still  be  a  national  voter.  Yet 
I  propose  to  show  that  such  would  be  the  legitimate  result  of  this  teaching  as  to  national  elections. 
This  subject  is  rightly  and  absolutely  controlled  by  state  law  and  state  constitutions  in  almost 
every  state.  There  are  no  national  voters.  Voters  who  vote  for  national  Repres^entatives  are 
qualified  by  state  constitutions  and  state  laws,  and  national  citizenship  is  not  required  of  a  voter 
of  the  state  by  any  provision  of  the  Federal  Constitution  nor  in  practice.  Under  the  constitutions 
of  Kansas,  Nebraska,  and  Colorado  an  unnaturalized  foreigner  who  has  declared  his  intention  to 
become  a  citizen  may  vote  for  members  of  Congress  and  state  officers  if  he  has  resided  six  months 
in  the  state,  and  in  Indiana,  Minnesota,  Oregon,  and  Wisconsin  after  a  residence  of  twelve  months, 
while  in  Massachusetts  he  must  reside  in  the  e(ate  two  years  after  he  has  been  naturalized.  Does 
the  new  gospel  as  to  control  of  elections  by  ?ia<iona^  authority  co)itemplate  making  the  rule  of  seven 
years'  residence,  required  by  Massachusetts,  or  that  of  six  months,  required  by  Kansas,  the  test  of 
qualification  as  a  "national"  voter  for  a  foraigU'boru  citi/,ea  ?    Which  is  the  doctrine  ?    Is  it  that 


216  THREE    MO>'^STKOUS    GKIEVAXCES. 

of  Maspachnsetts  or  that  of  Kansas  ?  The  foreign-horn  citizen  declaring  his  intention,  after  six 
months'  residence  in  Kansas,  is  a  voter,  and  may  vote  lor  a  member  of  Congress  and  governor  of 
the  state,  while  in  Massachusetts  he  must  carry  a  parchment  certifying  that  he  is  a  citizen  of  the 
United  Stares  and  must  have  resided  two  years  in  Massachusetts.  The  whole  difference  is  the 
difference  between  seven  years  in  one  state  and  six  months  in  another  as  applied  to  foreigu-boru 
citizens. 

HOW   THE   LAWS  MIGHT  BE   USED. 

National  elections,  naturally,  necesssarily,  include  national  voters,  and  the  plain  purpose  indi- 
cated by  this  action  of  the  Executive  is  to  make  the  states  conform  to  the  Federal  authority  as  to 
the  rule  of  suffrage.  I  ask  Senators  who  now  have  in  their  states  masses  of  unnaturalized  citizens 
who  are  voting  for  members  of  Confrres^s,  whether  they  seek  to  disfranchize  these  voters  or  whether 
it  is  reasonable  to  hold  that  the  Federal  government  can  by  its  laws  change  the  qualifications  cre- 
ated and  fixed  by  state  constitutions  ?  If  Davenport  could  reject  five  thousand  citizens  in  New  York 
because  of  his  allegation  of  non-naturalization,  why  shall  the  tn^enty-ftve  thousand  in  the  Western 
states  who  vote  without  naturalization  be  permitted  to  do  so  ?  Only  because  the  whole  subject  is 
under  state  control.  It  is  not  hard  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  declaration  of  the  Senator 
from  Vermont  for  "the  universality  of  equal  suffrage,"  if  it  be  read  in  the  light  of  1799  and  the 
tenet  of  federalism.  It  means  a  universal  rule  of  citizenship  for  suffrage  everywhere.  The  states 
are  lo  be  made  to  bend  their  will  to  the  control  of  universal  equal  suffrage  by  the  Federal  govern- 
vemment,  and  the  control  claimed  by  Kansas,  Colorado,  and  Nebraska  over  the  right  to  prescribe 
the  qualifications  of  voters  is  to  give  place  to  a  statute  enacted  by  the  Federal  government,  pre- 
scribing a  rule  like  that  of  Massachusetts.  What  more  potent  argument  as  to  the  fallacy  of  the 
existence  of  national  elections  can  there  be  than  the  fact  that  qualifications  for  voters  differ  in 
every  state,  and  that  by  universal  rule  the  states  have  absolute  control  of  the  subject  ? 

A  FOREIGNER  MAY  VOTE  IN  CERTAIN  STATES    BEFORE    HE  IS  A  CITIZEN  OP  THE 

UNITED   STATES. 

The  laws  of  the  United  States  require  a  residence  of  five  years  within  the  country  before  a 
foreigner  can  be  naturalized.  This  makes  him  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  but  he  may  be  a 
voter  for  members  of  Congress,  or  for  electors  for  President,  or  for  the  members  of  a  state  legis- 
lature who  elect  a  United  States  Senator,  after  he  has  resided  six  months  in  the  country  if  he  lives 
in  Kansas,  Nebraska,  Colorado  or  Georgia;  or  within  twelve  months  residence  in  Alabama,  Arkan- 
sas, Florida,  Indiana,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  Oregon,  Texas,  and  Wisconsin. 

A  naturalized  foreigner  can  vote  in  California  after  a  residence  of  six  months:  Connecticut, 
after  a  residence  of  one  year  if  he  be  able  to  read  any  article  of  the  constitution  or  any  section  of 
the  statutes  of  the  state;  Delaware,  after  one  year's  residence  if  he  has  paid  taxes;  Illinois,  after 
one  year's  residence;  Iowa,  six  months'  residence;  Kentucky,  two  years'  residence;  Louisiana, 
one  year's  residence;  Maine,  three  months;  Maryland,  one  year;  Michigan,  three  months;  Missis- 
sippi, six  months'  residence;  Nevada,  six  months;  New  Hampshire  and  New  Jersey,  one  year; 
North  Carolina,  one  year;  Ohio,  one  year;  South  Carolina,  one  year;  Tennessee,  one  year;  Ver- 
mont and  Virginia,  one  year;  and  West  Virginia  one  year  in  the  state.  The  same  residence  is 
required  in  these  twenty-one  states  of  the  native-born  citizens. 

In  these  states  residence  is  superadded  by  state  authority  as  a  qualification  to  voting  for  all 
officers,  state  as  well  as  Federal.  In  Massachusetts  two  years,  in  Pennsylvania  thirty  days,  and  in 
New  York  ten  days  are  added  by  State  authority  to  the  qualification  of  five  years;  and  in  Rhode 
Island  ownership  of  real  estate  must  be  in  the  naturalized  foreigner  before  he  is  a  voter. 

Are  all  these  distinctions,  are  all  the  restrictions  imposed  by  state  authority  and  state  consti- 
tution as  to  residence,  naturalization,  qualification,  registration,  age,  tax,  and  property,  to  be 
obliterated  in  this  effort  for  th^  "  universality  of  the  security  of  equal  suffrage"  in  this  renewed 
and  studied  effort  for  a  consolidated  government  ? 

In  the  51st  number  of  the  Federalist  we  find  the  question  of  suffrage  discussed 

as  follows : 

The  definition  of  the  right  of  suffrage  is  very  justly  regarded  as  a  fundamental  article  of  repub- 
lican government.  It  was  incumbent  on  the  convention,  therefore,  to  define  and  establish  this 
right  in  the  Constitution.  To  have  left  it  open  for  the  occasional  regulation  of  the  Congress  would 
have  been  improper  for  the  reason  just  mentioned.  To  have  submitted  it  to  the  legislative  discre- 
tion of  the  states  would  have  been  improper  for  the  same  reason,  and  for  the  additional  reason  that 
it  would  have  rendered  too  dependent  on  the  state  governments  that  branch  of  the  Federal  govern- 
ment which  ought  to  be  dependent  on  the  people  alone.  To  have  reduced  the  different  qualifica- 
tions in  the  different  states  to  one  uniform  rule  would  probably  have  been  as  dissatisfactory  to 
some  of  the  states  as  it  would  have  been  diflUcult  to  the  convention.  The  provision  made  by  the 
convention  appears,  therefore,  to  be  the  best  that  lay  within  their  option.  It  must  be  satisfactory 
to  every  state,  because  it  ia  conformable  to  the  standard  already  established,  or  which  may  be 
established  by  the  state  itself.  It  will  be  safe  to  the  United  States,  because,  being  fixed  by  the 
state  constitutions,  it  is  not  alterable  by  the  state  governments,  and  it  cannot  be  feared  that  the 
people  of  the  states  will  alter  this  part  of  their  constitutions  in  such  a  manner  as  to  abridge  ths 
rights  secured  to  them  by  the  Federal  constitution. 

WHAT  THE  DEMOCRATS  PROPOSED  TO  DO. 

The  Democratic  majority  in  Congress,  in  attempting  to  repeal  certain  pro- 
visions of  these  Federal  election  laws,  were  accused,  first,  of  attempting  a 
"revolution" — of  a  purpose  to  starve  the  government  to  death  unless  they  were 
allowed  to  accomplish  their  second  purpose,  which  it  was  alleged  was  to  remove 
all  restraints,  overturn  all  safeguards  which  had  been  placed  about  the  polls  to 
prevent  fraud.  .^ 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  217 

It  was  asserted  that  they  were  in  favor  of  every  sort  and  description  of  frauds 
:at  elections.  A  more  senseless  and  wicked  falsehood  was  never  uttered.  This 
/Cry  of  "revolution"  has  been  the  sole  stock  in  trade  of  the  fraudulent  administra- 
tion and  the  Republican  minority  in  Congress  since  the  great  fraud  of  1876  was 
consummated.  When  the  Democratic  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
proposed  to  inquire  into  the  monstrous  crimes  by  which  that  wicked  nullification 
of  the  will  of  the  people  was  accomplished,  the  Republican  minority  at  once  set 
up  the  howl  of  "  revolution. "  It  fell  flat  when  the  Democrats,  having  probed 
to  the  bottom  the  frauds  of  1876-1877  and  demonstrated  as  clear  as  the  un- 
-clouded  sky  at  noonday,  that  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  had  no  shadow  of  title  to 
occupy  the  White  House,  save  the  partisan  decision — eight  to  seven — of  an  uncon- 
stitutional commission,  voted  that  they  would  establish  no  new  and  possibly 
dangerous  precedent  by  initiating  legal  proceedings  to  unseat  him.  Again  when 
the  cry  was  shouted  at  the  last  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  that  the  Demo- 
crats meant  to  starve  the  government  to  death  unless  the  Executive  would  con- 
sent to  be  coerced  into  approving  their  enactments,  and  was  renewed  and  con- 
tinued in  the  Forty-sixth  Congress,  it  another  time  proved  hrutem  fiilmen,  when 
the  Democratic  majority,  having  exhausted  every  legal  remedy  to  secure  the 
redress  of  substantial  grievances,  voted  the  money  necessary  to  carry  on  the 
machinery  of  government. 

What  the  Democrats  proposed  to  do,  and  all  they  proposed  to  do,  was  to  amend 
XhQ  Federal  election  laws  so  they  would  cease  to  be  non-partisan  ;  so  they  would 
cease  to  be  unnecessarily  oppressive  and  arbitrary  ;  so  they  would  no  longer  be 
capable,  in  the  hands  of  unscrupulous  and  designing  men  of  intimidating  legal 
but  timid  electors  ;  so  they  would  not  permit  the  control  of  state  elections  for 
state  officers  ;  so  they  would  not  legalize  an  unnecessary  and  illegal  squandering 
of  the  people's  money.  This,  and  this  only,  was  their  purpose.  It  was  charged, 
and  the  charge  is  iterated  and  reiterated  that  they  proposed  and  attempted  to 
^ipe  out  the  Federal  election  laws.  It  was  and  is  a  base  calumny.  They  pro. 
posed  to  amend  fifteen  sections  of  these  laws,  which  number  nearly  one  hundred 
sections.  From  many  of  these  fifteen  sections  they  proposed  only  to  strike  a  few 
lines  and  from  others  only  a  word  or  a  few  words.  We  have  printed  these  sec- 
tions which  it  was  proposed  to  amend  in  full,  with  the  lines  and  words  to  be 
stricken  out  in  italics. 

THE    BASE  USE  TO  WHICH  THEY  ARE   PUT. 

We  have  shown  how  these  laws  originated,  and  how  they  were  made  to  serve 
the  pecuniary  purposes  of  their  author.  We  will  now  show  how  they  were  made 
to  serve  the  basest  partisan  purposes.  They  have  been  employed  in  two  ways. 
First,  as  a  means  of  corrupting  electors.  This  was  easy.  There  are  always  a 
low  class  of  electors  in  every  great  city  whose  votes  can  be  purchased.  The 
«,ppointment  of  these  men  as  deputy  marshals  was  a  legalized  way  of  buying  their 
votes  and  making  the  government  furnish  the  money. 

One  Congressional  district  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis  was  carried  by  the  repub- 
licans in  1876  in  this  way.  There  were  one  thousand  and  twenty-eight  deputy 
marshals  appointed  in  that  city  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  secure  their  votes 
for  and  their  assistance  in  the  election  of  the  three  republican  candidates  in  the 
three  Congressional  districts  of  St.  Louis.  There  was  $20,000  of  the  people's 
money  spent  as  campaign  money  in  that  contest,  though  ostensibly  for  enforcing 
the  election  laws.  D.  W.  D.  Barnard,  an  old  friend  of  General  Grant  and  a 
IS^ational  Bank  Examiner,  testified  in  the  contested  election  case  of  Frost  vs. 


218  THREE   MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

Metcalf  that  he  controlled  the  appointment  of  these  deputy  marshals  and  that  he 
used  his  power  simply  and  only  for  partisan  purposes. 

He  was  asked:  "  Was  there  any  more  necessity  for  the  appointment  of  marshals 
for  that  election  than  for  any  previous  election  ?"  He  answered,  "  Oh,  well,  you 
gentlemen  know  very  well  that  in  a  political  struggle  for  party  ascendancy  it  is 
necessary  for  the  co-ordinate  branches  of  the  government  to  be  in  accord  :  and 
there  was  an  effort  on  the  part,  so  I  interpreted  it,  of  the  party  which  I  acted  with 
to  gain  control  of  the  House  of  Representatives." 

Thomas  Berrell,  J.  F.  Ryan,  K  W.  Devoy,  Michael  Carroll,  Matthew  Horan 
and  Michael  Welsh  testified  that  they  were  appointed  deputy  marshals  on  the 
condition  that  they  would  vote  for  the  Republican  candidate,  and  others  were 
appointed  on  a  like  distinct  pledge.  Carroll  testified  that  the  man  who 
appointed  him  said,  "  I  don't  care  a  damn  what  you  are  ;  I  want  you  to  do  one 
thing  and  I  will  get  you  a  commission — vote  for  Metcalf."  Thomas  McNamara 
testified  that  he  was  appointed  a  deputy  marshal  eight  days  before  the  election 
and  instructed  "  to  move  around  the  ward  and  do  all  he  could  to  help  Metcalf." 
These  marshals  were  in  companies  and  under  captains.  Michael  Welsh  testified 
that  his  company  was  instructed  on  ejection  day  "to  arrest  all  the  Democrats  they 
could,  bring  them  in  and  keep  them  from  voting— damn  them." 

Second,  The  Federal  Elect  ions  Laws  have  not  only  been  perverted  to  enable 
the  money  of  the  United  States  to  be  used  for  corrupting  electors,  but  the  chief 
supervisors  by  appointing  men  from  the  lowest  and  most  vicious  classes  deputy 
marshals,  not  only  secured  their  votes,  but  employed  them  to  terrrorize  and  intim- 
idate legal  voters.  Here  is  a  list  of  the  characters  appointed  deputy  marshals  in 
New  York  city. 

NEW  YORK'S  SCUM  AS  DEPUTY  MARSHALS. 

J.  F.  Baderhop,  appointed  by  this  estimable  Judge  Woodruff,  at  the  instance  of  some  of  my 
frienda,  "  bucket-men  "  in  New  York,  some  of  those  "  shoulder-hitters"  and  "  rat-pit  heroes." 

Theodore,  alias  Mike  Anthony,  alias  Snuffy,  of  24  Cherry  street,  a  laborer,  thirty-five  years  of 
age,  married,  and  cannot  read  or  write.  Anthony  was  arrested  by  detective  James  Finn,  of  the 
fourth  precinct,  on  July  24,  1870,  for  larceny  from  the  person,  and  was  held  in  $2,000  bail  for 
trial  by  Justice  Hogan.  He  was  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  on  the  charge  on  the  23d  of  August 
last. 

Joseph  Frazier,  of  279  Water  street,  is  a  thief  and  confederate  of  thieves. 

James  Miller  is  the  keeper  of  a  den  of  prostitution  in  the  basement  of  339  Water  street. 

James  Tinnigan  keeps  a  similar  den  in  the  basement  of  337  Water  street. 

James  Sullivan,  alias  Slocum,  keeps  a  house  of  prostitution  at  330  Water  street,  which  is  a  resort 
for  desperate  thieves. 

Frank  Winkle  ki^eps  a  house  of  prostitution  ata37i  Water  street. 

John,  alifis  "Buckey  "  McCabe,  supervisor  of  the  Eighth  District,  Fifteenth  Ward.  He  is  now 
under  indictment  for  shooting  a  man  with  intent  to  kill.  This  precious  "  supervisor"  was  first 
known  to  the  police  for  his  dexterity  in  robbing  emigrants.  His  picture  is  in  the  "  rogues'  gallery  " 
at  police  headquarters  in  this  city,  No.  225.  rfle  was  known  as  Pat  Madden,  alias  "  Old  Sow,"  alias 
Honsey  Nicholas,  alias  Dennis  licCabe.    His  real  name  is  Andrew  Andrews. 

Joseph  Hurtnett,  supervisor  Eighteenth  Ward.  Arrested  June  3,  1869,  as  accessory  to  the  mur- 
der of  Richard  Gerdes,  a  grocer,  corner  of  First  avenue  and  Twenty-fourth  street. 


Henry  Rail,  supervisor  Eighth  Ward.    One  of  the  principals  in  the  Chatham  street  saloon  mur- 
r;  went  off  West  to  escape  punishment,  and  has  only  been  back  a  few  weeks. 
James  Moran,  supervisor  Third  District,  Eighth  Ward.    Arrested  on  Sunday  last  for  felonious 


assault. 

William  (alias  Pomp)  Hartman  (colored),  marshal  Twenty-second  Ward.  Arrested  a  few  days 
since  for  vagrancy. 

Theodore  Allen,  marshal  Eighth  Ward.  Now  in  prison  for  perjury  and  keeps  a  house,  the  resort 
of  panel  thieves  and  pickpockets,  on  Mercer  street. 

Richard  O'Connor,  supervisor  Seventh  District,  First  Ward;  has  been  for  years  receiver  of  smug- 
gled cigars  from  Havana  steamers. 

L.  H.  CargUl,  supervisor  Ninth  District,  Ninth  Ward;  tried  in  United  States  Court  for  robbing 
the  mails. 

John  Van  Bnren,  supervisor  Twelfth  District,  Eighth  Ward;  was  at  one  time  in  sheriff's  ofl5ce 
and  discharged  for  carrying  a  load  of  seized  goods  from  the  establishment  of  Richard  Walters  in 
East  Broadway. 

Mart  Allen,  marshal  Eighth  Ward;  served  a  term  of  five  years  in  the  Connecticut  State  prison; 
sentenced  to  Sing  Sing  for  five  years  by  Judge  Bedford. 

John  McChesney,  supervisor  Fourth  District,  Ninth  Ward;  associated  with  thieves;  bears  a  bad 
character  generally. 

William  Cassidy,  supervisor  Twefth  District,  Ninth  Ward;  is  street  bummer,  without  any  visible 
means  of  support. 


THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES.  21^ 

Thomas  Mclntyre,  marshal  Eighth  Ward;  has  been  frequently  arrested  for  beating  his  aged 
mother;  sent  several  times  to  Blackwell's  Island. 

Timothy  Lynch,  marshal  Sixth  District,  First  "Ward  ;  a  Washington  market  lounger. 

Peter  Mose,  marshal  Sixth  Ward  ;  habitual  drunkard. 

John  Connor,  supervisor  First  District,  First  Ward  ;  keeps  a  disorderly  gin-mill,  resort  of  lowes 

Francis  Jordan,  supervisor  Sixth  District,  First  Ward  ;  lives  in  New  Jersey  ;  was  turned  out  of 
thepost-office  by  Postmaster  Jones  for  bad  conduct. 

Bernard  Dugan,  supervisor  Eighth  District,  First  Ward  ;  habitual  drunkard.  His  wife  left  him  on 
account  of  his  drunkenness,  and  procured  a  divorce  on  that  ground. 

John  Tobin,  supervisor  Ninth  District,  First  Ward ;  arrested  about  six  months  ago  for  grand 
larceny. 

Patrick  Mnrphy,  supervisor  Fourth  District,  Sixth  Ward  ;  two  years  ago  distributed  fraudulent 
naturalization  papers,  and  would  furnish  them  to  anybody  that  would  promise  to  vote  for  Grant. 

Edward  Sievin,  Jr.,  supervisor  Second  District,  Fourth  Ward  ;  has  an  indictment  now  pending 
against  him  in  court  of  general  sessions  for  cutting  a  boy  named  Kilkenny. 

Michael  Foley,  supervisor  Fourth  District,  Fourth  Ward  ;  well  known  repeater,  voting  for  any 
body  that  will  pay. 

James  F.  Day,  supervisor  Seventh  District,  Fourth  Ward  ;  shot  at  a  man  in  fight  between  the 
Walsh  association  and  a  gan»  from  Water  street. 

John  Conners,  alias  "Jockey,"  supervisor  Third  District,  Fourth  Ward  ;  a  well-known  desperate 
character. 

Michael  Costello,  marshal  Sixth  Ward  ;  bounty -jumper  during  the  war. 

Harry  Rice,  supervisor  Thirteenth  District,  Sixth  Ward  ;  was  connected  with  the  Chatham  street 
concert  saloon  murder  and  fled  to  Nebraska  to  escape  punishment. 

Thomas  Lane,  supervisor  Seventeenth  District,  Sixth  Ward  ;  formerly  keeper  of  a  notorious  den 
at  Five  Points,  headquarters  of  thieves  and  robbers. 

John  Lane,  supervisor  Twenty-second  District,  same  Ward  ;  was  indicted  for  receiving  stolen 
goods.    Has  served  a  term  in  Sing  Sing. 

Edward  Foley,  supervisor  Sixth  District,  Ninth  Ward  ;  arrested  lastiyear  for  stealing  a  watch. 

Humphrey  Ayers,  supervisor  Eighteenth  District,  Ninth  Ward  ;  arrested  six  years  ago  for  robbing 
the  United  States  mail. 

John  Dowling,  supervisor  Nineteenth  District,  Ninth  Ward  ;  arrested  August  20th,  1869,  for  till- 

James  Fitzsimmons,  supervisor  Twentieth  District,  Ninth  Ward  ;  arrested  August  1st,  1868,  for 
robbery. 

John  Martin,  supervisor  Fifth  District,  Twelfth  Ward  ;  arrested  a  few  years  ago  under  an  indict- 
ment for  arson. 

Samuel  Rich,  supervisor  Fourth  District,  Thirteenth  Ward  ;  served  a  term  of  two  years  at  Sing 
Sing  for  felonious  assault. 

John  alias  "Buckey"  McCabe,  supervisor  Eighth  District,  Fifteenth  Ward  ;  charged  with  shoot- 
ing a  man  with  intent  to  kill  about  a  year  ago. 

William  P.  Burke,  supervisor  Twentieth  District,  Eighth  Ward  ;  served  his  term  in  the  State 
prison  of  Massachusetts  for  burglary  ;  also  two  years  in  the  New  York  State  prison. 

James  McCabe,  supervisor  Fourth  District,  Eighth  Ward  ;  now  confined  in  the  Tombs  under  in- 
dictment for  highway-robbery. 

William  Irving,  supervisor  Fourteenth  District,  Eighth  Ward  ;  has  served  a  term  in  Sing  Sing 
prison  for  burglary  committed  in  the  Eighth  ward,  and  has  never  been  pardoned. 

Patrick  Henry  Kilv,  alias  Fred.  Williams,  supervisor  Twenty-second  District,  Eighth  Ward  ; 
keeper  of  a  house  of  ill-fame  :  resort  of  the  lowest  and  vilest  characters. 

Patrick  Hefferman,  supervisor  of  the  Tenth  District,  Sixth  Ward  ;  arrested  some  time  since  for 
attempted  murder. 

Frederick  Sterringer,  supervisor  Eighth  Ward,  has  been  arrested  several  times  for  keeping  dis- 
orderly house. 

J.  F.  Baderhop,  supervisor  Tenth  Ward  ;  arrested  for  murder  a  few  years  since. 

Ed.  Weaver,  marshal  in  Eighth  Ward  ;  has  been  but  a  short  time  out  of  State  prison,  where  he 
has  been  serving  out  his  sentence. 

Walter  Prince  (colored),  marshal  Eighth  Ward  ;  now  in  prison  awaiting  trial  for  highway  rob- 
bery. 

Andrew  Andrews,  alias  Hans  Nichols,  marshal ;  panel-thief  ;  been  sentenced  two  or  three  times 
to  State  prison,  and  has  just  returned  from  Blackwell's  Island. 

I  read  this  from  page  1,636  of  the  Crnigressional  Olobe  for  the  Forty-first  Congress,  third  session, 
February  24th,  1871. 

PHILADELPHIA  JAIL  BIRDS  AS  DEPUTY  MARSHALS. 

In  Philadelphia  the  list  is  equally  redolent  of  crime,  the  gallows  and  murderer's 
cell.     Here  they  are  for  1878  : 

Charles  Oliphant,  marshal  Second  division.  Twentieth  Ward  ;  drunk  on  election  day  and  insult- 
ing voters;  seized  Mr.  Hackenberg  without  cause. 

Charles  Herr,  marshal  Second  Division,  Twenty -ninth  Ward  ;  character  and  reputation  bad, 
had  been  arrested  for  crime.  On  election  day  he  arrested  a  voter,  who  was  released  by  Judge 
Hare  and  voted.    Herr  wore  a  badge  and  solicited  votes  as  a  Republican. 

Arthur  Vance,  marshal  Eighth  Division,  Fifth  Ward;  arrested  Hutchinson,  a  voter,  without 
cause.    Vance  was  a  notorious  Republican  worker. 

John  Homeyard,  marshal  Sixth  Division,  Sixth  Ward  ;  drunk  and  arrested  voters  without  cause, 
drew  a  club  on  a  Democrat  for  challenging  a  negro  repeater.  The  police  blocked  up  the  poll,  acted 
in  concert  with  Homeyard  and  brought  voters  to  polls.  Homeyard  vouched  for  Republican  voters 
and  distributed  Republican  tickets.  Shriver,  a  United  States  revenue  officer,  kept  Republican 
window-book. 

J.  R.  Desano,  marshal  First  Division,  Fifth  Ward  ;  drunk  all  day,  too  drunk  to  arrest  any  one. 
There  were  five  policemen  at  these  polls.    Deeano  never  voted  in  that  division  before  that  day. 


220  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEYANCES. 

James  Brown,  marshal  Fourteenth  Division,  Fourth  Ward  ;  record  of  his  conviction  in  1872  for 
voting  illegally  produced.    Proof  was  made  that  he  voted  twice  on  the  same  daj'. 

William  Augustus,  Fourth  Division,  Eighth  Ward  ;  acted  as  marshal,  assuming  authority  as  such, 
but  was  not  on  the  list ;  a  Republican  worker. 

Joseph  Hilferty,  marshal  Twenty-first  Division,  Second  Ward;  held  the  Republican  window -book 
.all  day  and  electioneered  :  threatened  to  arrest  the  Democratic  United  States  supervisor  for  pro- 
curing bail  for  a  legal  voter  who  had  been  arrested. 

William  McGowan,  marshal  Twenty-third  Division,  Second  Ward.  A  policeman  blocked  up  the 
voting  window,  and  a  Democratic  United  States  supervisor  ordered  him  away,  when  McGowan  and 
the  policeman  seized  him  and  locked  him  up  in  the  station-house  on  a  charge  of  interfering  with 
officers.    The  case  was  never  tried.    McGowan  is  employed  in  the  gas  office  and  paid  by  the  city. 

Charles  N.  Miller,  detective,  testified  that  in  Seventeenth  Division  of  Nineteenth  Ward  a  gang  of 
repeaters  were  brought  to  the  polls  by  a  letter-carrier  ;  he  had  one  of  the  gang  arrested. 

Philip  Madden,  marshal  Fourth  Ward  ;  one  of  the  most  dangerous  men  in  the  city,  has  been  in 
prison  twice,  once  for  highway  robbery,  and  the  second  time  for  shooting  a  colored  boy. 

Francis  McNamee,  marshal  Eighth  Ward  ;  had  been  arrested  for  five  different  robberies. 

Andrew  Lenoir,  marshal  First  Ward  ;  a  warrant  has  been  issued  for  him  for  larceny. 

Daniel  Redding,  marshal  First  Ward  ;  a  bad  and  dangerous  man,  had  been  tried  for  murder. 

Henry  Pitts,  marshal  Seventh  Ward  :  a  colored  man'  who  keeps  a  gambling- house  and  been  ar- 
lested  twice  ;  distributed  Republican  tickets  and  vouched  for  voters. 

R.  S .  Stringfield,  marshal  Fifteenth  Ward  ;  had  been  tried  for  shooting  a  man  ,  character  very 
bad. 

Michael  Slavin,  marshal  Fifth  Ward  ;  a  thief  and  notorious  repeater,  had  been  arrested  for  sub- 
•omation  of  perjury,  but  never  tried. 

William  Glenn,  marshal  Nineteenth  Ward,  superintendent  of  Norris  square,  and  paid  by  the 
city  for  his  duties. 

Enoch  Baker,  marshal  Second  Division,  Third  Ward  ;  arrested  John  Carroll,  a  legal  voter,  with- 
X)Ut  cause  and  locked  him  up  ;  Carroll  was  discharged  after  a  hearing. 

J.  Roberts,  marshal  Sixteenth  Division,  Thiid  Ward  ;  arrested  John  Johnson  a  legal  voter  and 
locked  him  up  all  night ;  case  never  tried.  Roberts  electioneered  for  the  Republican  ticket ;  was 
xlerk  in  the  gas  office  and  paid  by  the  city  ;  there  were  also  twelve  to  fourteen  policemen  at  the 
polls  all  day,  and  they  blocked  up  the  poll. 

Andrew  Jackson,  marshal  Twenty-second  Division,  Thirteenth  Ward  ;  employed  in  the  gas 
works  under  the  city.  Ackerman,  Republican  judge  of  election,  acted  as  United  States  supervisor 
and  judge  and  refused  to  vacate  the  place  of  judge  after  writen  orders  by  marshal  Reams  and 
judge  Elcock.  Jackson  arrested  Feeny,  who  had  been  legally  appointed  judge  and  took  him 
away  from  the  polls.     Did  not  return  to  get  possession  until  2  p.  m. 

C.  A.  Pinnexson,  marshal  Thirteenth  Ward  ;  aided  in  arrestmg  Feeny. 

Taylor,  marshal  Fifteenth  Division,  Third  Ward,  arrested  Sweeny  for  illegal  voting  and 

locked  him  up  ;  charge  was  found  to  be  false  and  he  was  released  and  voted. 

James  Calligan,  marshal  Eighth  Division,  Sixth  Ward  ;  so  drunk  in  the  afternoon  he  could  not 
walk,  seized  a  qualified  voter  by  the  collar  and  staggered  with  him  against  the  wall ;  policeman 
brought  a  repeater  to  the  polls,  who  was  arrested,  as  was  the  policeman. 

Henry  Scott,  marshal  Second  Division,  Seventh  Ward  ;  a  man  of  bad  repute,  colored,  keeps  a 
low  drinking  house  ;  electionered  and  gave  out  tickets  and  tax  receipts  ;  was  inside  at  the  counting 
of  the  vote  and  took  tickets  out  of  the  box  ;  only  five  votes  came  out  for  the  Democratic  candidate 
for  Congress  ;  democratic  overseer  contested  this,  and  Scott  allowed  seventeen  to  be  counted  for 
him. 

Thomas  Donlan,  marshal  Seventh  Division,  Sixth  Ward  ;  an  habitual  drunkard  and  a  graduate 
of  house  of  correction  for  this  ;  was  drunk  all  day. 

William  D.  Barth,  marshal  ;  same  place;  blocked  np  the  voting  window  and  would  not  allow 
legal  voters  to  come  to  it ;  there  were  two  United  States  marshals  and  six  policemen  at  this  poll. 

John  Archer,  marshal  Twenty-seventh  Division,  Nineteenth  Ward  ;  acted  as  United  States 
supervisor;  was  on  both  lists  and  paid  as  both  officers  ;  when  a  marshal  wanted  during  the  day  to 
arrest  a  Republican  repeater,  he  did  not  make  known  that  he  was  a  deputy  marshal  ;  had  no  badge; 
heavy  Republican  division  ;  no  policeman  there. 

Joseph  T.  Fuller,  marshal  Sixth  Division,  Twenty-third  Ward  ;  a  guard  in  the  House  of  Correc- 
tion and  paid  by  the  city. 

William  Stringfield,  marshal  Thirty-Second  Division.  Twenty-fourth  Ward  ;  arrested  a  legal 
voter  and  took  him  to  the  magistrate's,  where  he  was  discharged  ;  Stringfield  was  discharged  from 
employment  the  day  before  election  for  stealing. 

Charles  Male,  marshal  Seventh  Division,  Eleventh  Ward,  keeps  a  house  of  prostitution. 

Abraham  Hoffman,  marshal  Eleventh  Ward,  a  repeater,  and  had  kept  a  house  of  prostitution 
within  a  year;  a  thief. 

William  Eckenbrim,  marshal  Eleventh  Ward,  arrested  for  larceny:  bill  ignored. 

David  Beckman,  marshal  Thirty-second  Division,  Nineteenth  Ward,  held  the  Republican  win- 
dow-book and  electioneered;  threatened  to  put  the  Demociatic  United  States  supervisor  out  of  the 
room  for  challenging  a  voter:  the  vote  was  rejected  and  the  voter  did  not  return. 

William  A.  Ahem,  marshal  Ninth  Division,  Twelfth  Ward,  employed  in  the  United  States 
Revenue  office. 

Fleming,  marshal  Sixth  Division,  Eighteenth  Ward,  distributed  Republican  tickets  and 

challenged  voters;  a  legal  vote  was  rejected  on  his  challenge;  intimidated  many  Democratic 
voters. 

William  Boehm,  marshal  Eighteenth  Division,  Twenty -ninth  Ward,  plug  inspector,  and  paid  by 
the  city,  electioneered  and  distributed  Republican  tickets. 

Charles  Prenderville,  marshal  Seventeenth  Division,  Fifth  Ward,  arrested  a  legal  voter;  case 
never  tried;  electioneered  for  Republicans  all  day. 

This  was  the  record  of  a  two  days'  investigation  at  Philadelphia. 

The  character  of  elections  in  Philadelphia  is  well-known.  The  registration 
there  is  always  in  excess  of  the  legal  voters  from  30,000  to  50,000.  The  repub- 
licans having  the  machinery  of  registration  in  their  own  hands,  uniformly  and 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 


221 


systematically  make  the  registration  in  excess  as  a  preparation  to  repeating  and 
other  forms  of  illegal  voting.  Before  every  election  the  Democrats  prepare  affir 
davits  and  go  into  the  courts  and  have  several  thousand  stricken  from  the  regis- 
ter lists,  but  they  can  scarcely  more  than  make  a  beginning,  because  all  the 
courts  can  give  suflSces  only  to  strike  off >  few  hundreds  a  day, 

HOW  THE  people's  MONEY  IS  SQUANDERED. 

The  following  tables  show  what  these  federal  election  laws  have  cost  the  peo- 
ple at  the  two  last  Congressional  elections  and  where  the  money  has  been  ex- 
pended : 

Supervisors  and  Deputy  Marshals  employed  in  1876,  with  compensation. 


States  and  Districts. 

Isi 

so-? 

< 

eg 

It 

73 

< 

:2s 

a  0  oi 

0  aj  S 

< 

p 

a 
< 

Alabama,  northern 

150 
244 

192 

785 

214 

244 

135 

745 

207 

115 

840 

1,222 

117 

239 

9 

1,032 

9 

249 

342 

723 

2,500 

166 

13 
347 

49 
338 

30 

18 
201 

S2,298  38 

19 

$500  00 

$2,530  00 

$5,238  3& 

Arkansas,  eastern 

California 

Delaware 

1,578  99 

105 

5,220  00 

4,225  00 

11,023  99* 

Florida,  northern        

Georgia 

567  50 

v 

1,410  00 
1,105  00 
5,705  00 
8,085  00 
1,170  00 

1,977  50 

188 

270 

574 

66 

5,640  00 

4,115  00 

2,950  00 

660  00 

6,745  Oa 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

.4,463  33 

977  55 

223  20 

50  50 

14,283  33 
12,012  55 

Massachusetts 

2,083  20 

Mississippi,  northern 

50  50- 

Missouri,  eastern      

18?  40 

152 

1,330  00 

16,385  00 

17,902  40 

Nevada 

New  Jersey 

3.771  19 
7,723  70 
12,150  52 
19,383  36 
501  84 

85 

339 

370 

1,070 

3,420  00 

9,975  00 

11.674  00 

32,115  00 

4,085  00 

7,925  00 

11,986  00 

1  39,785  00 

12,276  19' 

New  York,  northern 

25.623  70 

35,810  22 

New  York,  southern        

91,283  36 

North  Carolina  eastern 

591  84 

Pennsylvania,  eastern  (Philadelphia) 

3.449  40 

1,368 
224 

27,360  00 
2,240  00 

3,500  00 
490  00 
395  00 
150  00 
900  00 

1,785  00 

34,309  40 

2,730  oa 

South  Carolina                                 .... 

879  14 
120  00 
249  92 
551  05 
206  GO 

1,274  14 

Tennessee,  western 

■■■■33 

■   1,866' 66 
1,630  00 

279  00 

Texas,  eastern.        

2,949  92 

Virginia,  eastern 

3,966  05 

205  00 

West  Virginia 

4 
4 

78 
18 

Idaho .\ 

New  Mexico 

Utah ... 

Total 

59,371  67 

4,863 

110,629  00 

11,610 

112,616  00 

282,616  67 
3,304  60 

Amount  paid  U.  S.  Commissioners  in  New 
York  City  for  services  under  election  laws. 

Total  expenditures  reported  for  1876. . . 

285,821  27- 

222 


THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES. 


Supervisors  and  Deputy  Marshals  employed  in  1878,  with  compensation. 

States  and  Districte. 

y 

d 

fl 

•si 

11 
It. 

-SI'S 

Alabama 

$1,551  71 

$1,000  00 

110 
175 
189 
36 
215 

■■■241 

,    698 

10 

$1,000  00 

$3,551  71 

Arkansas 

Florida ,.... 

i 

Georgia 

i7o66 

2,240  00 
870  00 
4,000  00 
4,445  00 
2,935  00 
135  00 

170  00 

Illinois,  northern 

224 

'206 

4,480  00 

870  00 

.<*  fim  nn 

6  720  00 

Kentucky , 

Louisiana 

116  00 

1,313  00 

351  03 

1,856  00 
8,913  00 

Maryland 

230 !     2^950  00 
52      1.300  00 

7,746  03 

Michigan,  eastern   

1,435  00 

Massachusetts 

282 

8,460  00       224 

11,395  00 

Nevada 

20 
192 

10 

1,260 

574 

New  Jersey 

7,324  84 

148 

3,050  00 

2,880  00 

13,254  84 

New  Mexico 

New  York,  southern  (city) 

1,225 

an  nnn  m 

27,666  66 
6,500  00 

57,666  66 

N^ew  York,  eastern 

15,972  33 

7,558  80 

740  45 

5,830  00 

354j    10',620  65 

3741   11,000  00 

1        890  00 

33.092  33 

New  York,  northern . . 

■Ohio,  southern                .  . 

376 

71 

7,000  00 

447  78 

7,550  00 

25,558  80 
2,078  23 

Pennsylvania,  eastern 

1,3701   27,440  00       773 
312;     3,121  00;        19 
34         680  00         4fi 

40,820  00 

Pennsylvania,  western. 

3,121  00 

South  Carolina 

579  35 

700  00 
"'"  576'66 

1,975  35 

Texas 

79 
93 

Virginia,  eastern 

585  00 

70         620  00 

1.775  00 

1 

Total 

41,922  51 

4,881 

110  081  00'    5.411 

68,442  78 

220,446  29 
2,567  95 

Amount  paid  U.  S.  Commissioner  for  ser- 
vices under  election  laws  in  New  York  city. 

Total  expenditures  reported  for  1878 

222,714  24 

In  the  above  table  the  amount  paid  Chief  Supervisor  Davenport,  of  New  York  City,  is  not  in- 
cluded because  it  was  not  reported  to  Congress. 

There  is  no  data  for  expenditures  prior  to  1876,  except  in  New  York  City,  for 
1872.     There  the  amount  expended  in  that  year  was  $118,989.36. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD'S  INCONSISTENT  RECORD. 

The  record  James  A.  Garfield  made  for  himself  on  the  proposition  to  amend 
the  Federal  election  laws  illustrates  his  character  and  proves  the  bulk  of  the 
charge  which  the  leaders  of  his  own  party  have  time  and  again  made  against 
him,  namely,  that  he  is  without  moral  courage,  and  consequently  always  incon- 
sistent. His  course  in  regard  to  the  amendment  of  Section  2003,  Revised  Sta- 
tutes, gave  great  offence  to  his  party  friends  iu  both  Houses  of  Congress,  and 
gained  him  no  credit  with  the  democrats.  He  began  by  declaring  that  in  his 
iudgment  the  woids,  "or  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls  "  ought  to  be  stricken 
from  that  section,  and  avowed  his  determination  to  vote  therefor.  This  was  at 
the  last  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress.  In  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  he  first 
excused  himself  for  not  keeping  the  pledge  by  declaring  against  the  "wicked- 
ness" of  placing  general  legislation  as  "riders"  on  appropriation  bills.  Prob- 
ably no  man  in  public  life  has  been  guilty  of  more  "  wickedness  "  of  this  kind 
than  General  Garfield.  During  the  time  he  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Appropriations  there  was  scarcely  an  appropriation  bill  reported  to  the  House 
which  did  not  contain  one  or  more  provisions  of  general  legislation.  Again, 
when  the  report  of  the  words,  "or  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls  "  was  attempted 
Ijy  an  independent  measure,  General  Garfield  dodged  the  vote,  and  then  when 
the  de  facto  President  vetoed  it,  he  voted  to  sustain  the  veto.  And  more  than 
this,  he  first  voted  to  place  a  proviso  on  the  army  bill  at  the  called  session  of  the 
Forty-sixth  Congress,  declaring  that  none  of  the  money  appropriated  by  that  bill 
^vas  intended  for  the  support,  equipment,  transportation  or  pay  of  troops,  to  be 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  223 

used  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls,  and  forbidding  the  use  of  any  of  the  money 
for  that  purpose  ;  and  at  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  he  en- 
deavored by  every  parliamentary  trick  to  prevent  a  similar  proviso  being  added 
to  the  army  bill,  and  when  he  failed  he  dodged  the  vote  on  the  adoption  of  the 
same.  Mark  how  inconsistent  was  his  course  in  regard  to  the  amendment  of  the 
election  laws. 

The  Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial  bill  failed  at  the  last  session  of  the 
Forty-fifth  Congress  because  the  Republicans  would  not  yield  on  the  proposition 
to  amend  the  election  laws.  At  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress 
-which  was  called  by  the  de  facto  President,  Mr.  Cobb,  on  June  26,  1879,  reported 
from  the  Committee  of  Appropriations  a  deficiency  bill  making  appropriations  to 
pay  the  fees  of  United  States  marshals  and  their  general  deputies.  This  bill  con- 
tained provisions  amendatory  of  the  Federal  election  law.  In  discussing  this  bill 
on  the  following  day  General  Garfield  said : 

GENERAL   GARPIELD'S  EXTRAORDINARY  VIEWS. 

"  The  dogma  of  sovereignty  which  has  reawakened  to  such  vigorous  life  in  this  chamber  has  borne 
such  bitter  fruits  and  entailed  such  suffering  upon  our  people,  that  it  deserves  some  particular  no- 
tice" 

It  should  be  noticed  that  the  word  sovereignty  cannot  be  fitly  applied  to  any  government  in  this 
country.  It  is  not  found  in  our  Constitution.  It  is  a  feudal  word  born  of  the  despotism  of  the 
middle  ages,  and  was  unknown  even  in  imperial  Rome,  *  *  *  [bnperialism, 

however,  which  was  known  to  Rome  has  never  had  any  particular  terror  for  Gen.  Garfield].  Again 
the  government  of  the  state  may  be  absolutely  abolished  in  case  it  is  not  republican  inform.  And 
finally,  tocaptheclim,axofthi8  absurd  pretension,  every  right  possessed  by  one  of  these  sovereign  states, 
every  inherent  sovereign  right  except  the  single  right  to  equal  representation  in  the  Senate  may  be  taken 
away  without  its  consent  by  the  vote  of  two-thirds  of  Congress  and  threefourths  of  the  states.  And 
yet  in  spite  of  these  disabilities  we  have  them  paraded  as  independent,  sovereign  states,  the  creators 
of  the  Union  and  the  dictators  of  its  powers.  How  inherently  sovereign  must  be  that  state  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  which  the  Nation  bought  and  paid  for  with  the  public  money,  and  permitted  to  come 
Into  the  Union  a  half  a  century  after  the  Constitution  was  adopted! 

So  could  two-thirds  of  Congress  and  tliree-fourths  of  the  states  vote  to  abolish, 
our  form  of  government  and  establish  a  Presidency  for  life,  with  the  succession 
to  the  heir  of  the  so-called  President.  The  one  is  just  as  logical  as  the  other.  Ac- 
cording to  Gen.  Garfield's  theory  two-thirds  of  Congress  and  three-fourths  of  the 
states  can  constitutionally  say  that  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  shall  not  elect  a 
governor  for  three  years,  but  must  elect  them  for  twenty  years  ;  that  their  legisla- 
tures  shall  meet  only  once  in  fifty  years,  in  short,  take  away  from  the  people  of 
those  states  "  every  inherent  right''  save  equal  representation  in  the  Senate,  and 
even  that  they  might  say  should  not  be  enjoyed  by  Catholics  or  Presbyterians, 

Holding  such  views  as  these  in  regard  to  federal  power,  it  is  not  strange  that 
Gen.  Garfield  should  argue  as  he  did  •  in  the  same  speech  that  the  Nation 
might  send  its  soldiers  and  deputy  marshals  to  the  polling  places  in  any  state  and 
supervise  local  as  well  as  well  as  general  elections,  under  the  pretence  of  keeping 
the  peace  of  the  Nation  at  the  polls. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  ANSWERED. 

Mr.  Hurd,  of  Ohio,  in  answer  to  Gen.  Garfield  said: 

My  colleague,  from  Ohio,  who  has  just  taken  his  seat,  has  seen  fit  *  *  to   enter 

upon  a  discussion  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Federal  government,  and  the  relations  of  the  states  to 
that  government  under  the  Constitution  which  they  created.  Never  in  all  mv  studies  of  the  politi- 
cal history  of  this  country,  never  in  all  my  knowledge  of  the  political  debates  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  have  I  heard  such  views  of  consolidation  advanced  as 
have  been  suggested  to  day  by  that  gentleman. 

lie  advanced  the  extraordinary  proposition  that  the  Union  preceded  the  states,  when  the  sev- 
enth article  of  the  Constitution  declares: 

"The  ratification  of  the  conventions  of  nine  states  shall  be  sufficient  for  the  establishment  of 
this  Constitution  between  the  states  so  ratifying  the  same." 

But  in  order  that  all  doubt  might  be  removed  upon  the  subject  that  the  Constitution  and  the 
linion  were  the  creature  of  the  states,  it  was  declared  in  the  tenth  amendment  of  the  Constitution: 

''  The  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the 
states,  are  reserved  to  the  states  respectively,  or  to  the  people." 

Nor  is  the  opinion  of  the  highest  judicial  tribunal  in  this  country  wanting  upon  this  proposition. 


224  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

Tn  the  case  of  Lane  County  rs.  Oregon  the  following  is  the  decision  of  Chief-Justice  Chase,  to  be 
found  on  page  76  of  7  Wallace: 

"  The  people  of  the  United  States  constitute  one  nation,  under  one  government,  and  this  gov- 
ernment within  the  scope  of  the  powers  with  which  it  is  invested,  is  supreme.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  people  of  each  state  compose  a  state  having  its  own  government,  and  endowed  with  all  the 
functions  essential  to  separate  and  independent  existence.  The  states  disnnited  might  continue  to 
exist.  Without  the  states  in  union  there  could  be  no  such  political  body  as  the  United  States.'"' 
*  *  it:  *  *  *  * 

At  the  beginning  of  this  session  of  Congress  the  Democratic  partj'  declared  three  propositions. 
We  insisted  that  the  army  should  be  kept  away  from  the  polls;  that  the  test  oath  should  be  re- 
pealed; and  that  laws  should  be  enacted  for  the  impartial  drawing  of  jurors,  and  that  the  Federal 
government  should  not  exercise  authority  over  elections  held  within  the  states.  We  insisted  and 
maintained  that  because  of  and  by  virtue  of  the  constitutional  provision  that  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives alone  shall  originate  money  bills,  the  representatives  of  the  people  had  the  right  to  in- 
sist that  the  grievances  of  which  they  complained  should  be  remedied  before  appropriations  should 
be  made  for  the  support  of  the  government. 

******* 

We  said  that  the  measures  to  ^rhich  we  objected  were  unconstitutional;  we  said  that  there  was 
no  such  person  as  a  voter  of  the  United  States  as  such;  that  every  man  who  had  a  right  to  vote  had 
it  because  of  state  authority  and  under  state  laws,  and  that  therefore  the  Federal  government,  not. 
creating  the  voter,  had  no  power  to  interfere  with  him  in  the  exercise  of  his  rights  of  franchise. 

We  insisted  that  under  the  laws  as  they  now  stand  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  national  election; 
that  under  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  order  that  there  should  be  a  national  election  it  was 
fundamental  that  Congress  should  fix  the  places,  times  and  manner  of  holding  such  election.  In 
that  event  there  might  be  a  national  election,  but  that  is  not  this  case,  for  in  every  instance  the 
times,  places,  and  manner  of  holding  elections  are  fixed  by  the  constitution  and  the  laws  of  the 
states,  except  in  a  single  instance  as  to  the  time.  The  states  having  exercised  power  upon  the 
subject,  there  is  no  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  power  by  the  United  States,  and  to  say  that  the 
United  States  and  each  state  at  the  same  time  possess  the  power  of  fixing  the  time,  place  and  man- 
ner of  holding  elections  is  to  say  that  two  sovereignties  possess  the  power  to  do  the  same  thing  at 
the  same  time  on  the  same  subject-matter,  which  is  itself  an  absurdity.  We  maintain  as  to  the 
army  that  it  being  a  creature  of  Congress,  it  has  no  power  to  be  within  the  limits  of  the  sovereign 
states,  except  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  provides,  and  then  only  for  the  purpose  of 
suppressing  domestic  insurrection  or  repelling  the  armed  enemies  of  the  United  States,  and  then 
only  at  the  request  of  the  legislature  thereof,  or  the  executive  of  the  state,  if  the  legislature  be 
not  in  session. 

******* 

And  in  the  history  of  this  government,  from  the  day  of  its  foundation  until  now,  the  veto  power 
was  never  before  exercised  to  prevent  the  repeal  of  a  law  or  to  prevent  the  enactment  of  a  general 
appropriation  bill.  Certainly  never  before  was  the  veto  power  exercised  to  practically  take  away 
from  one  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  a  power  which  is  conferred  upon  it  separately  by  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution  itself.  The  power  to  originate  bills  of  revenue  is  a  power  which  belongs 
to  us,  and  it  is  a  power  which,  if  the  President  interferes  with  it  as  he  has  done  by  this  veto  in  this. 
case,  he  can  absolutely  take  away  from  us. 

What  reasons  have  been  urged  for  these  extraordinary  vetoes?  Chiefly  that  the  bills  we  sought 
to  pass  took  away  from  .the  executive  authority  power  to  enforce  the  law.  Because  we  would  not 
let  him  use  the  army  on  election  day  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls,  he  said  we  took  away  from  him 
the  power  to  enforce  the  laws.  Sir,  the  army  is  a  creature  of  Congress.  The  Constitution  declares 
that  the  Congress  may  raise  an  army.  The  Constitution  declares  that  appropriations  for  the  army 
shall  not  last  longer  than  two  years.  The  Constitution  declares  that  Congress  may  make  rules  and 
regulations  for  the  government  of  the  army;  rules  and  regulations— "  rules  "  coming  first,  "regu- 
lations "  afterward.  Therefore  the  army  is  absolutely  the  creature  of  Congress.  Whether  it  shall 
be  used  to  execute  the  laws  or  not  is  for  Congress  to  say,  and  not  for  the  President.  He  must  take 
the  army  as  we  give  it  to  him,  for  the  purposes  which  we  declare  it  shall  be  used  for,  we  being  the 
power  to  create  it. 

******* 

In  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  we  said  to  the  President,  your  army— our  army,  I  mean— our  army 
shall  not  be  used  as  a  posse  comitatus.  In  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  we  have  said  our  army  shall  not 
be  used  as  a  part  of  the  police  force.  And  before  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  shall  have  closed  its 
term  I  say  to  gentleman  that  we  will  have  taken  from  the  statu te-book"every  law  which  proposes 
to  use  this  creature  of  ours  at  the  polls  to  intimidate  American  citizens  in  the  exercise  of  their  highr 
est  prerogative. 
*****♦♦*******♦ 

Mr.  Chairman,  this  extra  session  has  made  up  the  issue  between  the  two  parties.  The  Demo- 
cratic party  declare  that  the  army  shall  be  kept  from  the  polls;  that  juries  shall  he  impartially 
drawn ;  that  the  test  oath  shall  be  repealed,  and  that  the  Federal  authority  shall  not  interfere  in 
elections  within  the  states.  Upon  that  question  the  Republican  party  takes  issue  with  us.  Confi- 
dently appealing  only  to  the  patriotism  of  the  country,  the  Democratic  party  goes  into  this  contest. 
Never  in  all  the  nistory  of  this  land  have  more  important  questions  been  submitted  to  the  American 
people  for  their  determination. 

THE  BILL  VETOED. 

Mr.  Cobb  demanded  the  previous  question  on  the  passage  of  the  bill,  and  Mr, 
Conger  called  for  the  yeas  and  nays.  The  question  being  taken  the  bill  passed 
— yeas  89,  nays  69 — Mr.  Garfield  voting  nay. 

The  bill  then  went  to  the  Senate  and  was  passed  without  amendment  on  Juno 
28th.  On  the  30th  day  of  same  month  it  was  vetoed  by  Mr.  Hayes.  The  veto 
message  being  read  the  question  was,  "Will  the  House,  on  reconsideration,  agree 
to  pass  the  bill  notwithstanding  the  objections  of  the  President  ?"     The  yeas  and 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  225 

nays  being  demanded,  the  vote  stood,  3reas  85,  nays  63,  Mr.  Garfield  again 
recording  his  vote  in  the  negative.  Two-thirds  not  voting  in  the  affirmative  the 
bill  was  lost. 

No  appropriations  were  made  at  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress 
for  tlie  pay  of  marshals  and  their  general  deputies. 

THE  ELECTION  LAWS  AT  THE  SECOND  SESSION  FORTY-SIXTH    CONGRESS. 

At  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  the  de  facto  President,  Feb- 
ruary 25,  1880,  asked  Congress  in  a  special  message  to  make  appropriations  for 
the  pay  of  the  marshals  for  the  current  fiscal  year.  A  general  deficiency  bill  was 
reported  from  the  Committee  of  Appropriations  providing,  among  other  things, 
for  the  pay  of  the  marshals,  with  restrictive  legislation  in  regard  to  the  duties  of 
Federal  election  officers.  The  amount  appropriated  for  the  pay  of  marshals  was 
ample— $600,000  for  that  current  year.  There  was  no  election  that  year  and  the 
prohibition  that  none  of  it  should  be  applied  to  the  payment  of  expenses  incurred 
or  to  be  incurred  for  election  officers  applied  only  to  deficiencies  on  account  of 
liabilities  incurred  for  an  election  in  the  state  of  California,  or  to  what  might  be 
unexpended.  The  pay  of  the  special  marshals  for  the  election  in  California, 
$7,600,  had  been  guaranteed  by  the  Republican  State  Committee,  and  therefore 
it  was  a  private  obligation. 

Gen.  Garfield  opposed  the  bill  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  nullification  of  exist, 
ing  laws.  He  claimed  that  under  sections  2011  and  2012,  Revised  Statutes,  the 
Judges  of  the  Circuit  Courts  of  the  United  States  were  bound  to  appoint  these 
election  officers.  This  was  literally  begging  the  question.  The  law  requires  the 
judges  to  appoint  supervisors  only — not  deputy  marshals.  They  are  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  marshals.  The  amendments  to  the  election  laws  proposed  by  the 
Democrats  did  not  do  away  with  supervisors.  They  only  curtailed  some  of 
their  powers  and  repealed  the  unwonted  powers  given  to  special  deputy  mar- 
shals. The  deficiency  bill  prohibited  payment  only  to  these  deputies.  The  mar- 
shals knew  before  they  appointed  them  that  Congress  had  not  provided  for  their 
payment,  and  they  and  those  they  appointed  acted  upon  their  own  responsibility 
in  appointing  and  accepting.  The  Revised  Statutes,  section  3679,  specifically 
prohibits  the  expenditure  of  any  money  or  the  incurring  of  any  liaUUties  without 
appropriations  made  for  the  same,  or  in  excess  of  appropriations.  Therefore  the 
marshals  violated  this  law  in  appointing  deputies,  and  the  Department  of  Justice 
violated  it  in  permitting  the  marshals  to  incur  the  liability  of  paying  these  dep- 
uties. 

REPUBLICAN  AUTHORITY  QUOTED. 

Mr.  Warner,  of  Ohio,  made  a  speech  in  which  he  elaborately  argued  the  right 
of  the  House  to  control  money  bills  and  the  object  for  which  appropriations 
should  be  made.  He  quoted  not  only  from  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  to  show 
that  this  had  been  their  view  of  the  power  of  the  House  and  of  Congress,  but 
from  the  great  lights  of  the  Republican  party,  Mr.  Sumner,  Mr.  Fessenden,  Mr. 
Hale,  Mr.  Seward,  Mr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Giddings  and  Mr.  Wade. 

Mr.  Woods,  Senator  from  Ohio,  said  : 

Must  the  people's  House  of  Representatives  sit  with  their  arms  folded,  and  although  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  confers  emphatically  upon  them  the  power  to  orl<?inate  all  revenue  bills 
(which  comprises  the  power  to  place  these  j^rants  of  money  on  such  conditions  as  they  see  fit,) 
must  they  refrain  from  exercising  their  authority  in  an  emergency  like  this  ?  la  this  the  liberty 
of  the  American  citizen,  that  the  people's  House,  where  there  really  is  a  representation  of  the  peo- 
ple, where  the  wisdom  of  the  fathers  placed  the  taxing  power,  are  leading  to  revolution  by  annexing 
a  condition  to  the  appropriation  of  the  people's  money  a  most  wholesome  restraint,  putting  a  curb 
in  the  mouth  of  the  traitor  who  sits  in  the  executive  chair,  now  stimulating  this  country  as  fast  as 
he  caa  do  it  to  a  civil  war  ? 


226  THEEE    MOXSTROTJS    GRIEVANCES. 

John  p.  Hale,  of  New  Hampsliire,  said  : 

Mr.  President,  I  understand  this  princiiile  to  be  the  great  principle  of  English  liberty  incorpor- 
ated in  our  Constitution,  and  it  is  the  only  resource  by  which  the  Parliamenr  of  Great  Britain  have 
held  tlie  king  in  check.  If  we  surrender  it  we  shall  give  our  own  Executive  an  arbitrary  power  un- 
known to  the  Constitution,  and  not  vested  in  the  king  of  England.  It  is  the  only  principle  that 
is  left  of  popular  government  by  which  the  supremacy  of  the  popular  will  can  be  maintained 
in  this  country  or  in  England,  and  if  we  give  it  up  to-day,  we  may  just  as  well  give  up  the 
experiment. 

Joshua  R.  Giddings  spoke  in  the  same  way : 

I  take  the  position  which  I  have  always  maintained  here  for  myself,  and  which  I  am  unwilling  in 
the  midst  of  passing  events  to  leave  unproclaimed  on  this  floor,  and  that  is  that  the  people  have  a 
perfect  unlimited  control  of  their  own  funds.  We  are  the  representatives  of  the  people  here.  We 
are  their  agents,  sent  here  to  deal  out  thiir  funds,  and  it  is  not  for  the  Senate  or  for  the  Executive 
to  say  that  we  shall  appropriate  them  to  any  object  revolting  to  the  proper  sense  of  justice 
and  propriety.  I  lay  down  tiiis  as  a  principle  too  old  and  too  well  understood  to  be  disputed  at 
this  day. 

Mr.  Seward,  recognized  by  all  parties  as  a  statesman  of  high  rank,  said  : 

Since  the  House  of  Representatives  has  power  to  pass  such  a  bill  distinctly,  it  has  power, 
also,  to  place  an  equivalent  prohibition  in  any  bill  which  it  has  constitutional  power  to  pass. 
And  so  it  has  a  constitutional  right  to  place  the  prohibition  in  the  annual  Army  Appropri- 
ation bill. 

I  grant  that  this  mode  of  reaching  the  object  proposed  is  in  some  respects  an  unusual  one.  and 
jn  some  respects  an  inconvenient  one.  It  is  not,  therefore,  however,  an  unconstitutional  one,  or 
even  necessarily  a  wrong  one. 

It  is  a  right  one  if  it  is  necessary  to  effect  the  object  desired,  and  if  that  object  is  one  that  is  in 
itself  just  and  eminently  important  to  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  country  or  to  the  security  of 
the  liberties  of  the  people. 

Mr.  Wilson,  afterward  Vice-President,  went  so  far  as  to  step  even  on  the  dan- 
gerous ground  so  bitterly  condemned  now  by  the  other  side  of  the  House,  and 
which  I  also  in  part  condemn.     Mr.  Wilson  says  : 

"  The  House  of  Representatives,"  says  Mr.  Madison,  "  cannot  only  refuse,  but  they  alone  can 
propose  the  supplies  requisite  for  the  support  of  the  government."  This  declaration  is  full,  ample, 
complete.  If  the  House  can  refuse  the  supplies  requisite  for  the  support  of  the  government,  if 
it  possesses  this  complete  and  effective  weapon  for  obtaining  a  redress  of  every  grievance  and  for 
carrying  into  effect  every  just  and  salutary  measure,  the  occasion  surely  demands  the  full  exer- 
cise of  that  power  of  th '.  House;  and  in  its  firm  exercise,  to  use  the  words  of  Madison,  it  will  be 
Bustained  by  the  consciousness  of  being  supported  in  its  demands  by  right,  by  reason,  and  by  the 
Constitution. 

GENERAL   GARFIELD   SUGGESTS  AN  AMENDMENT. 

On  March  19,  1880,  while  this  bill  was  being  considered  in  the  Committee  of 
the  Whole,  Mr.  Springer,  from  the  Committee  on  Elections,  acting  upon  a  sug- 
gestion— a  proposition  made  the  day  before  by  Gen.  Garfield — offered  the  follow- 
ing amendment  to  an  amendment  which  had  been  offered  by  the  Republicans 
to  appropriate  $7,600  for  the  pay  of  the  special  deputy  marshals  in  California  : 

Amend  the  amendment  by  adding  thereto  the  followinj; : 

For  special  deputy  marshals  of  elections,  the  sum  of  $7,600  ;  Pi'ovided^  That  hereafter  special 
deputy  marshals  of  elections  and  general  depute  marshals,  for  performing  any  duties  in  reference 
to  any  election,  shall  receive  the  sum  of  $2  per  day  in  full  for  their  compensation;  and  that  all  ap- 
pointments of  such  special  deputy  marshals  or  of  general  depul  v  marshals  having  any  duty  to  per- 
form in  respect  to  any  election  shall  be  made  by  the  jud^e  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States 
for  the  district  in  which  such  marshals  are  to  perform  their  duties,  or  by  the  district  judge,  in  the 
absence  of  the  circuit  judge,  and  not  less  than  two  nor  more  than  three  appointments  shall  be  made 
for  any  voting  precinct  where  such  appointments  are  required  to  be  made,  and  the  persons  so  ap- 
pointed shall  each  be  of  different  political  parties,  of  good  character,  and  able  to  read  and  write  the 
English  language,  and  shall  be  well-known  residents  of  the  voting  precinct  in  which  their  duties 
are  to  be  performed. 

Mr.  Hitchcock,  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  Keifer,  of  Ohio,  both  made  points  of 
order  on  the  amendment,  and  opposed  it  on  its  merits.  In  the  progress  of  the 
debate  on  this  amendment,  Gen.  Garfield  said  : 

Mr.  Garfield:  Do  I  understand  the  Chair  to  hold  that  the  vote  on  one  branch  of  the  amendment 
would  cut  off  debate  upon  the  second  branch? 

The  Chairman:  The  Chair  thinks  it  would.  It  is  all  one  amendment;  and  if  there  is  to  be  any 
debate  upon  it,  it  should  take  place  before  any  vote  is  taken. 

Mr.  Gai field:  Mr.  Chairman.  I  desire  to  offer  an  amendment  to  the  second  branch— 

The  Chairman:  That  is  not  m  order. 

Mr.  Springer:  I  will  hear  the  gentleman's  amendment;  perhaps  I  will  accept  it. 

Mr.  Garfield:  It  is  1o  strike  out  all  after  the  words  "  in  the  absence  of  the  circuit  judge,"  where 
they  occur  in  the  last  line  of  the  Record  print,  page  39.  I  speak  for  nobody  but  myself,  but  I  will 
vote  for  the  amendment  if  all  following  these  words  be  struck  out. 


THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES  227 

A  Member:  What  is  the  effect? 

Mr.  Springer:  I  cannot  accept  that  amendment. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  do  not  ask  the  gentleman  to  accept  it.    This  is  not  a  contract. 

The  Chairman:  The  Chair  will  state  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  (Mr.  Garfield)  that  the  Com- 
mittoe  on  Appropriation 6  has  reported  back  this  bill,  recommending  the  adoption  of  an  amendment 
making  an  api)ropriati<)n  of  8600,000  lo  pay  marshals  and  their  general  deputies.  To  that  amend- 
ment the  gentleman  from  Illinois  has  proposed  an  amendment.  Therefore  not  only  an  amend- 
ment, but  an  amendment  to  the  amendment,  is  now  pending;  and  at  present  no  further  amendment 
is  in  order  under  the  rules. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Would  it  be  in  order  to  offer  a  substitute  for  the  whole  amendment  of  the  gentle- 
iman  from  Illinois? 

Tlie  Chairman:  That  can  be  done. 

GARFIELD'S  AMENDMENT  IN  H^C  VERBA. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Then  I  offer  as  a  substitute  the  amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Illinois,  with 
these  modifications:  inserting  $5  a  day  instead  of  $i  a  day,  and  omitting  everything  after  the  words 
"in  the  absence  of  the  circuit  judge." 

The  proposed  substitute  was  read,  as  follows: 

"  And  for  special  deputy  marshals  of  elections,  the  sum  of  S7,fiOO;  Provided,  That  hereafter  special 
deputy  marshiils  oi  elections  and  general  dt-put  marshals,  for  performing  any  duties  in  reference  to 
any  election,  shall  receive  the  sum  of  ^5  per  day  in  full  for  their  compensation;  and  that  all  appoint- 
ments of  such  special  deputy  mars^hals  or  of  general  deputy  marshal-i  having  any  duty  to  perform  in 
respect  to  any  election  shall  be  made  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
district  in  which  such  marshals  are  to  purform  their  duties,  or  by  the  district  judge,  in  the  absence 
of  the  circuit  judge." 

-St************ 

Mr.  Simonton:  I  desire  to  make  a  parliamentary  inquiry. 

The  Chairman:  The  gentleman  will  si  ate  it. 

Mr.  Simonton:  Is  the  substitute  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  open  to  amendment? 

The  Chairman:  One  amendment  may  be  offered  to  that  substitute. 

Mr.  Simonton:  Then  I  offera^  an  amendment  to  the  substitute  what  I  send  to  the  desk. 

The  clerk  read  as  follows: 

'*  Strike  out  '  $5 '  and  insert  '$2;'  and  after  the  word  'judge  '  insert  '  and  not  less  than  two  nor 
more  than  three  appointments  shall  be  made  for  any  v  iting  precinct  where  such  appointments  are 
required  to  be  made,  and  the  persons  so  appointed  shall  be  of  different  political  parties;  and  if  there 
are  more  than  two  political  parties  having  tickets  to  be  voted  lor,  no  two  of  said  deputy  marshals 
shall  be  appointed  from  the  same  party.  And  tlie  persons  so  appointed  shall  be  persons  of  good 
-character,  able  to  read  and  write  the  English  language,  and  shall  be  well-known  residents  of  the 
voting  precinct  in  wh  ch  their  duties  are  to  be  performed." 

Mr.  Connor:  That  is  the  original  proposition. 

The  Chairman:  The  Chair  thinks  it  is  substantially  the  same  thing,  but  it  is  offered  as  an  amend- 
ment to  the  substitute. 

Mr.  Conger:  Marshals  of  three  political  parties  were  provided  for  by  the  modification  of  the 
amendment  of  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Springer],  and  this  is  virtually  restoring  the  origi- 
nal proposition. 

The  Chairman:  There  is  no  doubt  about  that;  but  the  Chair  cannot  rule  it  out  on  that  account. 

Mr,  Springer:  Is  the  modification  of  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  Simonton]  now  before 
the  committee? 

The  Chairman:  It  is. 

Mr.  Hon-:  I  desire  to  oppose  the  amendment. 

Mr.  Springer:  I  rise  to  support  it. 

Mr.  Simonton:  I  will  yield  my  time  to  the  gentleman  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Springer.! 

The  Chairman:  The  Chair  will  first  recognize  the  gentleman  from  Illinois,  to  support  the  amend- 
ment, after  which  he  will  recognize  the  gentleman  from  Michigan  [.Mr.  Ilorr]. 

HE  FURTHER  AMENDS. 

Mr.  Springer:  I  regret  that  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Garfield]  should  so  soon  have  retreated 
from  the  pos  tion  which  he  took  in  this  liouse  yesterday. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  have  not  retreated  from  it  at  all. 

Mr.  Springer:  The  gentleman  says  he  has  not  retreated. 

Mr.  Garfi.'ld:  Not  at  all. 

Mr.  Springer:  I  will  read  from  the  Record  to  show  whether  the  gentleman  has  retreated  or  not. 
The  gentleman  said: 

"  We  offered  last  session  to  let  the  law  be  changed  so  that  these  officers  should  be  appointed 
from  the  two  parties.  I  distinctly  held  that  out  as  a  standing  offer;  and, .so  far  as  lam  concerned, 
that '  lamp  still  holds  out  to  bum.'  " 

Now,  that  gentleman  comes  in  with  a  substitute,  and  proposes  to  leave  out  the  very  portion  of 
my  amendment  which  provides  that  these  ofllcers  shall  be  appointed  from  different  political  parties. 
Is  not  that  true  ? 

Mr.  Gar ti eld:  If  the  gentleman  will  allow  me,  I  will  say  that  I  am  entirely  willing  to  put  that 
in.  I  had  not  in  the  moment  allowed  me  the  lime  to  prepare  carefully  the  whole  amendment.  The 
part  to  which  1  objected,  and  which  I  wanted  to  gel  stricken  out,  was  that  part  which  limited  us  to 
three  marshals  to  keep  the  peace  in  a  precinct  where  there  might  be  a  not  Of  several  thousand 
persons. 

Mr.  Springer:  Then  the  gentleman  moved  to  strike  out  •'  three,"  and  insert  "  as  many  as  the 
Court  may  deem  necessarv. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Very  well,  but  I  will  not  take  your  three-marshal  proposition, 

Mr.  Springer:  It  seems  to  be  difiicult  to  frame  a  proposition  to  which  the  gentleman  will 
agree. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Restricting  the  number  of  marshals  to  three  for  a  whole  voting  precinct  was  never 
apart  of  any  proposition  suggested  by  the  other  side  yesterday,  or  accepted  by  us  on  this  side. 
That  16  what  1  objected  to. 


228  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES. 

Mr.  Springer:  If  the  gentleman  desired  to  remedy  that,  it  was  his  province  to  move  an  amend- 
ment as  to  the  number. 

Air.  Garfield:  I  am  willing  to  do  80  now. 

Mr.  Springer:  The  gentleman  did  not  do  so,  but  moved  an  amendment  in  regard  to  the  political 
complexion  nf  these  marshals. 

Mr.  McMahon:  If  the  gentleman  will  permit  me,  I  will  say  to  my  colleague  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Gar- 
field! that  he  seems  to  forget  that  the  law  is  not  interfered  with  at  all  which  permits  general  deputy 
marshals  to  be  present  at  the  polls;  and  under  the  statute  they  may  be  appointed  to  an  unlimited 
number. 

Mr.  Garfield:  Not  under  this  amendment.  This  amendment  limits  the  number  to  three,  of 
general  and  special  deputies.  The  point  I  make  against  the  amendment  as  it  stands  is,  that  in  all 
cases  of  doubt,  danger  and  disturbance,  the  government  of  the  United  States  can  have  but  three 
oflicers  empowered  to  keep  the  peace  against  a  riot,  however  large. 

GENERAL  GAEPIELD'S  AMENDMENT  ACCEPTED. 

Mr.  Springer;  I  will  say  to  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  that  I  have  no  objection  to  leaving  to  the 
discretion  of  the  Court  the  power  to  appoint  a  suflicient  number  in  each  precinct  to  keep  the  peace 
at  the  polls.  I  desire  a  free  and  fair  expression  of  the  popular  will  at  every  poll  in  the  United 
States.  The  Democratic  party  desires  such  free  and  fair  expressions  of  the  people's  will  at  every 
poll  in  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Keed:  It  must  be  a  recently-bom  desire. 

Mr.  Springer:  And  any  one  who  asserts  that  the  Democratic  party  desires  to  commit  or  permit 
fraud  at  any  poll  in  the  United  States,  asserts  that  which  is  not  true,  and  which  is  not  supported  by 
the  history  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  past. 

I  ask  the  members  of  the  Democratic  party  on  this  floor,  I  ask  the  Republicans  on  the  other  side 
of  tills  House,  to  support  this  amendment,  or  the  substance  of  it,  in  order  that  this  vexed  (question 
of  deputy  marshals  at  the  polls  may  be  settled  by  this  House  in  such  manner  as  to  give  satisfaction 
to  all  the  people  of  this  country,  and  to  take  the  subject  out  of  all  the  discussions  of  political 
parlies. 

We  all  say  that  we  desire  fair  and  free  elections.  Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  must  understand 
that  it  is  not  fair  to  surround  the  polls  with  an  unlimited  number  of  their  own  partisans,  paid  out 
of  the  treasury  of  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  electioneering  in  behalf  of  their  own  party 
candidates.  You  know  that  is  not  fair.  I  ask  you  to  remedy  it.  You  can  remedy  it  by  voting  for 
this  amendment.  If  you  do  not  remedy  it,  bnt  contend  for  the  right  to  surround  all  the  polls  of  the 
United  States  with  your  own  paid  partisans,  in  order  to  electioneer  for  your  parly  candidates,  you 
will  be  asking  for  that  which  you  know  is  not  right,  and  which  is  not  sustained  by  the  law. 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  WRITES  IT   OUT. 

Mr,  Garfield:  I  have  written  out  a  modification  in  the  form  of  an  additional  clause. 

The  Chairman:  The  clerk  will  report  the  substitute  as  now  modified. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows; 

"  For  special  deputy  marshals  of  elections,  the  sum  of  $7,600:  Provided,  That  hereafter  special 
deputy  marshals  of  elections  and  general  deputy  marshals,  for  performing  any  duties  in  reference 
to  any  election,  shall  receive  the  snm  of  $5  per  day  in  full  for  their  compensation;  and  that  all  ap- 
pointments of  such  special  deputy  marshalf,  or  of  general  deputy  marsha  s,  having  any  duty  to 
perform  in  respect  to  any  election,  shall  be  made  by  the  Judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United 
States  for  the  distnct  in  which  such  marshals  are  to  perform  their  duties,  or  by  the  District  Judge  in 
the  absence  of  the  Circuit  Judge;  said  special  deputies  to  be  appointed  in  equal  numbers  from  the 
different  political  parties." 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  modify  the  substitute  further  by  striking  out  the  words  "and  general  deputy 
marshals,"  as  the  amendment  ought  to  relate  to  special  deputies  only. 

Mr.  Springer:  I  object  to  that  modification. 

The  Chairman:  The  gentleman  lias  the  right  to  modify  his  own  substitute. 

Mr.  Field:  I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  to  one  point.  The  pro- 
vision is,  that  in  the  absence  of  the  Circuit  Judge  these  ofticers  shall  be  appointed  by  the  District 
Judtre. 

Mr. Garfield:  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Field:  I  suggest  that  the  words  "  of  the  district  "  be  inserted. 

Mr.  Gai-field:  Very  well;  I  modify  the  amendment  further  by.  inserting  after  "  district  judge '* 
the  word*  ••  of  the  district." 

The  amendment  of  Mr.  Simonton  to  the  substitute  of  Mr.  Garfield  was  read,  as  follows: 

"Strikeout  '$5'  and  insert  *  $2;'  and  after  tlie  word  'judge'  insert: 

"  And  not  less  than  two  nr)r  more  than  three  appointments  shall  be  made  for  any  voting  precinct 
where  appointments  are  required  to  be  made;  and  the  persons  so  appointed  shall  be  of  different 
political  parties;  and  if  there  are  more  than  two  political  larties  having  tickets  to  be  voted  for,  no 
two  of  said  deputy  marshals  shall  be  appointed  from  the  same  party.  And  the  persons  so  appointed 
shall  be  persona  of  good  character,  able  to  read  and  write  the  English  language,  and  shall  be  well- 
known  residents  of  the  voting  precinct  in  which  their  duties  are  to  be  performed." 

Mr.  Keifer:  I  should  like,  if  we  are  going  to  vote  on  the  amendment  of  my  colleague  [Mr.  Gar- 
field) to  have  the  clerk  read  that  substitute,  as  it  would  be  if  adopted. 

The  amendment  was  read. 

The  Chairman  :  The  Chair  understands  the  gentleman  from  Tennessee  to  modify  his  amend- 
ment so  as  make  it  come  in  at  the  end  of  the  substitute  aa  originally  offered. 
Mr.  Simonton  :  Before  tho  word  •'  naid  "  and  after  the  word  "  judge." 
The  question  recurred  on  Mr,  Simonton's  amendment  to  Mr.  Garfield's  substitute. 
The  committee  divided,   and  there  were— ayes  105,  noes  103. 
Mr,  Garfield  demanded  tellers. 

Tellers  were  ordered  ;  and  Mr.  Garfield  and  Mr.  Simonton  were  appointed. 
The  committee  again  divided  ;  and  the  tellers  reported— ayes  117,  noes  114. 
So  the  amendment  to  the  amendment  was  agreed  to. 


THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  229 

SPEAKER  RANDALL  WELCOMES  GAKFIELD'S  PROPOSITION. 

Maech  20,  1880.— Mr.  Randall  (the  Speaker)  :  I  renew  the  jiro  forma  amendment.  The  issue 
"between  the  two  sides  has  been  very  much  narrowed  during  the  discussion  to  day.  This  law  is  on 
the  statute-book  ;  many  of  us  belifve  that  it  is  unconstitutional.  The  effect  of  the  amendment 
propo.*ed  by  the  gentleman  from  Illmois  [Mr.  Springer]  is  to  take  in  part  from  that  law  a  partisan 
administration  oi  its  provisions.  It  has  been  distinctly  asserted  on  the  other  side  by  several  who 
have  addressed  the  House  tiiis  morning  that  they  will  not  be  satisfied  witti  any  compromise  or  with 
any  chnngc  of  the  existing  law  in  these  respects.  We  are  ready  to  meet  that  issue.  We  say  that 
if  special  deputy  marshals  are  to  be  used  at  elections,  whatever  may  be  the  opinion  as  to  the  con- 
stitutionality of  such  a  law,  those  officers  should  be  divided  between  the  two  or  three  political 
par' ies  contending  at  snch  election.  We  say  that  when  we  come  to  vote  the  money  to  carry  out 
such  law  we  will  not  vote  it  to  be  used  for  any  partisan  purposes.  We  want  the  money  to  be  used 
for  no  party  ends  whatever,  but  only  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  act  which  is  on  the 
statute-book,  but  which  you  declare  it  to  be  your  purpose  to  administer  as  has  been  heretofore 
done.. 

Mr.  'Robeson  :  The  gentleman  says  "for  no  party  end."  Did  not  the  gentleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  McMahon]  stand  here  ten  minutes  ago  and  say  that  he  did  this  for  a  party  end,  that  they 
would  take  this  now  for  the  advantage  which  thev  could  get  from  it,  and  afterward,  having 
obtained  that  vantage-ground,  they  would  sweep  all  the  law  from  the  statute-book  ?  [Applause 
on  the  Republican  side.] 

Mr.  Randall  (the  Speaker)  :  In  answer  to  the  gentleman,  allow  me  to  say  that  I  take  no  one 
man's  word  on  this  side  of  the  House.  I  take  the  acts  ot  the  party  who  have  the  otficers  to  execute 
this  law  in  contradistinction  to  the  words  of  anybody.  Yon  have  administered  this  law  in  an 
outrageous  and  unjustifiable  manner.  [Applause  on  the  Democratic  side.]  And  in  endeavoring  to 
modify  that  law  here  to-day  we  do  no  more  than  to  ask  that  it  shall  be  made  to  exercise  its 
powers  upon  all  alike,  and  that  those  who  administer  the  law  shall  be  drawn  from  the  great  body 
of  the  people,  without  reference  to  party  associations  or  affiliations.  [Renewed  applause  on  the 
Democratic  side.] 

The  friends  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Garfield]  assert  that  he  did  not  take  the  position 
during  the  extra  session  of  this  Congress  which  it  has  been  said  he  took.  I  ask  to  have  read  what 
the  gentleman  proposed  as  an  amendment  to  this  very  bill  and  what  he  said  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Hawley  :  We  know  what  he  said,  and  a  great  many  of  us  would  say  the  same  thing. 

The  Chairman  :  The  clerk  will  read  what  has  been  sent  up  by  the  gentleman  from  Penn- 
sylvania [Mr.  Randall]. 

The  clerk  read  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Garfield  :  I  modify  the  substitute  further  by  striking  out  the  words  "  and  general  deputy 
marshals,"  as  the  amendment  ought  to  relate  to  special  deputies  only. 

Mr.  Springer  :  I  object  to  that  modification. 

The  Chairman  :  The  gentleman  has  a  right  to  modify  his  own  substitute. 

Mr.  Field  :  I  desire  to  call  the  attention  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  to  one  point.  The  provision 
is  that  in  the  absence  of  the  circuit  judge  these  officers  shall  be  appointed  by  the  district  judge. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Field  :  I  suggest  that  the  words  "  of  the  district  "  be  inserted. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  Very  well  ;  I  modify  the  amendment  further  by  inserting  after  "  district  judge  " 
the  words  "  of  the  district." 

Mr.  Randall  (the  Speaker)  :  I  ask  the  clerk  now  to  read  the  last  two  lines  of  the  amendment 
offered  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Garfield]. 

The  clerk  read  as  follows  : 

Said  special  deputies  to  be  appointed  in  equal  numbers  from  the  different  political  parties. 

I  WILL  VOTE  FOR  IT,    I  SWEAR  I  WI" 

Mr.  Garfield  :  We  are  equals  here,  each  having  rights  equal  to  every  other,  and  nobody 
having  any  authority  to  bind  any  but  himself.     With  that  preface,  I  will  speak  for  myself. 

The  first  object  which  I  try  to  keep  before  my  mind  in  legislation  is  to  be  right.  And  on  this 
question  of  tho  election  laws,  during  the  long  and  heated  session  of  debate  last  summer,  in  which 
all  sorts  of  accusations  were  made  again-t  them  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  there  was  made 
but  one  lodgment  in  my  mind  of  a  just  criticism  upon  them.  There  was  one  charge  made  by  the 
other  side,  and  in  so  far  as  it  was  true  I  consider  it  a  just  objection  to  the  law.  It  was  that  the  law 
had  been  used,  or  was  capable  of  being  used,  to  fill  election  precincts  with  men  of  one  party  whose 
time  might  be  employed  at  the  public  expense  for  party  electioneering  purposes. 

I  say  in  so  far  as  that  Jaw  can  be  so  used  to  that  extent  it  is  unjust ;  and  at  all  times  and  on  all 
proper  occasions  1  have  declared,  and  I  now  declare  myself,  willing  to  modify  the  law  so  that  the 
alleged  abuse  cannot  take  place.  [Applaas<?  ou  the  Democratic  side  ]  That  I  say  for  myself,  and 
will  continue  to  say  it.  No  other  vaiid  objection  to  this  law  was,  in  my  judgment,  made  by  any- 
body during  the  last  session  of  this  Congress  or  since. 

*****  *  ***** 

BUT  GARFIELD  HADN'T  HEARD  FROM  HIS  PARTY. 

Mr.  McMahon  :  There  is  no  accounting  for  gentlemen's  taste  who  like  pickles.  If  the  gentle- 
man is  pleased,  we  are.  I  assert  that  my  colleague  [Mr.  Gai-field]  inaugurated  it.  Time  was  given 
him  for  discussion  when  I  tried  to  close  debate.  He  came  in  with  a  prepared  speech,  endeavoring 
to  place  us  in  a  false  position.  I  undertook  to  reply  in  my  feeble  way.  In  the  course  of  that  argu- 
ment, repudiatinf?  the  interpretation  the  gentleman  had  put  upon  my  speech.  I  said  we  desired  a 
modification  of  the  election  laws  ;  that,  if  constitutional,  they  were  not  good  laws  ;  that  if  they 
were  modified  we  might  vote  money  in  the  future  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  them  out.  There- 
upon my  colleague  from  the  state  of  Ohio  said  to  me  on  the  floor  that  he  had  offered  a  propositiou 
to  appoint  these  marshals,  by  the  court,  from  all  parties  at  the  last  session,  and  that— 

"  While  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn. 
The  vilest  sinner  may  return." 


230  THREE  MONSTROUS  GRIEVANCES. 

And  that  the  lamp  was  still  burning,  and  he  was  ready  to  modify  them.  We  acted  on  his  words. 
We  took  it  as  an  offer  of  compromise  in  good  faith.  Your  stalwart  men  shout,  "  No  compromise  !" 
We  acted  on  my  colleague's  offer,  made  on  Wednesday  last.  The  Committee  on  Elections  met  next 
morning  and  agreed  upon  the  amendment,  now  pending,  of  my  friend  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Springer], 
who  brought  it  Into  the  House  and  offered  it  under  the  rules,  as  he  had  a  right  to  do.  We 
thought  when  the  offer  contained  in  this  amendment  was  made  to  gentlemen  on  that  side,  it  would 
be  accepted.  But  it  seems  to  be  objectionable  in  various  ways,  especially  in  limiting  the  number 
of  deputies  who  may  be  appointed. 

The  amendment  I  have  just  now  offered,  which  I  hope  our  friends  on  this  side  will  accept  with- 
out dissent,  as  well  as  gentlemen  on  the  other,  is  precisely  the  amendment  my  colleague  from  the 
state  of  Ohio  [Mr.  Garfield]  offered  yesterday  in  the  House,  without  the  crossing  of  a  <  or  the  dotting 
of  an  i,  which  proposition  he  has  always  said  he  will  support,  and  which  he  has  just  now  said  he 
will  vote  for  "if  no  other  man  does." 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *•* 

GENERAL   GARFIELD   AND   TWEEDLEDEE  AND   TWEEDLEDUM. 

Same  day  the  amendment  of  General  Garfield,  slightly  modified,  was  adopted 
in  Committee  of  the  Whole.  The  committee  rose,  reported  the  bill,  with  amend- 
ments, to  the  House.  The  amendment  above  referred  to  was  read.  We  print 
side  by  side  General  Garfield's  amendment  with  that  adopted  by  the  Committee 
of  the  Whole. 

GENERAL  GARPIELD'S  AMENDMENT.  AMENDMENT    OP    THE    COMMITTEE    OP 

For  special  deputy  marshals  of  elections,  the  THE  WHOLE, 

sum  ofSS7,600  :  Protided,  That  hereafter  special  yox  special  deputy  marshals  of  elections,  the- 

deputy  marshals  of  elections  and  gemral  deputy  gu,n  of  $7,600  :  Provided,  That  hereafter  special 

marshals  for  performing  any  duties  m  reference  deputy  marshals  of  elections  for  performing  any 

to  any  election,  shall  receive  the  sum  of  $5  per  duties  in  reference  to  any  election  shall  receive 

day  in  full  for  their  compensation  ;  and  that  all  the  sum  of  %6  per  day  in  full  for  their  compen- 

appointments  of  such  special  deputy  marshals  nation,  and  that  the  appointments  of  such  special 

or  of  general  deputy  marshals  having  any  duty  deputy  marshals  shall  be  made  by  the  judge  of 

to  perform  in _  respect  to  any  election  f hall  be  tlie  circuit  court  of  the  United  States  for  the 

made  by  the  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  district  in  which  such  marshals  are  to  perform 

United  States  for  the  district  m  which  such  their  duties  or  by  the  district  judge  in  the  ab- 

marshals  are  to  perform  their  duties,  or  by  the  gg^ce  of  the  circuit  judge,  such  special  deputies 

district  judge  of  the  district  in  the  absence  of  to  ^e  appointed  in  equal  numbers  from  the  dif- 

the  circuit  judge  ;  said  special  deputies  to  be  ferent  political  parties  ;  and  the  persons  so  ap- 

appointed  in  equal  numbers  from  the  different  painted  shall  be  persons  of  good  moral  character 

political  parties.  q^^  gf^fjn  j^  well-known  residents  of  the  voting 

The  words  in  italics  above  are  not  in  the  precinct  in  which  their  duties  are  to  be  per- 

amendment  adopted  by  the  Committee  of  the  formed. 

Whx)le.  yy^g  words  in  italics  above  are  not  in  General 

Garfield's  amendment 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  called  on  the  adoption  of  this  amendment.  General 
Oarjield  voted  no  against  his  own  measure. 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  as  follows: 

Yeas.— Atherton,  Atkins,  Bachman,  Belford,  Beltzhoover,  Berry,  Bicknell,  Bland,  Bliss,  Blount^ 
Bouck,  Bright,  Butterworth,  Cabell,  Carlisle,  Clardy.  Clark,  John  B.,  Cobb,  Coffroth,  Colerick, 
Cook,  Covert,  Cravens,  Culberson,  Davis,  Joseph  J.,  Davis,  Lowndes  11.,  De  La  Matyr,  Deuster, 
Dibrell,  Dickey,  Ellis,  Evins,  Finley,  Forney,  Frost,  Geddes,  Gibson,  Goode,  Gunter,  Hammond, 
N.J. ,  Harris,  John  T.,  Hatch.  Henkle,  Henry,  Herbert,  Herndon,  Hosteller,  House,  Hull,  Hunton, 
Hutchins,  Johnston,  Kenna,  Kimmel,  King,  Kitchin,  Kloiz,  Knott,  Ladd,  Lewis,  Manning;  Mar- 
tin, Henj.  F.,  Martin,  Edward  L.,  McM«hon,  McMillin,  Mills,  Morrison,  Morse,  Muldrow,  Murch, 
Meyers,  New,  Nicholls,  O'Connor,  O'Reilly,  Persons,  Phelps,  Philips.  Phister,  Poehler,  Reagan, 
Richardson,  J.  S.,  Robertson,  Rothwell,  Samford,  Sawyer,  Scales,  Shelley,  Simonton,  Single- 
ton, O.  R.,  Slemons,  Speer,  Springer,  Steele,  Stevenson,  Talbott,  Taylor,  Thompson,  P.  B.,Til  man, 
Townshend,  R.  W.,  Tucker,  Upson,  Vance,  Waddill,  Warner,  Weaver,  Wellborn,  Wells,  Whit- 
thome,  Williams,  Thomas,  Willis,  Wilson,  Wood,  Fernando,  Wright,  Young,  Casey— 115. 

Nats.— Aldrich,  N.  W.,  Aldrich,  William,  Anderson,  Armfield,  Baker,  Ballou,  Barber,  Bayne, 
Bingham,  Blackburn,  Blake,  Bowman,  Brewer,  Briggs,  Brigham,  Browne,  Burrows,  Calkins,  Camp, 
Cannon,  Carpenter,  Claflin,  Conger,  Converse,  Cowgill,  Davis,  George  R.,  Davis,  Horace,  Decring, 
Dennell,  Dwight,  Einstein,  Errett,  Farr,  Ferdon,  Field,  Fisher.  Ford,  Fort,  Frye,  GARFIELD, 
Godshalk,  Hammond,  John,  Harris,  Benj.  W.,  Hawk,  Hawley,  Hayes,  Hazelton,  Henderson,  His- 
cock.  Hooker,  Honk,  Humphrey,  Hurd,  dames,  Jones,  Joyce,  Lindsey,  Marsh,  Martin,  Joseph  J., 
Mason,  McCoid,  McKenzie,  McKinley,  Miles,  Monroe,  Morton,  Neal,  Newberry,  Norcross,  O'Neill, 
Orth,  Osmer,  Overton,  Pacheco,  Piige,  Pierce,  Reed,  Rice,  Richardson,  D.  P.,  Robeson,  Robinson, 
Russell,  Daniel  L.,  Russell,  W.  A.,  Ryan,  Thomas,  Shallenherger,  Sherwin,  Smith,  A.  Herr,  Smith, 
William  E.,  Starin,  Stone,  Thomas,  Thompson,  Wm.  G.,  Townsend,  Amos,  Turner,  Oscar,  Tyler, 
Updegraff,  J.  T..  Updegraff.  Thomas,  Vahntine,  Van  Aernam,  Voorhis,  Wait,  Washburn,  Wil- 
liams, C.  G.,  Willlts,  Wood,  Walter  A.,  Yocum.  Young,  Thomas  L.— 107. 

Not  Voting.— Acklen,.  Aiken,  Bailey,  Barlow,  Beale.  Boyd,  Brag^,  Buckner,  Caldwell,  Caswell, 
Chalmers,  Chittenden.  Clark,  Alvah  A.,  Clymer,  Cox,  Crapo,  Crowley,  Daggett,  Davidson,  Dick, 
Dunn,  Elam,  Ewing,  Felton,  Forsythe,  Gillette,  Hall,  Harmer,  Haskell,  Heilman,  Hill,  Horr,  Hub- 
bell,  Jorgensen,  Keifer,  Kelley,  Ketcham,  Killinger,  Lapham,  Le  Fevre,  Loring,  Lounsbery,  Lowe, 
McCook.  McGowan,  McLane,  Miller,  Mitchell,  Mont  y,  Muller,  O'Brien,  Pound,  Prescott,  Price, 
Richmond,  Ross,  Ryon,  John  W.,  Sapp,  Singleton,  J.  W.,  Smith,  Hezekiah  B.,  Sparks,  Stephens,. 
Turner,  Thomas,  Umer,  Van  Voorhis,  Ward,  White,  Whiteaker,  Wilber,  Wise— 70» 


THREE   MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  231 

GENERAL  GARFIELD  AGAIN   CHANGES  FRONT. 

The  same  day  the  bill  as  amended  passed  the  House.  On  April  18,  the  bill  with 
Senate  amendments  was  reported  to  the  House  from  the  Committee  of  Appro- 
priations, recommending  concurrence  in  some  and  non-concurrence  in  other  of 
the  Senate  amendments.  April  21  McMahon,- in  charge  of  the  bill,  wanted  the 
bill  considered  with  five  minutes  debate.  The  Republicans  demanded  one  hour 
and  a  half.  They  fillibustered  to  prevent  a  vote  on  Mr.  McMahon's  motion  to 
.imit  debate  to  five  minutes.  April  23,  bill  came  up  again  and  an  agreement  was 
reached  allowing  the  Kepublicans  one  hour  and  the  Democrats  twenty  minutes. 
In  this  debate  General  Garfield  again  changed  front  and  came  to  the  support  of 
the  amendment  of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  which  was  practically  his  amend- 
ment. He  had  voted  against  it  March  20,  thirty-  three  days  before,  but  now  he 
thought  it  was  almost  altogether  good.     He  said  : 

The  theory  of  our  government  is  that  in  the  last  civil  resort  we  summon  all  men  without  dig- 
tinciion  of  party  to  act  as  consen'ators  of  the  peace.  If  the  by-standers,  without  distinc.ion  of 
party,  can  be  trusted  to  p.rform  this  important  duty,  surely  we  can  trust  such  as  the  court  on  ita 
highest  responsibility  shall  appoint  to  aid  in  securing  a  fair  election.  It  ought  constantly  to  be 
remembered  that  no  one  of  these  special  deputy  marshals  has  any  power  to  put  down  a  riot  at  the 
polls,  unless  the  marshal,  under  his  handaud  seal,  in  writing,  shall  specially  empower  such  special 
deputy  to  do  that  thing.  And  let  it  also  be  remembered  that  this  amendment  in  no  way  interferes 
with  the  power  of  the  marshal  to  appoint  as  many  general  deputy  marshals  as  maybe  needed  to 
suppress  disorder. 

I  hope  I  am  not  altogether  a  dreamer,  forgetful  of  practical  necessities,  but  I  have  never  been 
able  to  see  why  this  measure  cannot  be  executed  fully,  thoroughly,  and  justly,  provided  its  lan- 
guage makes  it  a  part  of  the  election  law.  My  friend  1  rom  Maine  [Mr.  Reed]  has  raised  some  doubt 
on  that  point,  and  in  so  far  as  that  doubt  is  justified,  it  is  a  fair  argument  against  the  clause.    But 


point,  and  in  so  far  as  that  doubt  is  justified,  it  is  a  fair  argument  against  the  clause.    But 
ixid  look  beyond  the  mere  word  of  the  amendment  to  the  objects  of  national  good  it  may  '^ 
made  to  accomplish.    Ictire  but  little  for  it  as  a  mere  settlement  of  a  present  party  controversy. 


we  should  look  beyond  the  mere  word  of  the  amendment  to  the  objects  of  national  good  it  may  be 
ide  to  accomplish.    Ictire  but  little  for  it  as  a  mere  settlement  of  a  present  party  controversy. 
No  thoughtful  man  can  fail  to  see  great  danger  in  a  close  and  bitterly  contested  national  elec- 


tion. In  common  with  my  party  associates  I  believe  that  these  election  Jaws  are  great  and  benefi- 
cient  safeguards  to  the  f ai-r  and  free  expression  of  the  national  will.  Now,  if  the  adoption  of  a 
measure  like  this  will  harness  the  two  great  political  parties  to  these  election  laws,  by  the  bonds  of 
common  consent  and  mutual  co-operation  for  their  enforcement,  it  will  be  a  benefit  that  will  far 
outweigh  any  slight  advantage  that  can  be  gained  by  retaining  wholly  within  our  party  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  few  officers  to  aid  the  supervisors.  I  believe  this  measure  will  not  weaken  but  will 
strengthen  the  authority  of  the  election  laws,  and  will  remove  from  them  the  only  reasonable 
ground  of  complaint  that  the  other  side  have  made  against  them. 

A  committee  of  conference  was  appointed  to  which  the  bill  went.  The  Senate 
amendments  were  not  political  and  they  were  insisted  upon  by  the  conference  on 
the  part  of  that  body.  The  conference  disagreed.  The  House,  April  27,  insisted 
upon  its  disagreement.  The  bill  finally  passed  both  Houses  and  went  to  the  de 
facto  President,  who,  on  May  5,  returned  it  with  his  objectione.  Plis  veto  was 
based  solely  on  the  ground  of  opposition  to  legislation  on  appropriation  bills. 

GEN.    GARFIELP'S  AMENDMENT  PASSED  AS  AN  INDEPENDENT  BILL. 

.  On  June  11  the  House  passed  as  an  independent  measure — the  amendment  to  the 
Deficiency  Bill,  which  Gen.  Garfield,  on  April  23d,  had  declared  he  was  so  de- 
decidedly  in  favor  of.  The  bill  hud  passed  the  Senate,  was  reported  from  the 
House  Judiciary  Committee,  and  was  discussed  at  some  length  in  the  House,  Mr. 
Keifer,  of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  Lupton,  of  New  York,  and  other  Republicans  opposing 
it.     The  bill  was  as  follows  : 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  Home  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  Atnerica  in  Con- 
gress assembled.  That  from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act  the  pay  of  all  deputy  marshals  for  ser- 
vices in  reference  to  any  election  shall  be  live  dollars  for  each  day  of  actual  service,  and  no  more. 

Sec.  2.  That  all  deputy  marshals  to  serve  in  reference  to  any  election  shall  be  appointed  by  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  district  in  which  such  marshals  are  to  perform  their  duties 
in  each  year;  and  the  judges  of  the  several  circuit  courts  of  the  United  States  are  hereby  authorized 
to  open  their  respective  courts  at  any  time  lor  that  purpose,  and  in  case  the  circuit  courts  shall  not 
be  open  for  that  purpose  at  least  ten  days  prior  to  a  registration,  if  there  be  one,  or  if  no  registra- 
tion be  required,  then  at  least  ten  days  before  buch  election,  the  judges  of  the  District  Courts  of  the 
United  States  are  hereby  respectivsly  authorized  to  cause  their  courts  to  be  opened  for  the  purpose 
of  appointing  such  deputy  marshals,  who  shall  be  appointed  by  the  eaid  district  courts;  and  the 
omcers  so  appointed  shall  be  in  equal  numbers  from  the  different  political  parties  and  shall  be  well- 
known  citizens,  of  good  moral  character,  and  actual  residents  of  the  voting  precincts  in  which  their 
duties  are  to  be  performed,  and  shall  not  be  candidates  for  any  office  at  such  election;  and  all  laws 
and  parts  of  laws  inconsistent  with  this  act  are  hereby  repealed:  Ftviided,  that  the  marehals  of  the 


232  THREE    MONSTROUS    GRIEVANCES.  . 

United  States  for  whom  deputies  shall  be  appointed  by  the  court  under  this  act  shall  not  be  liable 
for  any  of  the  acts  of  such  deputies. 

Mr.  Hayes  vetoed  this  bill — the  same  measure  substantially  which  Gen.  Garfield 
suggested,  which  he  advocated  but  which  he  did  not  vote  for. 

A  Deficiency  Bill  was  passed,  which  was  approved,  providing  for  the  payment 
of  marshals'  fees  and  those  of  their  general  deputies,  but  prohibiting  any  of  the 
money  so  appropriated  to  be  paid  for  services  of  special  deputies. 


THE    PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL.  233 


THE  PACIFIC  MAIL  STEAL, 


GARFIELD'S  PART,  AS  SHOWN  BY  THE  RECORD. 

In  the  winter  and  spring  of  1871-2,  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  sent 
Richard  B.  Irwin  to  Washington  to  buy  through  Congress  a  subsidy  for  an  ad- 
ditional monthly  mail  service  between  San  Francisco,  Japan  and  China.  By  an 
act  approved  Feb.  17,  1865,  Congress  provided  for  a  monthly  mail  service  be- 
tween San  Francisco  and  some  Chinese  ports,  including  the  port  of  Honolulu  and 
a  port  in  Japan,  to  be  performed  by  American  steamships  of  not  less  than  3,000 
tons  burden  each,  of  suflScient  number  to  make  twelve  round  trips  per  annum. 
The  project  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  in  1871-2  was  to  have  Congress 
provide  for  additional  monthly  service,  or,  in  other  words,  double  the  mail  service 
between  San  Francisco,  Japan  and  China,  and  double  their  subsidy.  Irwin  came 
to  Washington  in  January,  1872,  took  a  large  furnished  house,  employed  a  caterer, 
a  French  cook,  and  a  large  retinue  of  servants,  and  began  to  feel  the  ground  by  giv- 
ing a  series  of  elaborate  entertainments  to  members  of  Congress.  Of  course,  the 
first  important  object  of  this  preliminary  survey  of  the  field  of  operations  was  to 
establish  friendly  relations  with  the  leading  men  of  the  Committee  of  Appropria- 
tions of  the  House  of  Representatives.  The  two  leading  members  of  that  com- 
mittee were  James  A.  Garfield,  the  chairman,  and  Aaron  A.  Sargent,  who  was 
second  on  the  committee.  Sargent,  coming  from  California,  was  naturally  the 
friend  of  the  Pacific  Mail  and  earnestly  in  favor  of  the  largest  possible  subsidy 
for  the  China  mail  service.  He  was,  moreover,  well  known  to  Irwin,  who  for  some 
years  previous  had  been  in  charge  of  the  Pacific  Mail  interest  at  San  Francisco. 
Irwin  had  another  old  friend  in  Washington  whose  services  in  the  undertaking 
were  very  valuable.  This  was  Donn  Piatt.  He  was  the  particular  friend  of  James 
A.  Garfield,  and  had  for  several  years  done  a  profitable  business  as  a  lobbyist, 
through  his  influence  with  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations. 
He  was  at  that  time  in  receipt  of  5  per  cent,  of  the  gross  amount  of  whatever  ap- 
propriations he  could  obtain  for  a  worthless  moth  preventive  and  water-repellant 
process  owned  by  George  A.  Cowles  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  and  used,  against  the 
wishes  of  the  War  Department,  in  treating  soldiers'  clothing  and  tents.  Col. 
Rifchard  C.  Parsons,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  then  Marshal  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  the  same  individual  employed  by  Chittenden ,  the  agent  of 
DeGolyer  &  McClellan,  to  reach  Gen.  Garfield,  was  an  old  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
A.  B.  Stockwell,  President  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company.  Stockwell 
employed  Parsons  to  assist  Irwin  in  Washington,  and  he  was  paid,  first  and  last, 
$13,500,  of  which  $1,500  came  through  Irwin. 

PROVIDING  THE  SINEWS  OF  WAR. 

The  ground  having  been  felt  by  Irwin,  and  the  preliminary  arrangements 
made,  the  serious  operations  began.     The  executive  committee  of  the  Board  of 


234  THE    PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL. 

Directors  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  held  a  meeting  Feb.  14,  1873, 

in  New  York,  and  passed  the  following  resolution: 

Resolved,  that  the  President,  in  his  discretion,  is  liereby  authorized  to  employ  counsel  and  incur 
such  other  necessary  expense  as  may  be  necessary  in  connection  with  the  measures  for  additional 
subsidy  now  pendinj:;  before  Congress. 

On  Feb.  21,  1872,  this  resolution  passed  by  the  executive  committee  was,  at  a 
meeting  of  the  board  of  directors,  approved  and  ratified. 

A.  B.  Stockwell,  the  President  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  wrote 
to  R.  B.  Irwin  as  follows : 


Office  op  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Compant, 
New  York,  Feb.  13,  1872. 


Dear  Sir :  I  enclose  checks  to  my  order  indorsed  to  your  order  for  $250,000,  $110,000  and  $40,000, 
which  are  placed  in  your  hands  to  be  used  in  payment  of  your  services  in  case  of  the  passage  and 
approval  by  the  President  of  the  bill  or  amendment  providing  for  the  increase  of  our  China  mail 
service  to  semi-monthly  trips,  with  a  subsidy  of  $500,000  a  year  for  ten  years,  said  compensation 
to  be  reduced  pro  rato  in  the  event  of  a  reduction  of  the  amount  appropriated  as  above.  None  of 
these  checks  to  be  used  by  you,  but  all  to  be  returned  to  me  in  the  event  of  failure,  excepting  only 
the  last  named  ($40,000),  all  or  any  portion  of  which  you  may  apply,  if  actually  required,  for  your 
necessary  expenses  and  for  counsel's  fees.    Very  respectfully  yours, 

Richard  B.  Irwin,  Esq.  •  A.  B.  STOCKWELL. 

To  which  Irwin  in  substance  replied  that  his  understanding  was  that  the  contin- 
gent amount  was  to  be  $500,000  and  that  at  the  proper  time  he  would  call  upon 
him  for  checks  for  the  additional  amount.  Mr.  Stockwell  subsequently  wrote  as 
follows  to  Irwin 

Office  op  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  I 
New  York,  May  4,  1872.       ) 
Dear  Sir :  Yours  of  the  3d  to  hand.    We  are  much  encouraged  by  the  result  yesterday,  were  it 
not  for  the  demands  to-day.    When  we  were  defeated  in  the  "House,"  you  said  to  me  there  was 
smne  good  to  come  of  it ;  that  if  we  did  get  our  bill  itioofM  cost  less.    I  don't  think  it  wise  for  the 
company  to  give  their  check  •  in  this  matter.    Notwithstanding,  I  now  enclose  the  four  checks  for 
$100,000  each,  as  you  desire,  but  if  they  must  be  used,  I  would  prefer  my  checks  to  be  substituted 
for  these,  but,  as  I  say  above,  I  send  them  because  I  want  to  do  everything  to  insure  success.    Of 
course,  you  will  return  me  my  checks  for  $250,000,  previously  sent  you. 
Mr.  It.  B.  Irwin.  Yours,  very  respectfully,  A.  B.  STOCKWELL. 

Mr.  Irwin  retained  one  of  these  $100,000  checks  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship 
Company,  together  with  the  $40,000  check  of  Feb.  13,  1872,  given  by  Mr.  Stock- 
well.  On  May  24,  1872,  Mr.  Irwin,  in  New  York  city,  returned  the  personal 
checks  given  by  Stcckwell  Feb.  13,  and  subsequently  to  the  amount  of  about 
$560,000,  and  received  then  or  subsequently  checks  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship 
Company,  payable  to  his  order,  for  $750,000.  The  arrangements  all  made  in 
Washington,  the  sinews  of  war  supplied,  the  business  of  buying  the  .required 
legislation  went  forward,  not  without  opposition,  but  successfully.  Everything 
at  least  seemed  so  favorable  that  the  jobbers  had  determined  to  increase  their 
demands,  and  after  getting  through  the  Committee  of  Appropriations  the  item  of 
$500,000  a  year,  they  determined  to  increase  it  in  the  House  to  $1,000,000  a  year. 
They  were,  however,  defeated  by  the  narrow  margin  of  eigJit  votes.  The 
increase  was  susbequently  made  in  the  Senate,  and  Gen.  Garfield  did  his  best  to 
have  the  House  concur,  but  failed.  The  proceedings  in  the  House  summarized 
from  the  Olobe  will  tell  the  story  in  detail. 

HOW  THE  MONSTROUS  STEAL  WAS  PUT   THROUGH. 

The  Post  Oflice  Appropriation  bill  was   reported  to  the  House  Jan.  18,  1872. 

It  did  not  contain  an  item  appropriating   $500,000  per  annum  for  additional 

monthly  mail  service  between  San  Francisco,  Japan  and  China  for  ten  years. 

Gen.  Garfield,  from  the  Committee  of  Appropriations,  offered  that  item  as  an 

amendment  to  the  bill.     On  March  12,  in  advocating  this  amendment  reported  by 

the  Committee  of  Appropriations,  he  said : 

Mr.  Chairman  :  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  word  subsidy  is  a  hateful  one  to  the  American  raind. 
It  is  a  word  which  brings  to  my  mind  ideas  not  altogether  compatible  with  my  sense  of  the  dignity 
and  freedom  wf  our  institutions.   When  the  pending  proposition  was  first  suggested  to  the  Committee 


THE   PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL.  235 

an  Appjvpriations,  all  the  sentiments  I  had  entertained  and  cherished  on  the  general  subject  to  which, 
it  relates  inclined  me  to  oppose  it.  But  the  subject  being  properly  and  legitimately  before  the  com- 
mittee, I  was  bound  to  consider  it ;  and  after  a  careful  study  of  the  facts  in  the  case  I  have  reached 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  my  duty  to  si^P2X>rt  the  amendment.  I  shall  try  in  the  few  moments  given 
me  to  state  some  of  the  reasons  which  led  me  to  that  conclucion.  In  doing  so  I  do  not  abandoa 
my  general  sentiment  of  opposition  to  granting  subsidies  by  the  government,  for  generally  they  are 
invidious  and  partial,  and  help  one  class  of  citizens  at  the  expense  of  the  rfst;  but  I  believe  there 
are  special  and  exceptional  facts  connected  with  the  trade  of  the  Pacific  ocean  which  we  cannot,  in 
view  of  the  situation,  safely  neglect. 

Let  me  say,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  all  the  great  achievements  of  civilization  from  the  remotest 
period  have  been  grouped  round  one  of  the  great  seas.  The  Mediterranean  sea  was  the  center 
round  which  the  great  civilization  of  the  ancient  nations  were  grouped,  and  the  great  event  which 
murks  the  boundary  between  ancient  and  modern  history  was  the  passing  from  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  Atlantic  ocean  as  a  centre  of  commerce  and  art.  When  the  current  of  European  life  turned 
from  Athens,  and  Rome,  and  Carthage,  the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  Atlantic  ocean  became  its  new 
center  of  activity.  On  the  ocean  the  great  forces^  of  modern  civilization  have  been  playing  for  a 
thousand  years. 

But  I  venture  the  prediction,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  in  the  near  future  the  other  great  theater  of 
commercial  activity,  the  third  and  last  in  the  history  of  the  world's  work,  will  be  the  Pacific  ocean; 
and  just  now  the  whole  current  of  public  thought,  the  whole  current  of  public  and  national  ac- 
tivity is  turned  towards  that  great  sea,  and  the  momentous  question  is,  who  shall  be  its  master  ? 

We  have  never  possessed,  and  can  hardly  hope  to  possess,  the  control  of  the  Mediterranean  sea; 
and  the  sad  events  of  the  last  twelve  years  have  led  me  to  fear  that  we  have  lost,  perhaps  irretriev- 
ably lost,  the  control  of  the  Atlantic  ocean— the  great  historic  sea  of  to-day.  Our  hope  is  in  the 
great  historic  sea  of  the  future.  If  we  lose  that  it  will  be  a  lasting  disgrace  to  our  statesmanship 
and  a  measureless  calamity  to  our  people.  We  now  occupy  the  largest  and  noblest  portion  of  it» 
western  shores.  Our  islands  in  the  northwest  reach  more  than  a  thousand  miles  of  the  distance 
from  this  continent  to  Asia. 

ALL  FOR  THE   PACIFIC   MAIL   STEAMSHIP   COMPANY. 

We  have  already  established  the  only  line  of  steamers  that  ply  between  the  oldest  of  the  em- 
pires and  the  youngest  of  the  great  nations.  Six  hundred  millions  of  human  beings  that  live  on 
the  western  border  of  that  sea  are  looking  to  us  for  commerce,  for  science,  and  the  arts.  We  are 
their  nearest  eastern  neighbor,  and  they  now  ask  our  friendship,  seek  our  shores,  and  offer  to  pour 
their  commerce  in  our  lap.  At  this  critical  and  interesting  moment  we  are  in  danger  of  losing  our 
grasp  upon  the  commerce  of  that  great  ocean.  The  other  maritime  nations  are  ready  to  snatch  the 
prize  from  our  hands  unless  we  at  once  secure  it.  The  increased  service  provided  by  this  amend- 
ment will  hold  the  trade  in  our  hands,  and  put  it  on  a  basis  where  it  will  soon  grow  to  independ- 
ence, so  that  no  further  aid  will  be  needed. 

Never  has  there  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  any  nation  when  such  a  prospect  was  opened, 
when  such  a  future  was  clearly  attainable.  For  these  reasons,  I  am  ready  to  make  an  exception  in 
this  case,  and  to  do  what  I  can  to  make  the  commerce  of  this  great  ocean  our  own,  and  to  make 
our  country  the  teacher,  the  guide  and  friend  of  the  great  peoples  of  Eastern  Asia.  This  measure 
can  be  no  precedent  for  the  score  of  schemes  now  pressing  for  recognition,  for  it  stands  alone  in 
the  greatness  and  importance  of  its  consequences.  {Cong.  Globe,  2d  sess.,  42d  Cong.,  part  2,  p. 
1630.) 

TRYING   TO  MAKE  THE  STEAL   $1,000,000. 

On  March  12th,  Mr.  Conger  (Republican)  of  Michigan  moved  an  amendment 
increasing  the  subsidy  for  this  service  to  $1,000,000  a  3'ear  for  ten  years,  which 
would  have  made  the  subsidy  to  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  $1,500,000 
a  year.  Gen.  Garfield,  in  the  Committee  of  the  Whole,  March  20,  advocated  this 
amendment,  but  it  was  rejected.  The  same  day  the  bill  passed  the  House.  The 
vote  was  101  to  30.  The  yeas  and  nays  were  not  called.  It  went  to  the  Senate, 
where  the  subsidy  was  increased  to  $1,000,000  a  year.  The  bill  came  back  to  the 
House  May  8th.  It  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Appropriations.  Gen. 
Garfield  reported  the  bill  back  to  the  House  May  21st,  recommending  concurrence 
in  the  Senate  amendments,  including  the  one  increasing  the  subsidy  to  the  Pacific 
Mail  Steamship  Company  to  $1,000,000.  There  was  a  hot  debate  on  the  motion 
to  concur.  In  the  course  of  the  debate  Mr.  Randall  of  Pennsylvania  and  other 
members  denounced  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  for  recommending  concur- 
rence in  the  Senate  amendments.     The  following  debate  followed  : 

THE  MEREST  AND  MEANEST  SUBTERFUGE. 
Mr.  Garfield  of  Ohio  :  I  do  not  intend  to  re-argue  this  question,  but  I  wish  to  answer  some  of  the 
objections  which  have  been  raised  this  morning.  In  the  first  place,  the  gentleman  from  Pennsyl- 
vania (Mr.  Randall)  says  that  the  Committee  on  Appropriate  ns  ought  not  to  have  brought  into  this 
House  a  proposition  which  had  been  rejected  here.  I  answer  him  that  we  have  not  brought  back 
a  rejected  proposition,  but  one  quite  different  in  its  ttrms  and  conditions  from  the  proposition 
which  was  acted  on  in  the  House.  The  difference  is  this  :  the  House  simply  proposed  to  double 
the  service  and  double  the  pay.  The  proposition  was  defeated  by  a  very  small  vote.  It  was  a 
proposition  to  give  to  the  one  company  now  doing  the  work  double  pay  for  double  work.  The 
objection  was  raised  by  many  gentlemen  around  me  that  it  was  giving  it  to  a  single  company  ^vlth- 
out  any  competition  or  without  opening  the  matter  to  the  enterprise  of  the  country.    The  propo- 


236  THE    PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL. 

sition  of  the  Senate  is  different.  It  offers  an  open  bid  in  open  market  to  the  lowest  bidder  to 
do  the  work,  and  thus  takes  the  case  entirely  out  of  the  range  of  a  mere  monopoly,  giving  it  to  one 
special  company. 

A  VERY   PERTINENT   QUESTION. 

Mr.  Ambler  :    Will  my  colleague  yield  to  me  for  a  question  ? 
Mr.  Garfield  :  Certainly. 

Mr.  Ambler  :  I  would  inquire  of  my  colleague  whether  it  is  possible  that  within  sixty  days 
another  company  can  be  organized  to  compete  with  this  company  ? 

A   WILLFUL   FALSEHOOD. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  I  suppose  it  could. 

Mr.  McCormick  of  Missouri :  I  understand  this  is  to  be  open  to  competition. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  It  is  ;  all  parties  are  free  to  sail  in.  In  the  second  place,  a  very  considerable  re- 
striction is  to  be  placed  upon  whatever  company  takes  the  service  ;  they  must  build  their  ships  so 
that  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  may  be  satisfied  that  they  will  be  fitted  for  naval  service  in  time  of 
war.    They  must  be  built  to  be  approved  by  him. 

A   SHOT  BELOW  THE   WATER  LINE. 

Mr.  Randall :  The  gentleman  knows  very  well  ihat  there  will  he  only  one  bidder  for  this  service. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  If  this  is  done,  an  additional  line  must  be  kept  up  between  Panama  and  New 
York.  That  will  be  an  additional  service,  more  than  was  provided  for  by  the  proposition  of  the 
House.  I  answer  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  (Mr.  Randall)  by  saying  that  this  is  another 
and  different  ])roposition,  one  far  more  favorable  to  the  United  States  and  tTie  interests  of  com- 
merce than  the  proposition  which  failed  here  in  the  House  by  only  two  votes. 

Mr.  Randall  :    BY  EIGHT  VOTES. 

Mr.  Garfield  :  And  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  felt  bound  to  give  the  House  an  opportu- 
nity to  act  upon  this  proposition  of  the  Senate,  after  pointing  out  the  differences  between  the 
two  propositions. 

MORE   SUBTERFUGE. 

My  colleague  (Mr.  Stevenson)  asked  a  (luestion  intended  to  raise  another  objection  to  this 
proposition.  He  said  :  Would  you  be  willing  to  subsidize  a  line  of  steamers  on  the  Mississippi 
river  ?  Let  me  tell  my  colleague  what  we  have  done  for  the  Mississippi  river  within  the  last  few 
days.  Under  the  laws  hitherto  passed  by  Congress  in  relation  to  the  coasting  and  internal  trade  of 
this  country,  M'e  have  an  absolute  monopoly,  unrivalled  by  any  foreign  keel  along  our  coasr,  and 
upon  our  navigable  rivers.  No  foreign  keel  under  a  foreign  flag  can  float  at  all  ujjon  those  waters 
in  competition  with  our  commercial  marine.  And  to  make  it  still  stronger  for  our  interests,  during 
the  last  week  this  House,  under  the  lead  of  the  gentleman  from  Indiana  (Mr.  Holman),  made  abso- 
lutely free  of  dutj^  all  material  that  enters  into  the  construction  of  river  steamers  on  all  the  navi- 
gable waters  of  this  country. 

MAKING  USE   OF   IRWIN'S  STATISTICS. 

Now,  one  other  fact,  and  I  Avill  leave  this  subject.  The  latest  reports  show  these  facts :  the 
merchandise  exported  from  San  Francisco  to  Japan,  from  January  1  to  April  30,  1870,  was  $411,000. 
For  the  corresponding  period  of  this  year,  ending  with  the  month  of  April  just  past,  it  was  |780,000; 
almost  doubled  in  one  year. 

Mr.  Morgan  :  If  this  commerce  is  increasing  at  this  rapid  rate,  why  the  necessity  of  a  subsidy 
to  support  this  line  ? 

Mr.  Garfield  :  I  thank  my  colleague  (Mr.  Morgan)  for  that  word,  for  otherwise  I  should  have 
forgotten  one  thing  I  desire  to  state.  Within  the  last  week  the  London  Times  comes  to  us,  inform- 
ing us  that  a  British  company  is  ready,  the  moment  they  can  set  their  competing  line  on  the 
waters  of  the  Pacific,  and  to  establish  a  trade  there,  and  to  put  on  a  large  number  of  steamers  be- 
tween Japan  and  San  Francisco.  And  unless  we  seize  the  occasion  just  ready  to  be  shut  up  so 
that  we  will  not  be  able  to  seize  it  at  all,  the  work  will  be  in  the  hands  of  England,  and  not  in  our 
own. 

MR.  RANDALL  POURS  IN  HOT  SHOT. 

Mr.  Randall:  Mr.  Speaker,  I  charge  that  this  amendment  is  a  miserable  siibterfuge.  The  result 
of  the  original  House  2}roposition  and  of  this  amendment  of  the  Senate,  will  be  the  same.  It  is  a  mere 
equivocation  of  language  unworthy  of  Congress  and  of  the  gentlemen  wfw  advocate  it.  I  charge 
more:  that  this  line,  having  already  received  an  enormous  bounty  from  the  government,  and  being 
already  in  a  pro -porous  condition,  has  no  right  to  come  here  and  ask  for  $500,000  more  a  year,  mak- 
ing in  all  $1,000,000,  when  the  mail  service  proposed  is  in  no  measure  required  by  the  commerce  of 
the  country.  I  say  more,  that  agencies  disgraceful  to  Congress  have  been  employed  by  people  outside 
of  this  hall,  and  by  members  in  it,  in  favor  of  this  line. 

MR.    RANDALL  INDICATES  THE  DISGRACEFUL   AGENCIES. 

Mr.  Sargeant:  State  what  they  are. 

Mr.  Randall:  Undue  advocacy  of  it,  in  season  and  out  of  season. 

Mr.  Sargeant:  What  efforts  does  the  gentleman  refer  to  ?    I  want  to  understand  him  distinctly. 
Mr.  Randall  r  Efforts  of  people  outside  of  this  hall  and  in  it,  who  I  believe  are  interested- 
Mr.  Sargeant:  Doing  what  ? 
Mr.  Morgan:  A  hired  lobby,  working  to  carry  the  measure  through. 

MR.    RANDALL   OFFERS   THE  PROOF. 

Mr.  Randall :  I  say,  and  will  stand  by  it,  and  if  you  propose  a  committee  of  investigation  I  will 
undertake  to  i)rove  it 

Mr.  Sargeant:  All  right. 

Mr.  Morgan:  I  am  ready  to  back  it.    The  thing  will  not  bear  investigation. 


THE    PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL.  237 

Mr.  Sargeant:  Allow  me  to  ask  what  is  the  specific  thing  charged.  When  we  ascertain  that  it 
will  be  time  to  investigate.  ^,    ^    ^  ^rir.  ^■        ,.    u 

Mr  Randall:  I  eay,  sir,  that  undue  mfluences— I  will  go  further  and  say  that  what  I  believe  to  be 
wicked  influences— have  been  used  to  induce  Congress  to  unnecessarily,  unwarrantably  and  unjus- 
tiflcably  increase  this  appropriation.  I  say  this,  knowing  the  language  I  use  and  comprehending 
its  full  purport.    {Conr/.  Globe,  2d  sess.  42(1  Cong,  part  5,  p.SQ7S.)  ^      ,  .,  .  ^^      , 

Mr  Holman  of  Indiana:  I  move  to  amend  tv^e  Senate  amendment  by  striking  out  the  clause 
providing  for  an  additional  monthly  mail,  and  to  insert  the  following:  "■  For  the  conveyance  of  a 
monthly  mail  on  said  route  at  a  compensation  not  to  exceed  $500,000  a  year." 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  called  on  this  proposition.  Gen.  Garfield  voted 
no!    The  amendment  was  rejected.     (Ibid,  p.  3679.) 

The  amendment  of  the  Senate  was  rejected.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  for  it. 
(Ibid,  p.  3680.)    This  occurred  May  27. 

A  new  committee  of  conference  was  asked  of  the  Senate.  The  House  ap- 
pointed its  conferees.  The  Senate  receded.  The  report  of  this  second  confer- 
ence the  Senate  amendment  receded  from  was  adopted  May  27.  The  bill  was 
approved  June  3,  1872. 

The  Senate  also  put  on  an  amendment  providing  for  a  subsidy  to  a  mail  steam- 
ship line  to  Brazil.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  for  this  subsidy  amendment  also,  but  the 
House  rejected  it  and  the  Senate  had  to  yield. 

what   MR.    RANDALL   DID. 

Mr.  Randall  was  always  ready  to  prove  the  truth  of  his  charges  made  as  above 

quoted,  but  no  opportunity  was  given  him.     Finally,  in  another  investigation, 

LeGrand  Lockwood,  of  New  York  (whose  evidence  convicted  Charles  Sherman, 

a  United  States  district  judge — a  brother  of  John  Sherman — of  corrupt  practices 

before  Congress,  and  who  resigned  to  escape  impeachment),  testified  that  a  large 

sum  of  money  had  been  used  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  Pacific  Mail  subsidy. 

Then,  in  the  midst  of  the  Credit  Mobelier  excitement  in  the  House,  when  the 

Republican  majority  was  terribly  demoralized,  Mr.  Randall  offered  the  following 

resolution,  which  was  passed  February  20, 1873: 

Whereas,  In  the  testimony  taken  before  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of  this  House,  in 
reference  to  certain  matters  committed  to  said  committee  for  investigation,  it  has  been  sworn  by 
LeGrand  Lockwood,  of  New  York  city,  that  a  large  sum  of  money  was  used  to  secure  the  pas- 
sage through  Congress  of  an  increased  annual  appropriation  to  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
.  pany,  in  the  matter  of  a  subsidy  for  the  transportation  of  mails  and  other  purposes;  therefore. 

Resolved,  That  said  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  are  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  make 
full  inquiry  into  the  truth  or  falsity  of  said  sworn  statement,  and  to  this  end  the  said  committee 
is  hereby  authorized  and  directed,  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  and  generally  to  exercise  such 
powers  and  discretion  as  will  be  necessary  thereto. 

A  FARCICAL   INVESTIGATION. 

The  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  pretended  to  make  the  investigation  it  was 
directed  to  make  by  the  above-quoted  resolution.  It  was  a  farce.  They  called 
four  witnesses,  three  of  whom  testified  to  the  rumors  they  had  heard,  one  of 
them  to  his  conviction  that  money  was  used  by  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com- 
pany, and  to  being  approached  by  a  member  of  Congress  on  the  subject  of 
money  in  connection  with  the  Brazilian  Steamship  line.  These  three  witnesses 
all  indicated  that  R.  B.  Irwin  was  the  man  the  committee  wanted,  if  it  wanted 
to  know  anything.  But  the  committee  made  no  effort  to  find  Mr.  Irwin,  who 
was  then  at  his  residence  in  San  Francisco.  Not  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Pacific 
Mail  Steamship  Company  were  called.  Their  books  and  papers  showed  the  pay- 
ments of  the  large  sums  of  money  heretofore  given.  The  Republican  members 
of  the  committee  attempted  to  excuse  themselves  for  their  failure  to  prosecute 
the  inquiry,  by  making  to  the  House  false  statements  about  their  efforts  to  find 
Mr.  Irwin.  They  turned  the  evidence  of  the  four  witnesses  examined  by  them 
over  to  the  House,  and  asked  that  it  be  sealed  up  and  retained  by  the  clerk.  They 
would  not  even  allow  it  to  be  printed.  They  fondly  hoped  this  would  be  the 
last  of  it.     The  Forty-second  Congress  would  expire  in  a  few  days. 


^38  THE    PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL. 

The  Forty- third  Congress  assembled  on  the  first  Monday  of  December,  1873. 
James  G.  Blaine  was  elected  speaker.  He  reappointed  the  same  gentlemen,  in- 
cluding those  who  had  been  smirched  by  the  Credit  Mobelier  investigation  of  the 
previous  Congress,  chairmen  of  the  same  important  committees.  Mr.  Dawes 
was  continued  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means.  The  same  Republicans  who 
had  been  members  of  the  committee  and  re-elected  to  the  Forty-third  Congress 
"were  put  back  on  the  committee.  But  not  one  of  them  proposed  to  revive  the 
Pacific  Mail  investigation.  A  whole  year  elapsed  and  no  investigation  was 
made.  The  first  session  of  the  Forty-third  Congress  expired,  and  still  no  further 
inquiry. 

The  last  Republican  House  was,  however,  not  to  escape  that  responsibility. 
Hichard  B.  Irwin  was  in  New  York  and  in  the  service  of  Jay  Gould.  He  desired, 
ior  stock  jobbing  purposes,  to  have  this  investigation  revived.  Irwin  began  to 
furnish  Jay  Gould's  newspaper,  the  New  York  Tribune,  with  some  very  interest- 
ing reading  matter.  His  first  letter  was  published  December  10,  with  an  edito- 
rial which  was  as  follows: 

A  HALF  MILLION   STEAL. 

The  first  of  the  jobs  makes  its  appearance  at  the  capital  early,  and,  we  regret  to  say,  in  one  of 
*Gen.  Garfield's  surprisingly  prompt  appropriation  bills.  We  beg  the  General  to  relieve  himself  and 
Lis  committee  from  the  responsibility  for  it  at  once.  *  *  *         a  correspondent  thor- 

oughly well  informed  traces  in  detail,  in  another  column,  the  various  steps  of  the  robbery.    Let  us 
here  reproduce  the  outline. 

The  Pacilic  Mail  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  subsidy  of  $500,000  per  annum.  Mr.  Stockwell,  one 
of  its  numiTous  retirin<»  presidents,  succeeded  in  getting  a  law  authorizing  $500,000,  on  condition 
that  enough  new  first-class  iron  steamers  should  be  placed  on  the  line  to  do  the  mail  service  by  the 
first  of  October,  1873.  The  company  failed  to  get  them  on  by  that  time,  has  not  yet  got  them  on, 
and  has  only  two  of  them,  the  Tokio  and  City  of  Peking,  even  built.  The  Postmaster-General  re- 
ported this  failure  to  Congress  in  December,  1873.  Congress  thereupon  made  no  appropHation  for 
the  subsidy,  and  the  bill  itself  only  escaped  repeal  because  of  the  view,  generally  expressed,  that 
the  company's  failure  to  comply  with  its  terms  made  it  null.  Congress  being  out  of  the  way,  At- 
torney-Gen. Williams  was  appealed  to  for  one  of  his  opinions.  He  conveniently  decided  that 
the  failure  of  a  year  or  two,  more  or  less,  made  no  difference.  Postmaster-General  Jewell,  new  to 
the  duties  of  his  office  and  easily  imposed  upon  in  matters  of  routine,  has  been  induced  to  estimate 
for  the  extra  $500,000  subsidy,  as  if  it  had  been  earned,  and  Gen.  Garfield  has  promptly  reported  it 
to  Congress  in  the  Postal  Appropriation  Bill. 

We  call  upon  every  friend  of  honesty  in  the  public  service  to  watch  this  job  and  to  resist  it  from 
the  outset.  We  are  unwilling  to  believe  that  either  Governor  Jewell  or  Gen.  Garfield  could  have 
been  aware  of  its  nature,  but  after  this  exposure  there  can  be  no  decent  pretext  for  continuing  the 
-claim. 

WHAT   GARFIELD  DIDN'T   AND  WHAT  HE  DID  DO. 

Of  course,  after  this  direct  impeachment  of  his  motives — made  with  full  knowl- 
'edge  of  his  connection  with  the  passage  of  the  subsidy  bill  in  June,  1872 — his  re- 
markable conversion  from  an  anti-subsidy  to  a  pro-subsidy  Congressman — Gen. 
Crarfield  at  once  demanded  an  investigation.  Not  by  any  means.  He  did  not  even 
propose  that  that  old  inquiry,  began  away  back  in  February,  1873,  should  be  re- 
vived !    What  did  he  do  ? 

On  December  11,  1874,  Gen.  Garfield  had  the  editorial  article  from  the  Tribv.ne 
read  by  the  clerk  of  the  House  and  made  a  personal  explanation !  In  this  personal 
explanation  he  threw  the  responsibility  for  the  appearance  of  the  $500,000  subsidy 
Item  in  the  Post  OflSce  Appropriation  Bill  upon  a  sub-committee  of  his  committee, 
which  had  been  at  work  during  the  recess  preparing  the  bills.  He  deplored  the 
fact  that  a  great  journal  made  such  a  serious  charge  so  recklessly,  and  said  it  only 
showed  the  facility  with  which  and  on  what  slight  grounds  men  in  public  life  are 
charged  with  unworthy  motives  and  dishonorable  conduct.  Then  he  sat  down. 
He  asked  for  no  investigation.  None  of  his  colleagues  did.  But  Mr.  Irwin 
obeyed  Jay  Gould's  instructions,  and  his  paper,  the  New  York  Tribune,  continued 
to  let  scraps  of  information  about  the  purchase  of  the  subsidy  legislation  in  1872 
find  their  way,  apparently  mysteriously,  into  its  columns. 

FORCED  TO  INVESTIGATE. 

The  fire  grew  so  hot  that  something  had  to  be  done,  and  the  Committee  on 


THE    PACIFIC    MAIL    STEAL.  239 

Ways  and  Means  began  its  long-deferred  inquiry.  They  struck  bare  rock  the 
first  day.  Two  directors  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  were  examined, 
and  they  told  what  the  books  of  the  company  showed— the  expenditure  of  $750,- 
000  of  the  company's  money  by  Mr.  Irwin.  Then  the  committee  went  through 
the  farce  of  asking  the  House  to  order  Irwin's  arrest  on  the  theory  that  he  was  a 
witness  in  contempt,  when  the  truth  was  he  had  never  been  subpoenaed.  This  is 
the  neat  way  Mr.  Irwin  went  for  the  committee  when  brought  before  it : 

Before  the  committee  put  any  questions,  I  should  like  to  make  a  preliminary  statement,  in  order 
to  purge  myself  of  the  allesed  contempt.  There  seems  to  be  two  grounds  for  my  arrest  by  the 
committee— two  grounds  which  formed,  in  the  minds  of  the  committee,  the  basis  for  the  alleged 
contempt.  The  first  was,  that  they  had  once  summoned  me  during  a  prior  session  of  Congress,  and 
had  looked  for  me  and  could  not  find  me.  Now  the  first  information  that  I  received  that  I  had  ever 
been  summoned  was  from  reading  Mr.  Dawes'  speech  in  the  House  the  day  after  it  was  made. 
Until  I  read  that  I  never  knew  that  I  had  been  summoned  at  all. 

The  Chairman  (Mr.  Dawes):  Well,  it  was  not  literally  true  that  you  had  been  summoned,  but 
we  had  tried  to  find  you.    [  What  a  humiliating  confession  I] 

Mr.  Irwin:  I  was  at  my  residence  in  San  Francisco  from  the  4th  of  June,  1872,  until  the  4th  of 
September,  1873.  [The  Ways  and  Means  Committee  was  supposed  to  be  looking  for  him  in  Febru- 
ary^ 1873.]  I  have  lived  in  San  Francisco  since  1869,  and  have  had  no  other  place  of  residence.  I 
was  there  from  June,  1872,  until  September,  1873.  I  merely  state  that  to  show  that  by  remaining 
at  my  place  of  residence  I  could  not  have  been  attempting  to  evade  the  process  of  the  committee. 

*  *  *  Then  the  second  ground  upon  which  the  committee  was  induced  to  believe 
<what  I  could  not  very  easily  be  induced  to  believe)  that  I  was  attempting  to  evade  the  process  of 
the  committee  was  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Sage  that  he  had  liad  me  arrested,  which  assertion  I  may 
just  as  weir  say  here  w^as  not  true.  *  *  *  I  never  was  arrested  bv  anybody 
until  I  was  arrested  by  the  sergeant-at-arms,  under  the  warrant  of  the  House,  and  my  impression 
is  that  I  never  shall  be  arrested  by  anybody  again.  *  *  *  j  arrived  in  New 
York  on  Monday,  November  30,  1874,  and  went  directly  to  the  Hoffman  House,  where  I 
always  stay  in  New  York.  My  name  was  registered  there  and  appeared  in  all  the  news- 
papers. I  then  went  to  my  father-in-law's  place  at  Englewood,  New  Jersey,  leaving  my 
address  at  the  Hoffman  House,  and  remained  there  until  the  following  Friday  morning.  The  fol- 
lowing Friday  morning  I  again  came  down  to  New  York,  and  went  to  tlie  Hoffman  House  again, 
and  my  name  being  again  registered  it  appeared  a  second  time  in  the  newspapers  very  publicly. 
For  instance,  one  of  them  had  it  in  this  way:  "  Speaker  J.  G.  Blaine  and  R.  B.  Irwin  of  San  Fran- 
cisco are  at  the  Hoffman  House."  I  merely  mention  that  my  name  was  announced  in  this  way  to 
8how  how  public  it  was.  Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid,  the  editor  of  the  Tribune,  and  Mr.  L  J.Jennings,  the 
editor  of  the  Times,  were  personally  aware  of  my  address  during  almost  the  whole  of  this  period. 
Everybody  else  in  New  York  that  knew  me,  or  had  any  occasion  to  see  me,  knew  where  I  was. 

*  *  *  Now  I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  satisfy  ihe  committee  that  I  have  made 
no  intentional  attempt  to  evade  its  summons. 

THE  RESULT  OF  THE  INVESTIGATION. 

The  investigation  went  on  in  a  sort  of  way,  and  the  committee  found  out  a 
good  deal  more  than  it  wanted  to  find,  but  not  nearly  so  much  as  the  public 
wanted  and  expected  to  have  found  out. 

All  the  committee  practically  did  find  was  that  Mr.  Irwin  got  $890,000  from 
the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  and  that  he  disposed  of  it  as  follows  : 

Total  paid  to  different  individuals $703,100 

Incidental  expenses,  clerks.  House  expenses,  etc 186,900 

W.  S.  King,  Postmaster  House  of  Representatives,  was  examined  at  the  far- 
cical investigation  by  the  "Ways  and  Means  Committee,  in  the  Forty-second  Con- 
gress, and  swore  he  never  received  a  dollar  or  knew  of  anybody  who  did.  He 
was  not  found  by  the  committee  of  the  Forty-third  Congress.  John  G.  Shumaker, 
member  of  the  Forty-second  Congress,  would  not  account  for  the  money  he 
received. 

In  addition  to  the  money  disbursed,  A.  B.  Stockwell  paid  Col.  Richard  Par- 
sons $12,000  as  fees  and  expenses.  There  was  some  evidence,  and  more  might 
have  been  found  if  it  had  been  looked  for,  showing  that  Parsons  disbursed  a 
great  deal  of  money  for  Stockwell,  independent  of  Irwin.  Whitelaw  Reid  testi- 
fied that  Irwin  told  him  Parsons  distributed  about  $300,000.  Everybody  who 
knows  anything  of  Irwin,  or  of  the  manner  of  doing  business  at  Washington, 
knows  that  the  vast  amount  of  money  he  disbursed  was  not  for  those  who  appear 
to  have  received  it,  save  in  a  few  instances.  At  least  $600,000  of  the  $890,000 
Irwin  disbursed  went  to  members  of  Congress,  and,  in  addition,  probably  $200,000 
was  put  there  also  by  Parsons. 


240  THE    MOTH    SWINDLE. 


THE  MOTH  SWINDLE. 


A  NICE  THING  FOR  GARFIELD' S  FRIENDS. 

Gen.  Garfield,  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Appropriations,  was  always 
superserviceable  to  those  in  authority  or  to  his  friends,  in  advocating  any  and  all 
questionable  jobs  which  they  recommended  or  advocated.  Of  course,  he  was  not 
always  dishonest  in  the  advocacy  of  such  measures.  He  may  have  been  imposed 
upon  sometimes.  The  men  who  used  him  were  greedy  creatures,  and  not  disposed 
to  divide,  unless  they  could  not  succeed  in  any  other  way.  It  has  been  proved 
beyond  doubt  that  in  the  core  of  the  District  of  Columbia  Ring  Gen.  Garfield  was 
rewarded  for  his  services  to  the  men  who  so  shamelessly  plundered  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  and  the  people  of  the  District ;  that  his  zeal  in  that 
service  became  conspicuous  after  he  was  retained  for  DeGolyer  &  McClellan, 
and  by  a  word  spoken  at  a  casual  meeting  between  himself  and  Boss  Shepherd, 
obtained  for  his  clients  a  contract  worth  $700,000.  The  discovery  of  his  con- 
nection with  that  fraud  was  purely  accidental.  Had  not  one  of  the  parties  inter- 
ested, by  purchase  after  the  transaction,  had  a  motive  for  disclosing  the  knowl- 
edge he  acquired,  as  part  of  his  purchase,  in  all  human  probability  the  discredit- 
able disclosure  would  never  have  been  made. 

One  of  the  worst  swindles  he  assisted  in  practicing  upon  the  government  was 
Cowles  &  Brega's  Moth  Preventative  and  Water  Repellant  Process,  for  which,  dur- 
ing four  years  $450,000  was  paid.  According  to  the  account  of  Don  Piatt, 
who  claimed  to  be  chiefly  responsible  for  this  fraud,  one  George  W.  Brega,  in  the 
spring  of  1871,  was  in  Washington  lobbying  in  the  interest  of  a  reciprocity  treaty 
with  Canada  and  the  St.  Croix  land  grant  railroad  job,  proposed  to  get  a  contract 
with  the  war  department  for  one  George  A.  Cowles  of  Philadelphia,  to  treat  army 
clothing,  blankets,  tents  and  material  for  the  same  with  a  patent  process  which 
would  prevent  moths  from  cutting  the  same  and  make  canvass  for  tents  water- 
proof. Piatt  said  that  Brega  was  a  very  disagreeable  sort  of  a.  fellow  in  many 
respects,  but  enthusiastic,  persistent  and  loquacious.  He  had  made  no  progress 
whatever  with  either  the  Quartermaster-General  or  the  Secretary  of  War.  After 
relcutantly  looking  into  the  matter,  Piatt  said  he  was  satisfied  it  was  a  good  thing, 
and  he  undertook  to  remove  the  objections  of  the  obstructing  officials.  Cowles  had 
been  making  tests  and  getting  certificates  as  to  the  efficacy  of  his  process,  and 
Piatt  swears  "  my  appeal  in  his  behalf  on  that  ground  obtained  a  contract  "  The 
first  contract  was  for  $20,000.  The  next  year,  1872-3,  there  was  an  appropria- 
tion in  the  deficiency  bill  for  $50,000,  with  an  addition  of  $150,000  in  the  Army 
Bill.  For  the  following  year,  1873-4,  there  was,  without  any  recommendation 
of  the  Quartermaster-General,  appropriated  "for  preservation  of  clothing  and 
equipage  from  moth  and  mildew,  $200,000,  which  shall  be  available  immedi- 
i^tely."     "  Shall  be  available  immediately"  meant  that  Cowles  &  Co.  need  not  wait 


THE    MOTH    SWINDLE.  241 

till  the  beginning  of  the  fiscal  year,  but  could  draw  the  money  forthwith.     The 
last  appropriation  was  made  for  the  fiscal  year  1874-5,  and  was  for  $30,000. 

In  1872  Captain  C.  A.  Alligood,  the  Quartermaster  in  charge  of  Schuylkill 
Arsenal,  an  honest  and  upright  man,  an  honorable  and  efficient  officer,  examined 
carefully  the  cloth  and  clothing  stored  there,  and  found  that  the  process  was 
worthless  so  far  as  protection  against  moths  was  concerned.  He  was  led  to  naake 
this  examination  by  discovering  accidentally  that  moths  were  cutting  cloth  wMcIa 
had  been  treated  by  Cowles  &  Co.'s  process.  Thereupon  he  had  the  entire  stock 
of  goods  and  clothing  at  that  depot  overhauled,  and  found  that  the  moths, 
worked  as  freely  upon  the  treated  stock  as  upon  that  not  treated.  He  reported! 
these  facts  to  the  Quartermaster-General  October  16,  1872.  All  the  interested! 
parties  were  at  once  informed  of  this  report,  and  forthwith  there  was  a  gathering;, 
in  Washington.  There  was  a  board  of  some  kind  fixed  up  and  a  pretended  ex- 
amination made.  Alligood  was  ready  to  substantiate  by  irrefragible  evidence  the 
facts  stated  in  his  report,  but  no  opportunity  was  given  him.  He  was  forthwith 
ordered  away  from  the  Schuylkill  Arsenal  against  the  protest  of  Simon  Cameron,, 
and  sent  South  where  he  would  not  be  troublesome  to  the  so-called  moth  de- 
stroyers. All  this  was  not  kept  entirely  from  the  public.  Some  of  the  facts . 
leaked  out  and  found  their  way  to  the  press.  There  was  a  good  deal  said  about 
this  particular  swindle,  and  at  the  succeeding  session  of  Congress  the  job  did  not 
get  through  without  opposition.  The  correspondent  of  the  Cincinnati  Com- 
mercial denounced  it  as  a  job ;  spoke  of  Don  Piatt's  connection  with  it,  and  in- 
timated very  plainly  that  Garfield's  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  job  was  not  altogether: 
disinterested.     He  said : 

AN  INDEPENDENT  VIEW  OP  THE  BUSINESS. 
A  thrifty  firm,  sailing  under  ttie  name  of  Cowles  &  Brega,  liave  for  some  time  past  had  a  coir- 
tract  with  the  government  to  apply  a  process,  which  they  own,  to  the  preserving  of  army  clothing, . 
cloth,  etc.,  from  moths.  Ttie  process  does  not  preserve  cloth  from  moths.  It  never  did.  Some  two  • 
or  three  years  ago,  when  it  was  first  decided  to  try  it,  Congress  appropriated  some  fifty  thousand, 
dollars  for  the  purpose,  and  in  the  succeeding  year,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  Not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  process  is  a  failure,  and  so  recognized  by  all  who  have  impartially 
examined  into  its  workings,  the  Quartermaster-General  and  the  Secretary  of  War  have  by  some- 
means  steadily  indorsed  it  and  its  appropriations.  This  last  year  the  firm  came  to  Congress,, 
asking  an  appropriation  in  the  army  bill  of  $300,000  for  the  use  of  their  process  during  the  coming- 
year.  Of  course,  they  went  before  Garfield's  committee.  Don  Piatt  is  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Cowles  &  Brega,  a  silent  partner.  Heretofore,  this  appropriation  has  gone  through  the  committee 
unquestioned,  which  might,  to  a  wicked  man,  seem  to  be  a  singular  thing.  This  j'^ear,  however, 
some  of  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  worthlessness  of  the  process  having  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
members  of  Congress,  word  was  sent  to  the  committee,  and  Cowles  and  Brega  were  compelfed  to. 
appear,  and  show  cause  why  the  appropriation  should  be  made.  Piatt  was  on  hand,  but  quietly 
and  modestly,  making  no  speeches  nor  argument,  but  pulling  such  things  as  he  could  lay  hi*  Bands-, 
on  unostentatiously.  After  a  short  discussion,  a  hurried  and  incomplete  investigation,  in  which-. 
Cowles  and  Brega  alone  had  a  chance  to  be  lieard,  the  committee  decided—"  to  throw  out  the: 
item  and  end  the  ewindle"— by  no  means,  my  friends!  They  decided  to  reduce  the  item  one-third.. 
and  instead  of  giving  the  concern  $300,000,  as  was  asked,  they  gave  $200,000.  Of  course,  ^ae>.. 
Piatt,  who  is  virtuous,  had  no  motive  for  keeping  on  the  right  side  of  the  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee, who  was  to  pass  upon  the  merits  of  his  firm's  contracts.  No  more  had  Garfield,  tboii^k 
rather  needing  newspapers  friends,  any  motive  other  than  the  best  in  the  world  for  passing  favosa- 
bly  upon  such  a  contract  when  he  knew  it  was  very  doubtful  in  its  nature.  No  I  Such  things  may 
not  be,  and  overcome  us  like  a  summer's  cloud. 

WHO  CALLED  A  HALT  AND  WHY? 

This  so-called  moth-preventing  and  water-repelling  business  went  along  swim- 
ingly  until  one  day  Don  Piatt  found  out  that  he  wasn't  getting  what  he  consid- 
ered was  his  fair  share  of  the  stealings.  The  firm  of  Fant,  Washington  &  Co., 
bankers,  Washington,  D.  C,  drew  the  money  for  Cowles  &  Brega,  placed  Piatt's 
share  to  his  credit  on  their  books  and  remitted  the  balance  to  Cowjes  &  Co.,  as; 
per  their  orders.  Piatt  appears  to  have  had  a  good  deal  of  this  sort  of  thing  to 
attend  to,  besides  running  a  Sunday  newspaper,  and  paid  no  attention  to  his  divi- 
dends other  than  to  check  against  his  account  at  Fant,  Washington  &  Co's. 
He  supposed  he  was  drawing  about  $10,000  a  year  from  the  business,  and  thought 


242  THE    MOTH    SWINDLE. 

'that  was  about  all  lie  was  entitled  to.  One  day,  however,  in  conversation  with 
Mr.  Fant  he  learned,  very  much  to  his  surprise,  that  he  was  entitled,  as  he  be- 
lieved, to  a  good  deal  more.  He  was  getting  10  per  cent,  of  Cowles  &  Brega's 
individual  shares,  which  was  5  or  6  per  cent,  of  the  gross  appropriations,  but  he 
swore  he  was  entitled  to  15  per  cent,  of  the  whole  amount.  He  demanded  that 
^  of  Cowles,  who  wouldn't  come  down,  whereupon  Piatt  did  two  things.  He  wrote 
immediately  to  Gen.  Garfield,  telling  him  to  telegraph  to  Belknap,  Secretary  of 
War,  and  he  went  to  Belknap  and  told  him  the  whole  business  was  a  beastly  cor- 
rupt business,  and  Cowles  &  Co.  must  not  have  another  dollar.  Of  course,  Piatt 
was  virtuous. '  He  asserted  that  Cowles  told  him  that  there  was  a  thing  or  two 
about  the  business  which  he  would  not  impart  to  another  human  being  except 
Brega,  and,  therefore,  he  could  not  render  Piatt  an  account  of  their  profits.  This 
was  in  August,  1874,  and  there  were  only  $30,000  to  be  drawn  that  year  by  Cowles 
i&  Co.  The  job  was  petering  out.  It  was  not  likely  that  the  swindle  could  be 
successful  another  year.  The  Credit  Mobilier  exposure  had  made  Congressmen  a 
little  merry,  and  the  correspondents  at  Washington  were  firing  a  round  shot  every 
once  and  a  while  at  the  moth  fraud.  It  was  rather  a  cheap  way,  therefore,  of 
being  virtuous — going  to  the  secretary  and  warning  him  not  to  pay  Cowles  &  Co. 
>any  more  money. 

GARFIELD'S  COERESPONDENCE  WITH  BELKNAP. 

Belknap  notified  Cowles  &  Co  of  the  charges  preferred  against  them,  and  tem- 
porarily suspended  their  operations.  Gen.  Garfield,  by  Piatt's  instructions,  im- 
mediately telegraphed  Belknap  as  follows  .: 

Little  Mountain,  Ohio,  Aug.  7th,  1874. 


Hon.  W.  W.  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War  : 

I  hope  you  will  stand  firmly  by  your  order,  suspending  further  work  by  Uowles  &  Brega. 

J.  A.  GARFIELD. 

To  which  Belknap  replied: 

War  Department,  Washington,  D.  C,  Aug.  8th,  1874. 
Hon.  J.  A.  Garfield,  Little  Mountain,  Ohio  : 

On  an  intimation  from  one  of  the  parties  supposed  to  be  interested  in  the  process  that  there  was 
a  fraud  therein,  I  ordered  that  no  more  payments  should  be  made  at  present.  Verbal  notice  of  ap- 
peal for  reconsideration  of  that  decision  has  been  given  me.  If  you  desire  me  to  stand  by  that 
decision,  please  give  me  such  facts  as  will  enable  me  to  do  so.  H.  W.  BELKNAP, 

Secretary  of  War. 

Gen.  Garfield,  on  August  24th,  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Belknap: 

Littlk  Mountain,  Ohio,  Aug.  24th,  1880. 
ZDear  Sir :  I  owe  you  an  apology  for  so  long  neglecting  to  answer  ^our  request  of  the  8th  in- 
stant, in  reference  to  subject  matter  of  my  telegram  of  that  date. 

The  ground  on  which  I  recommend  you  to  stand  firmly  by  your  order  suspending  work  of 
Cowles  &  Brega  was  this:  I  heard  that  tliese  men  alleged  that  they  paid  money  to  procure  the  ap- 
propriation for  treating  army  clothing  by  their  process.  If  their  statement  be  true  they  ought  not 
to  be  paid  a  dollar  out  of  the  treasury  for  any  purpose.  If  it  be  false,  they  are  slanderers  of  the 
government,  and  ought  not  to  receive  any  of  its  favors.  I  don't  believe  that  they  paid  anything 
xor  any  such  purpose.  If  they  had  not  said  so,  I  would  withdraw  my  telej'ram;  but  if  they  have 
Tsaid  so,  I  am  in  favor  of  making  them  prove  what  they  have  said.  This  is  all  I  know  on  the  subject. 
If  you  have  any  further  intelligence  on  the  subject,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  know  it. 

Very  truly  yours,  J.  A.  GARFIELD. 

Hon.  W.  W.  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War. 

War  Department,  Sept.  8th,  1874. 

Bear  General:  1  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  Aug.  24th,  rela- 
tive to  the  Cowles  &  Brega  preserving  process,  in  which  you  state  that  you  heard  that  these  men 
alleged  that  they  paid  money  to  procure  an  appropriation  for  the  preserving  of  army  clothing 
by  their  process. 

Since  that  letter  was  received  I  have  examined  into  this  matter,  and  Messrs.  Cowles  &  Brega 
have  filed  an  affidavit  denying  that  they  have  made  any  such  statement.  I  therefore  revoked  my 
former  order,*.and  substituted  the  following  in  its  stead:  "  Respectfully  returned  to  the  Quarter- 
master-General. The  order  of  the  20th  of  July,  directing  '  that  no  more  money  be  paid  from  old 
or  new  appropriations  on  account  of  what  is  known  as  the  Cowles  process  for  preservation  of 
cloth,  &c.,  until  further  orders,  is  hereby  revoked,  and  the  Quartermaster-General  is  directed  to 
select  three  officers  of  his  department  to  comprise  a  board  for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  all  the 
materials  at  the  Schuylkill  Arsenal  which  have  been  treated  by  the  process  above  named;  report  to 
be  made  as  to  the  condition  of  such  materials,  and  whether  the  benefits  claimed  for  this  process 
have  been  fulllUed  with  respect  thereto.    Iso  further  payments  to  be  made  or  work  done  in  the  va- 


THE    MOTH    SWINDLE.  243 

rioas preserving  processes  till  the  results  of  the  report  of  the  board  are  made  known.     These 
papers  to  be  returned  as  soon  as  practicable."  Yours  truly, 

W.  W.  BELKNAP,  Secretary  of  War. 
Gkn.  Jambs  A.  Garfield,  Little  Mountain,  Ohio. 

Don  Piatt  swore  that  he  did  not  tell  Gen.  Garfield  that  Cowles  &  Brega  told 
him  "  that  money  had  been  expended  to  procure  appropriations." 

Q.  You  stated  to  Gen.  Garfield  just  what  Mr.  Cowles  had  told  you  ?    A.  I  think  so. 

Cowles  &  Co.,  in  their  affidavit  that  Belknap  mentions  in  his  letter  to  Gen.  Gar- 
field, say  that  Don  Piatt  made  his  demand  "  for  money  beyond  what  he  had  re- 
ceived," June  28,  1874.     Of  Gen.  Garfield's  telegram  they  say  : 

"  As  to  Gen.  Garfield's  telegram,  it  contains  no  evidence  whatever,  and  we  can 
prove  that  on  the  16tli  or  17th  of  July  last  Mr.  Cowles  heard  that  Mr.  Don  Piatt 
stated  he  (Piatt)  had  telegraphed  to  Gen.  Gai-field  to  telegraph  the  Secretary  of 
War  to  suspend  our  work.  Gen  Garfield's  telegram  is  dated  the  7th  of  August. 
It  is  evident  that  Gen.  Garfield  acted  under  the  misrepresentations  of  Mr.  Don 
Piatt." 

Capt.  C.  A.  Alligood,  when  on  his  way  South,  where  he  was  ordered  after  his 
removal  from  the  Schuylkill  Arsenal,  stopped  in  Washington  and  called  upon  Don 
Piatt,  and  told  him  all  the  particulars  of  his  removal  and  the  real  character  of  the 
frauds  practiced  by  Cowles  &  Brega,  and  the  utter  worthlessness  of  their  process. 
This  circumstance  Don  Piatt  admits  in  his  evidence  before  the  Clymer  commit- 
tee, but  he  suppressed  the  important  facts  Capt.  Alligood  told  him.  This  was  in 
the  Summer  of  1872.  Mr.  Piatt  did  not  call  upon  the  Secretary  of  War  then  and 
denounce  Cowles  &  Brega,  and  have  justice  done  to  a  worthy  officer,  who  was 
being  persecuted  for  his  fidelity  to  the  interest  of  his  government. 

THE  PROFITS  AND  WHERE  THEY  WENT. 

Mr.  H.  G.  Fant,  of  the  firm  of  Fant,  Washington  &  Co.,  the  bankers,  and 
Cowles  &  Co.,  produced  their  account  to  show  the  money  they  had  received  from 
the  government  through  his  house. 

Amount  collected  by  Fant,  Washington  cfc  Co.,  agents  of  G.  A.  Cowles  &  Co.,  between  February 
or  March,  1872,  to  July  or  August,  1874. 
From  the  Army,  Navy  and  Ordinance  Department,  $403,875.00,  distributed  as  follows: 

G.  A.  Cowles  &  Co.,  manager,  expense  account $41,374.18 

G.  A.  Cowles  &  Co.,  army  account 63,525.10 

G.  A.  Cowles  &  Co.,  individual  account 92,570.99 

George    W.  Breea,  individual  account. 92,570.99 

L.  H.  Bacon,  of  Hartford,  Conn 57,934.26 

Victor   Vicrow,  of  Philadelphia 28,967.13 

Donn   Piatt 22,934.35 

Commissions  to  Fant,  Washington  &  Co.,  per  cent 3,998.00 

Making  the  total  amount  received  from  the  government $403,875.00 

According  to  this  distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  this  robbery  of  the  government 
the  profits  were,  allowing  the  army  account  to  be  really  legitimate  expense,  $29S,- 
975,72.  If  the  army  account  was  illegitimate,  as  would  appear  by  the  face  of 
Fant,  Washington  &  Co.'s  books  the  profits  were  $362,500.82. 

Mr.  Fant  could  give  no  explanation  of  this  account.  It  was  their  duty  as  agents 
to  simply  collect  the  money  and  forward  it  in  checks  on  New  York,  and  charge 
them  to  different  items,  as  per  the  direction  of  Cowles  &  Co.  The  committee  did 
not  seek  to  unravel  this  mystery  beyond  the  inquiries  put  to  Fant.  The  object 
of  this  investigation  was  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  $39,040.17  was  illegally  paid 
to  George  A.  Cowles  &  Co.  by  the  order  of  Rufus  Ingalls,  then  Quartermaster- 
General.  They  reached  the  conclusion  that  it  had  been,  upon  an  opinion  of 
Attorney-General  Pierrepont,  who  therefore  divided  the  responsibility  of  the  vio- 
lation of  law  with  the  Quartermaster-General  and  Secretary  of  War. 


244         GENERAL  GARFIELD  AND  THE  LABORING  MEN, 


GEN.  GAEFIELD  &  THE  LABORmG  MEN. 


A  great  parade  has  been  made  in  all  the  political  biographies  of  Gen.  Garfield 
of  the  fact  that  he  was  born  in  humble  circumstances  and  that  in  his  youth  he 
drove  mules  on  the  tow  path  of  a  canal.  But  his  record  as  a  friend  of  the  class 
with  whom  he  associated  in  his  youth  is  not  refeiTed  to  by  his  biographers. 
They  deal  in  glittering  generalities.  They  know  his  acts  are  not  in  accordance 
with  their  encomiums.  In  his  exalted  station  he  has  become  the  friend,  the 
champion,  the  beneficiary  of  every  monster  corporation  like  the  Credit  Mobilier 
of  America,  which  stole  $50,000,000  from  the  People's  Treasury  in  building  the 
Union  Pacific  Railroad  ;  like  the  Six  Chinese  Companies  of  San  Francisco,  that 
fattens  at  the  expense  of  Free  American  Labor  ;  like  the  Cobden  Free  Trade 
League  of  England,  of  which  he  is  an  honorary  member. 

In  the  Forty-third  Congress,  when  Mr.  Garfield  was  Chairman  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  Appropriations  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  he  brought  in  the  Sundry 
Civil  Bill  with  a  clause  cutting  down  the  wages,  of  the  printers  who  work  in  the 
Government  Printing  OflSce.  Gen.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut,  moved  to  strike  out 
this  clause,  reducing  the  compensation  of  skilled  mechanics.  Gen.  Garfield 
insisted  that  the  printers  in  the  government  employ  were  overpaid — that  they 
received  more  and  better  pay  than  they  were  entitled  to.  At  the  close  of  the  next 
session  of  Congress  he  engineered  through  an  amendment  to  the  Legislative, 
Executive  and  Judicial  Appropriation  Bill  which  not  only  increased  his  own  pay, 
but  extended  it  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  Congress.  In  the  discussion  of  the 
clause  reducing  the  printers'  wages  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler,  of  Massachusetts,  took  the 
floor  and  said  that  when  Congress  would  go  to  work  and  reduce  the  interest  on 
the  Government  Bonds,  that  only  cost  38  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  by  intervening 
legislation  of  Congress  had  been  raised  to  the  value  of  $1.16,  he  would  be  willing 
to  consider  a  proposition  to  reduce  the  wages  of  laboring  men.  Capitalists  could 
always  come  to  Congress  and  secure  legislation  to  protect  their  interests,  and  so 
long  as  this  continued  he  was  in  favor  of  the  mechanical  and  laboring  classes  or- 
ganizing to  protect  their  interests. 

Gen.  Garfield  contended  that  Congress  had  the  right  to  make  the  wages  of  the 
printers  whatever  it  saw  fit.  No  one  denied  the  powe?'  of  Congress  to  legislate 
against  the  employees  of  the  Government  Printing  Office.  It  was  the  equity  of 
the  thing  for  which  Gen.  Butler  and  others  contended.  Gen.  Hawley,  of  Con- 
necticut, insisted  that  the  wages  paid  printers  in  "Washington  were  not  too  high. 
Gen.  Garfield  admitted  that  the  printers  in  the  Government  Office  did  more  night 
work,  and  that  their  employment  was  more  irregular  than  in  outside  printing  of- 
fices ;  that  the  cost  of  living  in  Washington  was  higher  than  elsewhere,  but  still  he 
contended  that  these  workmen  ought  not  to  be  paid  more  than  printers  elsewhere 
received.  On  the  motion  to  strike  out  this  clause  reducing  the  printers'  wages 
Gen.  Garfield  voted  no— {see  Congressional  Record  43(f  Cong.,  \st  Sess.,  pp.  4877-8- 
80-81.) 


SOME    OF    GENERAL    GAKFIELD's    VOTEB.  '24(i 


SOME  OF  GENERAL  GARFIELD'S  VOTES. 


Below  are  given  some  of  the  votes  cast  by  General  James  A.  Garfield  since  he 
became  a  member  of  Congress.  They  embrace  votes  on  the  most  important 
topics.  It  will  be  found  that  he  invariably  voted  for  all  land  grants  and  subsidies 
and  in  favor  of  all  monopolies,  while  he  at  the  same  time  voted  against  giving 
soldiers  160  acres  of  land. 

Besides  the  votes  given  below  he  voted  generally  against  Democratic  investiga- 
tions ;  against  reductions  of  the  army,  and  in  favor  of  the  largest  appropriations 
for  all  purposes. 

RAILROAD  LAND  GRANTS. 

May  16, 1864.— The  Northern  Pacific  Land  Grant  Biirwas  under  consideration,  and  Mr.  Holman 
moved  an  amendment  requiring  the  road  to  transport  the  troops  and  property  of  the  United  States 
free  of  charge.  Mr.  Garfield  voted  against  the  amendment  {Globe,  parts,  Utsess.  38th  Cong., 
p.  2291). 

The  bill  was  rejected  the  same  day.    Garfield,  however,  voted  for  it  (Ibid.,  p.  2297). 
May  31st.— A  bill  of  the  same  character  was  called  up,  and  this  time  it  passed,  Garfield  voting  for 
it  Ubid.,  p.  2612). 

February  17th,  1865.— General  Garfield  voted  in  the  interest  of  a  bill  to  extend  the  time  for  the 
completion  of  certain  land  grant  railroads  in  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  {GM>e,part2,2d  sess.  38th 
Cong.,  p.  873). 

March  3d,  1865.— Garfield  voted  to  suspend  the  rules  and  take  up  a  bill  to  extend  the  time  for  the 
completion  of  certain  land  grant  railroads  in  Minnesota,  and  the  bill  passed  (Ibid,  p.  1410). 

July  5th,  1866. — A  bill  was  considered  which  proposed  to  amend  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Act  in 
such  a  way  as  to  give  enlarged  powers  to  the  grant  of  land  previously  made.  Mr.  Garfield  is 
recorded  in  favor  of  it  (Globe,  part4,  Ut  sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  3589). 

July  26,  1866.— Garfield  voted  for  a  bill  granting  lands  to  aid  in  the  construction  of  a  railroad  and 
telegraph  line  from  the  states  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas  to  the  Pacific  Coast  ( Globe,  part  5,  Ist  sess. 
39th  Cong.,  p,  4183). 

March  2,  1867.— A  bill  to  grant  land  for  the  construction  of  the  Stockton  and  Copperopolis  Rail- 
road, in  California,  was  passed.     Garfield  voted  for  it  (Ibid.,  2d  sess.,  p.  1769). 

January  15th,  1868.— The  bill  to  extend  the  time  for  the  completion  of  the  Dubuque  and  Sioux  City 
Railroad  was  taken  up.  It  proposed  to  take  away  five  or  six  hundred  thousand  acres  of  the  public 
lands.  With  a  view  of  stopping  the  steal,  E.  B.  Washburne  made  a  point  of  order  against  it.  The 
Speaker  overruled  the  point  of  order,  and  Garfield  voted  to  sustain  the  decision  of  the  chair  (Globe, 
part  1,  2d  sess.  40th  Cong,  p.  544). 

The  bill  was  not  disposed  of  on  that  occasion.  It  came  up  the  next  day  and  Garfield  voted  for  it 
at  every  stage,  and  imtil  it  was  finally  passed  (Ibid.,  p.  571). 

January  18,  1869.— An  attempt  was  made  by  Mr.  Holman  to  commit  the  House  against  the  policy 
of  granting  public  lands  to  railroads  and  other  corporations,  and  declaring  that  such  lands  should 
be  reserved  for  actual  settlers.  Garfield  voted  agamst  the  resolutions,  and  his  vote  helped  to  lay  it 
on  the  table  (Globe,  part  1,  3d  sess.,  40th  Cong.,  pp.  424-5). 

February  22,  1869.— Garfield  voted  for  the  bill  granting  the  right  of  way  to  the  Memphis,  El  Paso 
&  Pacific  Railroad  Company  from  El  Paso  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  (Ibid.,  part  2,  p.  1444). 

April  9th,  1869.— A  proposition  was  pending  to  extend  the  time  for  the  completion  of  the  first 
twenty  miles  of  the  Little  Rock  and  Fort  Smith  Railroad— a  land  grant  road.  Garfield  helped  by 
his  vote  to  pass  it,  with  an  amendment  for  the  benefit  of  the  Memphis  &  El  Paso  Road  (Globe,  1st 
sess.,  41st  Cong.,  p.  702). 

The  bill  came  from  the  Senate  on  March  4th,  1870,  with  sundry  amendments,  and  Garfield  again 
voted  to  put  it  through  (Globe,  part  2,  2d  sess.  41st  Cong.,  p.  1699). 

May  25, 1870.— The  House  having  under  consideration  a  Senate  bill  to  authorize  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  to  issue  its  bonds  for  the  construction  of  its  road,  an  amendment  was  offered  that 
the  lands  granted  said  company  should  be  sold  to  actual  settlers  only,  in  quantities  not  greater  than 
160  acres  to  any  one  person,  and  at  a  price  not  exceeding  $2.50  per  acre.  General  Garfield  voted 
against  it.  Then  the  same  amendment  was  put  in  another  form,  and  he  voted  against  that  also 
(Globe,  part  5,  2d  sess.  41st  Cong.,  pp.  3797-8). 

The  next  day,  May  25th,  he  voted  against  a  like  amendment.  He  also  voted  against  an  amend- 
ment declaring  that  nothing  in  the  act  should  be  construed  as  a  guarantee  by  the  United  States  of 
the  bonds  issued  by  said  company  or  its  agents.  Then  other  efforts  were  made  to  fix  the  price  at 
which  the  lands  should  be  sold,  and  Garfield  voted  steadily  against  all  of  them.    He  also  voted 


246 

against  the  following  propositions :  that  any  railroad  authorized  to  be  built  by  competent  state  or 
national  authority,  whose  line  of  road  intersects  that  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Company,  should 
have  the  right  of  way  to  the  extent  of  200  feet  in  width,  with  necessary  grounds  for  depot  purposes, 
over  and  across  the  lands  of  said  company,  free  of  charge;  that  the  company  should  be  required  to 
report  annually  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior;  that  the  United  States  should  have  the  right  at  all 
times  to  take  possession  of  and  own  the  road  of  said  company,  and  all  its  appurtenances,  on  pay- 
ing the  actual  and  legitimate  cost  thereof,  etc.  After  voting  against  these  and  other  proper  amend- 
ments, nearly  all  of  which  were  defeated,  he  finally  voted  for  the  bill  {Ibid.,  pp.  3850  to  53), 

July  12,  1870.— On  a  motion  to  take  up  and  consider  the  bill  extending  the  time  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  St.  Croix  &  Bayfield  Railroad,  Mr.  Garfield  voted  to  take  it  up,  and  resisted  all  attempts 
to  defeat  it  {Globe,  part  6,  2d  sess.  Alst  Cong.,  p.  5469). 

February  21,  1871.— Garfield  voted  for  a  grant  of  land  in  aid  of  the  construction  of  the  Texas  Pa- 
cific Railway  {Globe,  part  2,  Zd  sess.  A\st  Cong.,  p.  1473). 

February  29,  1872.— The  St.  Croix  and  Bayfield  Railroad  land  grant  was  brought  up  again,  it  hav- 
ing failed  in  the  previous  Congress.  Mr.  Holman  wanted  to  recommit  it  with  such  mstructions 
as  to  compel  the  reporting  of  a  bill  which  would  better  protect  the  interests  of  the  government ; 
to  limit  the  land  gi-ant  and  to  prevent  any  of  the  lands  enuring  to  the  benefit  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railroad.  The  bill  was  referred  with  the  instructions,  but  in  spite  of  Mr.  Garfield  for  he  voted 
against  the  motion  {Globe,  part  2,  2d  sess.  42d  Cong.,  p.  1313). 

April  18th,  1872.— The  bill  to  incorporate  the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  Colorado  River  Railroad  Com- 

{)any,  and  making  a  grant  of  land  thereto  was  taken  up.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  against  a  motion  to 
ay  the  bill  on  the  table  and  it  was  then  passed  {Ibid.,  part  3,  p.  2547). 

It  will  be  observed  that  he  voted  generally  in  favor  of  landgrants.     "When  the 

Democrats  came  into  power  they  stopped  that  sort  of  legislation  and  adopted  the 

following  resolution,  which  Garfield  voted  for,  after  he  saw  that  no  more  land 

legislation  was  to  be  had. 

December  15th,  1875.— Sesolved,  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  House,  in  the  present  condition  of 
the  financial  affairs  of  the  government  no  subsidies  in  money,  bonds,  public  lands,  indorsements 
or  by  pledge  of  the  public  credit,  should  be  granted  by  Congress  to  associations  or  corporations  en- 
gaged, or  proposing  to  engage,  in  public  or  private  enterprises,  and  that  all  appropriations  from  the 
public  treasury  ought  to  be  limited  at  this  time  to  such  amounts  only  as  shall  be  imperatively  de- 
manded by  the  public  service  {Record  vol.  4,  part  1, 1st  sess.  4Ath  Cong.,  p.  227), 

He  voted  for  a  similar  resolution  in  45th  Congress  {Record,  wl.  7.  part  1,  2d  sess. 

45th  Cong.,  p.  626). 

OTHER  LAND  GRANTS. 

February  14th,  1865.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  for  a  bill  donating  public  land  for  the  construction- 
of  a  ship  canal  at  the  head  of  the  Sturgeon  Bay,  Wisconsin  {Globe,  part  1,  2d  sess.  38  Cong.,  p.  795). 

March  1st,  1865.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  for  a  bill  granting  land  to  the  state  of  Michigan,  to  aid  in 
building  a  harbor  and  ship  canal  at  Portage  lake,  Lake  Superior  {Globe,  pari  2,  2d  sess.  48th,  Cong.y. 
p.  1263). 

April  2d,  1866.— The  bill  granting  a  donation  of  two  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  (which 
failed  in  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress),  for  the  Sturgeon  Bay  Canal  came  up  again  and,  Garfield  true 
to  his  instincts  in  favor  of  land  grants  voted  for  it  {Globe,  part2, 1st.  sess.  2QthCong.,  p.  1727). 

TAX  ON  DISTILLED  SPIRITS,   ETC.  —  VOTES  IN  THE  INTEREST   OF   THE  WHISKEY 

RING. 

March  3,  1864.— A  report  of  a  conference  committee  on  an  internal,  revenue  bill  was  under  con- 
sideration in  the  House.  The  point  in  controversy  was  as  to  the  propriety  of  taxing  the  stock  on 
hand.  The  House  said  it  should  be  taxed,  and  the  Senate  said  it  should  not.  Garfield  voted  that 
the  House  should  recede  from  its  position,  and  thus  concur  in  the  Senate  amendment  {Globe,  part 
1,  1st  sess.  dStfi  Cong). 

April  28,  1864.— Garfield  voted  against  another  proposition  to  tax  the  stock  on  hand  {Ibid,  part  2,. 
p.  1963). 

December  19,  1864.— He  voted  to  strike  out  a  section  of  a  revenue  bill  which  taxed  spirits  on 
hand  50  cents  per  gallon  ( Globe,  part  1,  2d  sess.  38ih  Cong.,  p.  68). 

January  30,  1878.— A  bill  was  pending  in  relation  to  the  tax  on  distilled  spirits.  Gentlemen  wha 
knew  most  about  it  demonstrated  that  a  reduction  of  the  tax  would  be  of  great  advantage  to  the 
revenues  of  the  country.  An  amendment  was  offered,  declaring  that  a  reduction  of  the  tax  was 
inexpedient.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  for  the  amendment  {Record,  vol.  7,  part  1,  2d  sess.  45th  Cong.,  p. 
681). 

June  17,  1878.— A  bill  to  amend  the  laws  relating  to  internal  revenue  was  passed.  It  was  of  de- 
cided advantage  to  the  government  in  the  matter  of  the  tax  on  distilled  spirits.  Garfield  voted 
against  it  {Ibid.,  part  5,  p.  4770). 

STEAMSHIP   SUBSIDIES. 

April  15,  1864.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  against  a  motion  to  lay  on  the  table  a  bill  granting  a  subsidy 
of  $150,000  for  mail  service  between  the  United  States  and  Brazil  {Globe  part  2,  1st  sess.  SSthCong., 
p.  1658). 

March  2, 1867.— Garfield  voted  for  a  bill  to  subsidize  a  line  of  steamers  between  the  United  States 
and  the  Hawaiian  Islands  (Globe,  part  3.  2d  sess.,  39th  Cong.,  p.  1781). 

June  10th,  1868.— Gen.  Garfield  voted  for  a  bill  granting  a  subsidy  to  a  line  of  steamships  be- 
tween New  York  and  one  or  more  European  ports  {Globe,  part  3,  2d  sess.  ^th  Cong.,  p.  3033). 

May  21,  1872.— The  Senate  put  an  amendment  on  the  Post-Office  Appropriation  Bill  for  an 
additional  monthly  mail  between  the  United  States  and  China.  Holman  wanted  to  reduce  the 
amount  of  compensation.  Garfield  voted  against  the  proposition.  He  then  voted  for  the  increased 
subsidy  and  additional  service.  On  the  same  day  he  voted  for  the  Brazilian  mail  subsidy  {Globe^ 
part  5,  2d  sess.  42d  Cong.,  p.  3679-80), 


SOME    OF    GENERAL    GARFIELD  S    VOTES.  2477 

February  15,  1875.— On  a  motion  to  suspend  the  rules  and  pass  a  Senate  bill  for  the  relief  of  the 
contractors  for  the  construction  of  yessels  of  war  and  steam  machinery— Secors  and  others,  whose 
claims  were  frauds— Gen.  Garfield  voted  in  the  affirmative  {Recor'd,  part  2,  St?  sess.  Aid  Cong.,  p. 
1292). 

December  15,  1877.— Garfield  voted  against  the  resolution  offered  by  Mr.  Wood  authorizing  cer- 
tain committees  to  make  investigations  of  matters  before  them.  One  of  the  principal  investigations 
proposed  was  that  with  regard  to  frauds  in  the  Navy  Department  {Record,  vol,  7,  part  1,  Ahth  Cong.^ 
2d  sess.,  pp,  243  and  4,  (fee). 

PRINTING  FRAUDS. 

May  16,  1876.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  against  a  resolution  reported  from  the  Committee  on  Printing,, 
directing  the  Speaker  to  transmit  to  the  proper  authorities  the  testimony  taken  by  that  committee 
relating  to  the  Congressional  printer,  to  the  end  that  he  might  be  indicted  and  presented.  By 
voting  against  that  resolution,  Mr.  Garfield  proposed  to  shield  Mr,  Clapp  from  certain  acts  of  mal- 
feasance in  office  which  the  committee  had  found  against  him  (Record,  vol.  4.  part  4, 1st  sess. . 
44th  Cong.,  p.  3118), 

THE   CHOCTAW    CLAIM. 

There  has  been  pending  before  Congress  for  several  years  a  bill  to  pay  the  • 
Choctaw  Indians  the  sum  of  nearly  three  million  dollars  which  they  claim  to  be 
due  them.     As  the  claims  have  nearly  all  passed  into  the  hands  of  speculators  for 
a  merely  nominal  sum,  and  as  the  Indians  would  not  be  benefited  by  the  appro- 
priation to  any  great  extent,  the  claim  was  regarded  as  a  swindle,  and  as  such> 
opposed.     Moreover,  Secretary  Boutwell  reported  that  it  had  been  paid  in  full. . 
In  the  Forty-third  Congress  the  claim  was  attached  to  the  Indian  Appropriation ; 
Bill.     Gen.  Garfield  vote&  for  it  (Record,   vol.  3,  part  1,  2d  sess.  43d!  Gong.,  p. 
617).     On  account  of  this  appropriation  the  bill  was  rejected.     The  next  day 
(January  21st,  1865),  Mr.  Garfield  voted  to  reopen  the  question  (75zd,  J9.  636). 
A  motion  was  then  made  to  recommit  the  bill  to  the  Committee  on  Appropria- 
tions (the  committee  of  which  Garfield  was  cliairman),  with  instructions  to  report 
the  same,  excluding  the  Choctaw  claim.     Garfield  voted  against  the  motion.     He  • 
also  voted  in  favor  of  the  bill,  and  it  was  finally  recommitted  to  the  committee 
of  the  whole  House  {Ibid.,  pp.  637-639). 

The  bill  was  reported  back  again  February  9th,  1875,  but  still  retained  the 
Choctaw  clause,  slightly  modified.  The  clause  was  rejected,  but  not  with  Gar- 
field's aid,  for  he  voted  to  retain  it  {Ibid.,  part  2,  p.  1093). 

January  22,  1877. — The  friends  of  the  claim  changed  their  tactics  a  little- 
Failing  to  get  the  House  to  act  on  the  bill,  they  proposed  to  refer  it  to  the  Court 
of  Claims.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  for  the  reference  {Record,  vol.  5,  part  1,  2d 
8688.,  Uth  Gong.,  p.  812). 

VOTES  AGAINST   SOLDIERS'   INTERESTS. 

April  30,  1864.— The  Army  Appropriation  Bill  being  under  consideration,  Mr,  Holman  offered  an 
amendment  providing  that  after  January  1st,  1864,  the  pay  of  the  private  soldier  of  the  army  shall 
be  $20  per  month.  The  Speaker  ruled  the  amendment  out  of  order  and  Mr.  Holman  appealed  from 
the  decision  of  the  chair.  On  motion  to  lay  the  appeal  on  the  table,  James  A.  Garfield  voted  for 
it,  thereby  declaring  his  opposition  to  an  increase  of  the  private  soldiers' pay  ((?^o66,j9af<  3,  \st 
sess.,  2Sth  Cong.,  p.  1999),  . 

January  6th,  1864.— Mr,  Famsworth  reported  a  bill  from  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  con- 
tinuing the  payment  of  bounties  for  enlistment  from  the  5th  of  January,  1864,  to  the  1st  of  March, 
1865.  The  bill  passed— 112  to  2.  Mr.  Garfield  was  one  of  the  two  voting  no  {Globe,  part  1,  Ist 
sess.,  38th  Cong.,  ]h  110). 

February  18ih,  1865. — A  bill  was  reported  from  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  to  increase  the> 
pay  of  certain  officers  of  the  army.  An  amendment  was  offered  to  make  the  pay  of  private  soldiers 
$20  per  month.  General  Garfield  voted  against  the  amendment.  He  then  moved  that  the  bill  be 
recommitted  and  voted  for  that  motion.  His  motion  prevailed  and  the  bill  was  then  immediately 
reported  back  providing  for  the  officers  but  leaving  the  private  soldiers  out,  arhd  it  was  passed 
{Globe,  jmrt  2,  2d  sess.,  38th  Cong.,  pp.  909  and  910). 

December  12, 1872.— General  Garfield  voted  against  the  bill  allowing  every  private  soldier,  musi- 
cian and  officer  who  served  in  the  army  of  the  United  States  during  the  late  war  for  ninety  days, 
and  was  honorably  discharged,  and  the  widow  or  orphan  of  such  soldier  to  enter  160  acres  of  land 
under  the  homestead  law  {Globe,  part  1,  M  sess.,  42d  Cong.,  p.  167). 

February  8th,  1875.— General  Garfield  voted  against  suspending  the  niles  and  passing  a  bill 
granting  bounties  to  heirs  of  soldiers  who  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  United  States  during  the  > 
late  war  for  a  period  of  less  than  one  year,  and  who  were  killed  or  have  died  by  reason  of  such , 
service  {Record,  vol.  3,  part  2,  2d  sess.,  4M  Cong.,  p.  1068). 

PENSIONS  OF   SOLDIERS  OP   1812. 
July  6th.  1866.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  to  lay  on  the  table  a  bill  granting  pensions  to  soldiers  of  the- 


"248  SOME    OF    GENERAL    GARFIELd'S    VOTES. 

•war  of  1812.     He  then  voted  to  recommit  the  bill,  and  therebv  helped  to  defeat  it  (Globe,  part 
4,  1st  sess.  ZWi  Cong.,  pp.  3928  a»c? 29). 

April  3d,  1876.— A  bill  to  pension  soldiers  of  1812  and  their  surviving  widows  being  under  con- 
sideration, Mr.  Garfield  voted  to  strike  out  a  clause  giving  arrearages  of  pensions  to  widows  whose 
husbands' names  were  dropped  for  alleged  disloyalty  {Becord,  vol.  4,  parts,  1st  sess.  4Ath  Ccmq., 
2).  2167). 

PENSIONS  TO  MEXICAN  SOLDIERS. 

February  25th,  1878.— General  Garfield  was  a  determined  opponent  of  the  bill  to  pension  the  vet- 
•eraneof  the  Mexican  war.  He  voted  at  the  date  above  named  against  amotion  to  go  into  Commit- 
tee of  the  Whole  to  consider  a  bill  to  pension  them  (Beco^^d,  vol.  7,  part  2,  2d  sess.  45th  Cona.,  o, 
1315). 

January  14th,  1879.— He  voted  again  against  going  into  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  bill  (Bec- 
ord, vol.  8,  part  1,  Sd  sess.  45th  Cong.,  p.  443). 

During  that  session  several  other  attempts  were  made  to  get  the  bill  up  and  Garfield  was  always 
recorded  against  it. 

TARIFF. 

June  4th,  1864. — Mr.  Garfield  voted  against  an  amendment  to  the  pending  tariff  bill,  to  admit 
a.ree  of  duty  during  a  period  of  one  year,  any  machinery  designed  for  and  adapted  to  the  manufac- 
ture of  woveh  fabrics  from  the  fiber  of  flax  or  hemp,  «fec.  (Globe,  part  3,1st  sess.  S8th  Cong.,  p. 
;2?50). 

June  27th,  1864.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  for  a  Senate  amendment  to  the  tariff  bill,  fixing  a  duty  of 
■sixty  cents  per  one  hundred  pounds  on  all  iron  imported  in  bars  for  railroads,  and  inclined  planes 
made  to  patterns  and  fitted  to  be  laid  down  on  such  roads  or  planes  ( Globe,  part  4,  1st  sess.  38th 
Oong.,  p.  3S12). 

July  10th,  1866.— A  tariff  bill  being  under  consideration,  Garfield  voted  against  reducing  the  duty 
on  railroad  iron  to  50  cents  per  hundred  pounds  and  then  voted  to  make  it  70  cents  per  hundred 
pounds  (Globe,  part  4,  1st  sess.  S9th  Cong.,  p.  3723). 

December  8tn,  1868.— Garfield  voted  for  a  bill  increasing  the  duty  on  imported  copper  and  cop- 
per ores  (Globe, ])art  1,  8rf  sess.  ^th  Cong.,  p.  15). 

February  8th,  1869. — The  bill  went  back  to  the  House  from  the  Senate  with  the  rates  of  duty 
largely  increased,  and  Garfield  voted  for  the  Senate  amendments  (Ibid  part  2,  p.  960). 

May  23d,  1870.— Garfield  voted  against  a  motion  offered  by  Mr.  Judd,  of  Illinois,  to  suspend  the 
rules  and  pass  a  bill  to  reduce  duties  on  sugar,  molasses,  iron,  etc.  (Globe, part  4,  2d  sess.  41st  Cong., 
p,  3727). 

June  6th,  1870. — An  internal  revenue  bill  being  under  consideration,  Mr.  Schenck  offered  an 
Tamendment  imposing  increased  duties  on  tea,  coffee,  sugar  and  other  necessaries  of  life.  In  fact 
2t  was  a  regular  tariff  bill  injected  into  an  internal  revenue  bill.  Garfield  voted  for  it  (Ibid,  part  5, 
p.  4106). 

June  20th,  1870.— The  House  had  in  the  above  bill  raised  the  duty  on  live  animals  from  20  to  30 
per  cent,  ad  valwefn ,  and  had  so  increased  the  duties  on  potatoes  and  fish  that  they  were  almost  pro- 
hibitory. A  resolution  was  offered  directing  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  to  reduce  the  duties  on 
potatoes  and  fish  50  per  cent.  Garfield  voted  for  its  reference  to  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee 
without  instructions,  and  thus  practically  defeated  it  {Ibid,  p.  4603) 

February  26th,  1872.— A  resolution  declaring  it  to  be  the  judgment  of  the  House  that  the  duty  on 
pjg  iron  should  be  reduced  to  five  dollars  per  ton  or  less,  was  rejected.  Mr.  Garfield  voted  against 
it  (Globe,  part  2,  2d  sess.  42rf  Cong.,  p.  1217). 

DUTY  ON    PRINTING  PAPER. 

January  23,  1865.— Mr.  E.  B.  Washburne  introduced  for  passage  a  joint  resolution  to  reduce  the 
dxity  on  printing  paper  unsized,  used  for  books  and  newspapers  exclusively,  to  three  per  cent,  ad  va- 
9»rein.  Mr.  Garfield  voted  to  lay  the  joint  resolution  on  the  table  ;  he  also  voted  against  ordering 
#4e  main  question  and  fought  it  at  every  stage  down  to  the  final  passage.  He  wanted  the  rate  of 
<laty  put  higher  ( Globe,  pan  1,  2d  sess.  mh  Cong.,  pp.  369  and  370). 

March  3d,  1865.— The  above  bill  was  returned  from  the  Senate  with  an  amendment  increasing 
tbe>  duty  to  15  per  cent.  Garfield  voted  for  that  amendment.  He  also  voted  against  tallying  the  bill, 
which  the  friends  of  cheap  paper  desired  to  do  (Ibid.,  part  2,  p.  1416). 

DUTY    ON  SUGAR. 

Apnl  28,  1864.— An  internal  revenue  bill  being  under  consideration  Mr.  Garfield  voted  for  an 
■junendment  increasing  the  duty  on  sugar  from  one  to  two  cents  per  Tpoxxnd  (Globe,  part  2,  1st 
^segs.28th  Cong.,  p.  1942). 

DUTY  ON  COAL. 

June  6th,  1870.— Mr.  Garfield  voted  against  a  resolution  directing  the  Ways  and  Means  Commit- 
ttee  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment  to  report  a  bill  abolishing  the  duty  on  coal,  was  to  secure 
Chat  important  article  of  fuel  to  the  people  free  from  all  taxation  (Globe,  part  5,  2d  sess.  41st  Cong.. 
p.  4101). 

SPIES  AND   INFORMERS. 

April  Ist,  1872.— A  bill  was  passed  to  dispense  with  informers-  in  the  internal  revenue  service 
den.  Garfield  voted  against  it  (Globe,  part  3,  2d  sess.  '^id  Cong.,  p.  2077). 

SA.N  DOMINGO. 

December  12, 1870.— Mr.  Banks  offered  a  resolution  authorizing  the  President  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission in  regard  to  the  acquisition  of  San  Domingo.  Mr.  Cox  moved  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the 
table.  That  would  have  killed,  at  once,  what  afterwards  turned  out  a  great  scandal.  General  Gar- 
field voted  against  the  motion  to  table  (Globe,  part  1,  M  sess.  41st  Cong.,  p.  66). 

January  9th,  1871.— The  Senate  having  passed  a  joint  resolution  similar  to  the  above,  Mr.  Orth 
moved  to  suspend  the  rules  and  pass  the  Senate  joint  reaolution.  General  Garfield  voted  for  it. 
'The  rules  were  not  suspended,  however.  Then  Orth  reported  back  the  House  bill.  The  opposi- 
tion filibustered  successfully  against  it,  but  finally  Orth  succeeded  in  having  the  Senate  bill  taken 
up  for  consideration,  Mr.  Garfield  voting  in  favor  of  it  all  the  time  (Ibid., pp.  381  and  84). 

January  10th,  1871,  the  joint  resolution  was  passed  with  the  aid  of  Garfield's  vote  (Ibid.,  p.  416). 


SOME    OF    GARFIELD'S    VOTES.  249 

THE  PRANKING  PRIVILEGE. 

Jan'y  20,  1869.— In  a  bill  to  restrict  and  regulate  the  franking  privilege  was  a  clause  prohibiting 
persons  entitled  to  the  privilege  from  receiving  through  the  mails  any  mail  matter  free  of  postage 
except  public  documents  printed  by  order  of  Congress.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  to  strike  that  clause 
from  the  bill  {Globe, part  1,  M  sees.  4^t/i  Cong.,  p.  480). j 

BELLIGERENT  RIGHT  TO  CUBANS. 

January  28th,  1872.— Mr.  Voorhees  offered  a  resolution  to  recognize  the  belligerent  rights  of  the 
Cubans  in  their  war  against  Spain.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  against  it  (Globe,  part  I,  2d  sees.  4M 
Cong.,  p.  685). 

THE   CHINESE  QUESTION. 

March  22d,  1869.— Gen.  Garfield  voted  against  a  resolution  declaring  that  the  Fifteenth  Amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  never  intended  to  confer  the  right  of  suffrage  upon  Chinese  or  Mongoli- 
ans (Globe,  Ut  sess.  41st  Cong.,  p.  202). 

NO  SYMPATHY  FOR  IRELAND. 

March  8th,  1867.— A  resolution  was  offered  extending  the  sympathy  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  the  people  of  Ireland,  in  their  struggle  for  constitutional  liberty.  Gfen.  Garfield  was  one 
of  fourteen  members  who  voted  against  considering  the  resolution,  and  then  voted  to  refer  it  to  a 
committee  (Globe,  Istsess.  4fith  Cong., p.  36). 

MUZZLING  THE  SUPREME  COtlRT. 
In  January,  1868,  the  Kepublicans  became  fearful  that  the  Supreme  Court  would  upset  some  of 
their  unconstitutional  reconstructive  laws,  so  a  bill  was  introduced  to  prevent  it,  by  declaring  what 
should  be  a  quorum,  &c.,  of  the  Court.  It  was  a  virtual  interference  with  the  prerogatives  of  that 
tribunal.  Gen.  Garfield  voted  with  the  bill  at  all  its  stages  (Globe,  part  1,  2d  sess.  4iith  Cong.,  pp. 
476-77  and  78).  '  . 


250  GARFIELD    AGAINST   FREE    SALT. 


GARFIELD  AND  GENERAL  SHIELDS. 


HIS  INGRATITUDE  TO  A  SCARRED  VETERAN  OF  THREE  WARS. 

There  was  a  bill  introduced  in  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  authorizing  the  President 
to  appoint  James  Shields  a  brigadier-general  in  the  United  States  Army,  on  the 
retired  list,  with  rank  and  pay  from  and  after  the  passage  of  the  act.  General 
Shields  was  then  without  means  of  support,  and  so  broken  by  disease  contracted 
in  the  service  of  his  country  in  the  field,  and  so  enfeebled  by  age  and  infirmity 
that  his  Democratic  friends  in  Congress  resolved  to  do  a  last  act  of  simple  justice 
by  placing  him  on  the  retired  list  of  the  army,  and  thus  provide  a  dying  veteran 
with  food  and  shelter.  It  was  an  extreme  case,  and  the  dictates  of  humanity,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  acknowledged  services  of  the  grand  old  hero  during  a  long  and 
brilliant  career  in  the  field,  would  seem  enough  to  justify  any  proper  measure 
of  relief. 

General  Shields  was  then  nearing  his  grave,  dying  only  a  few  months  after- 
wards in  great  poverty.  He  was  not  only  a  soldier  of  honorable  fame,  but  a 
Democratic  statesman  of  great  ability  and  unsullied  patriotism,  having  served  as 
Senator  in  Congress  from  three  different  states  of  the  Union. 

When  the  vote  was  taken  on  a  motion  to  suspend  the  rules  and  pass  this  bill, 
the  yeas  were  112  and  the  nays  55.  To  the  surprise  of  every  lover  of  justice  in. 
that  House  James  A.  Garfield  voted  nay  {see  Cong.  Record,  45th  Cong.,  dd  8688. 
p.  2,387). 


GARFIELD  AGAINST  FREE  SALT. 

MR.    GARFIELD  OPPOSES  THE  REPEAL   OF  THE  DUTY  ON  SALT. 

A  motion  was  made  by  Mr.  Hatch  on  January  13th,  1880,  to  suspend  the  rules 
and  pass  the  following  bill  to  provide  for  the  importation  of  salt  duty  free : 

Be  it  enacted,  <&c.,  That  no  duty  shall  be  levied  or  collected,  directly  or  indirectly,  on  the  im- 
portation of  salt  brought  into  any  port  of  the  United  States;  but  salt,  fine  or  coarse,  in  bulk  or  ia 
Dags,  sacks,  barrels,  or  other  packages,  may  be  imported  free  of  duty. 

Sec.  2.  That  all  laws  or  regulations  of  the  Treasury  Department  in  conflict  with  this  act  be,  and 
the  same  are  hereby,  removed. 

Sec.  3,  That  this  act  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force  from  and  after  its  passage. 

Mr.  Conger  objected  to  its  consideration,  but  the  objection  was  overruled  by 
the  Speaker.  Mr.  Conger  then  moved  to  adjourn,  and  on  that  motion  demanded 
the  yeas  and  nays.  The  vote  being  taken  the  yeas  were  97,  nays  128.  Mr.  Gar- 
field signified  his  opposition  to  the  bill  by  voting  yea. 

The  motion  to  adjourn  having  failed  the  question  occurred  on  the  motion  of 
Mr.  Hatch  to  suspend  the  rules  and  pass  the  bill.  The  yeas  and  nays  being  called 
for  the  question  was  decided  in  the  negative,  yeas  115,  nays  115.  Mr.  Garfield 
being  recorded  among  those  not  voting  {see  Cong.  Record,  January  IZth,  1880, 
p.  18). 

On  the  following  day  Mr.  Garfield  rose  in  his  place  and  said : 

Mr.  Speaker:  I  find  that  in  the  list  of  yeas  and  nays  on  the  Journal,  on  the  motion  yesterday 
to  suspend  the  rules  and  pass  the  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the  duty  on  salt,  I  am  recorded  as  not  voting. 
I  wish  the  correction  to  be  made.    J  voted  against  the  motion. 

So  the  Journal  was  corrected  and  Mr.  Garfield's  vote  was  recorded  in  the 
negative    {Id.  January  14th,  1880,  p.  4). 


GAKFIELD    DENOUNCED    BY    REPUBLICANS    OF    HIS    DISTRICT.        251 


ME.  GARFIELD    DENOUNCED    BY    THE 
REPUBLICANS  OF  HIS  OWN  DISTRICT. 


GEN.  GARFIELD'S  REPUBLICAN  CONSTITUENTS  PASS  JUDGMENT. 

On  the  7tli  of  September,  1876,  the  Republicans  of  the  Nineteenth  Congress- 
ional district  of  Ohio  opposed  to  the  return  of  James  A.  Garfield  to  Congress  met 
in  convention  at  Warren,  Ohio,  and  organized.  A  committee  on  resolutions  was 
appointed,  which,  after  mature  consideration,  submitted  the  following,  which 
was  adopted : 

Be  it  by  this  independent  convention  of  Republicans  of  the  Nineteenth  Congressional  District 
of  Ohio, 

First.  Resolved,  That  dishonesty,  fraud  and  corruption  have  become  so  common,  notorious  and 
obvious  in  the  administration  of  our  national  government,  as  to  be  not  only  humiliating  and  dis- 
graceful in  the  estimation  of  every  honest  and  intelligent  citizen,  but  to  imperil  the  prosperity  of 
the  people,  if  not  the  stability  of  the  government  itself. 

Second.  Resolved,  That  this  deplorable  condition  of  the  administration  of  our  national  gov- 
ernment is  largely  due  to  the  election  to  office  and  continuance  therein  of  corrupt,  dishonest  and 
venal  men. 

Third.  Resolved,  That  it  is  useless  and  hypocritical  for  any  political  party  to  declare  for  reform 
in  its  platforms,  papers  and  public  addresses,  while  it  insists  on  returning  to  high  official  place  and 
power  men  who  have  been  notoriously  connected  with  the  very -schemes  of  fraud  which  render 
reform  necessary  and  urgent ;  that  to  send  those  to  enact  reform  who  themselves  need  reforming 
to  make  them  honest,  is  worse  than  setting  the  blind  to  lead  the  blind. 

Fourth.  Resolved,  That  there  is  no  man  to-day  officially  connected  with  the  administration  of 
our  national  government  against  whom  are  justly  preferred  more  or  graver  charges  of  corruption 
than  are  publicly  made  and  abundantly  sustained  against  James  A.  Garfield,  the  present  represen- 
tative of  this  Congressional  district  and  the  nominee  of  the  Republican  convention  for  re-election. 

Fifth.  Resolved,  That  since  he  first  entered  Congress  to  this  day  there  is  scarcely  an  instance  in 
which  rings  and  monopolies  have  been  arrayed  against  the  interests  of  the  people,  that  he  has  been 
found  active  in  speech  and  vote  upon  the  side  of  the  latter,  but  in  almost  every  case  he  has  been 
the  ready  champion  of  rings  and  monopolies. 

Sixth.  Resolved,  That  we  especially  charge  him  with  venality  and  cowardice  in  permitting  Benja- 
min F.  Butler  to  attach  to  the  Appropriation  bill  of  1873  that  ever-to-be-remembered  infamy,  the 
salary  steal,  and  in  speaking  and  voting  for  that  measure  upon  its  final  passage;;  and  'charge  him 
with  corrupt  disregard  of  the  clearly  expressed  demand  of  his  constituents  that  he  should  vote  for 
its  repeal,  and  with  evading  said  demand  by  voting  for  the  Hutchinson  amendment. 

Seventh.  Resolved,  That  we  further  arraign  and  denounce  him  for  his  corrupt  connection  with 
the  Credit  Mobilier,  for  his  false  denials  thereof  before  his  constituents,  for  his  perjured  denial 
thereof  before  a  committee  of  his  peers  in  Congress,  for  fraud  upon  his  constituents  in  circulating 
among  them  a  pamphlet  purporting  to  set  forth  the  findings  of  said  committee  and  the  evidence 
against  him,  when,  in  fact,  portions  thereof  were  omitted  and  garbled. 

Eighth.  Resolved,  That  we  further  arrai^  and  charge  him  with  corrupt  bribery  in  selling  his 
official  influence  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  to  the  DeGolyer  Pavement  King, 
to  aid  them  in  securing  a  contract  from  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  the  District  of  Columbia; 
selling  his  influence  to  aid  said  ring  in  imposing  upon  the  people  of  said  District  a  pavement  which 
is  almost  worthless  at  a  price  three  times  its  cost,  as  sworn  to  by  one  of  the  contractors;  selling 
his  influence  to  aid  said  Ring  in  procuring  a  contract  to  procure  which  it  corruptly  paid,  $97,000 
"  for  influence;"  selling  his  influence  in  a  matter  that  involved  no  question  of  law,  upon  the  ehallow 

Eretext  that  he  was  acting  as  a  lawyer ;  selling  his  influence  in  a  manner  so  palpable  and  I  clear  as  to 
e  so  found  and  declared  by  an  impartial  andcompetent  Court  upon  an  issue  solemnly  tried. 
Ninth.  Resolved,  That  we  arraign  him  for  the  fradulent  manner  in  which  he  attempted,  in  his 
speech,  delivered  at  Warren,  on  the  19th  day  of  September,  1874,  to  shield  himself  from  just  cen- 
sure in  receiving  the  before-named  $5,000,  by  falsely  representing  in  said  speech  that  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  were  not  responsible  for  the  acts  of  said  board,  nor  the  United  States  liable  for 
the  debts  created  thereby,  when  in  truth  and  in  fact,  as  he  then  well  knew,  the  said  Board  of  Public 
Works  and  the  officers  of  said  District  were  but  the  agents  and  instruments  of  Congress,  and  the 
United  States,  was  responsible  for  the  indebtedness  by  them  created. 

Tenth.  Resdved,  That  we  arraign  him  for  gross  dereliction  of  duty  as  a  member  of  Congress  in 
failing  to  bring  to  light  and  expose  the  corruption  and  abuse  in  the  sale  of  post  traderships,  for 
Which  the  late  Secretary  Belknap  was  impeached,  when  the  same  was  brought  to  his  knowledge  by 


252        GARFIELD    DENOUNCED    BY    REPUBLICANS    OP    HIS    DISTRICT. 

Gen.  Hazen  in  1872,  and  can  only  account  for  it  upon  the  supposition  that  his  manhood  was  de- 
bauched by  the  corruption  funds  then  by  him  just  received  and  in  his  own  purse. 

Eleventh.  Resolved,  That  the  law  of  187.3,  known  as  the  act  demonetizing  silver,  was  enacted  in  the 
interest  of  gold  rings,  bondholders  and  capitalists  and  against  the  interest  of  the  taxpayers  and 
without  their  advice  or  knowledge.  That  this  act,  by  a  single  blow,  has  seriously  crippled  our 
power  to  resume  specie  payments  or  pay  our  national  debt  in  coin.  That  no  sufficient  reason  has 
yet  been  given  for  this  legislation,  so  dishonest  and  palpable  in  its  discrimination  in  favor  of  the 
small  creditor  class  and  capitalists  and  against  the  great  debtor  class  and  the  industrial  interests  of 
the  country.  That  James  A.  Garfield  during  the  last  session  of  Congress  was  the  conspicuous  de- 
fender of  this  crafty  attempt  to  sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  people  to  bondholders  and  foreign  capi- 
talists. That  when  it  was  proposed  to  restore  the  old  silver  dollar  to  the  place  it  had  held  during 
our  history  as  a  nation  as  a  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public  and  private,  he  denounced  the  attempt 
as  "  a  swindle  on  so  grand  a  scale  as  to  make  the  achievement  illustrious  "  and  as  a  "  scheme  of 
vast  rascality  and  colossal  swindling." 

Twelfth.  Resolved.  That  neither  great  ability  and  experience  or  eloquent  partisan  discussion  of 
the  dead  issues  of  the  late  war  will  excuse  or  justify  past  dishonesty  and  corruption  or  answer  as  a 
guaranty  of  integrity  and  purity  for  the  future. 

Thirteenth.  Resolved,  That  believing  the  statements  in  the  foregoing  resolutions  set  forth,  we 
cannot,  without  stultifying  our  manhood  and  debasing  our  self-respect,  support  at  the  polls  the 
nominee  of  the  Republican  convention  of  this  district  for  re-election,  nor  can  we,  without  surrender- 
ing our  rights  as  electors  and  citizens,  sit  silently  by  and  see  a  man  so  unworthy  again  sent  to  repre- 
sent us  in  the  national  legislature.  That  strong  in  the  conviction  of  right,  we  call  upon  the  electors 
of  the  district,  irrespective  of  former  or  present  party  attachment,  who  desire  honest  government, 
to  unite  with  us  in  an  earnest,  faithful  effort  to  defeat  the  re-election  of  Gen.  Garfield,  and  elect  in 
his  stead  an  honest  and  reliable  man. 

The  result  of  this  expose  was  a  majority  for  Mr.  Garfield  of  twenty-nine  hun- 
dred and  ninety-one  votes  less  than  the  head  of  the  Republican  state  ticket  re- 
ceived in  the  Nineteenth  district.  Garfield's  majority  was  3,569  less  in  his  Con- 
gressional district  in  1876  than  Hayes  received  in  it  for  President. 

an  address  to  the  republican  voters  op  the  nineteenth  (ohio)  con- 
gressional district. 

September  10,  1876. 

Fellow  Citizens :  We  who  address  you  were  appointed  a  committee  for  this  pur- 
pose by  an  independent  convention  of  Republicans  assembled  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  in  nomination  a  suitable  person  as  candidate  for  Congress  in  opposition  to 
James  A.  Garfield. 

The  cause  which  impelled  the  calling  of  that  convention  and  inspired  its  action 
are  set  forth  in  the  resolutions  by  it  adopted  and  printed  herewith.  To  the  indict- 
ment contained  in  those  resolutions  and  the  evidence  submitted  in  support  thereof, 
we  respectfully  call  your  attention  and  ask  your  candid  consideration. 

We  have  no  grievances.  We  never  sought  favors  at  Mr.  Garfield's  hands,  and 
have  no  personal  quarrel  with  him.  On  the  contrary  we  have  been  among  his 
warmest  political  friends  and  supporters  and  now  only  attack  his  acts  and  conduct 
in  public  life  and  the  character  he  has  thereby  attained. 

It  is  easier  to  float  with  the  tide  than  to  row  against  it  and  we  regret  the  neces- 
sity that  compels  us  to  denounce  him. 

It  is  fitting  that  as  true  men  we  should  seek  the  cause  and  remedy  for  this  state 
of  ruin  and  we  look  not  far  nor  long.  Corruption  in  office  and  want  of  wisdom 
in  legislation  loom  up  before  us.  We  review  with  pride  our  party  history  and 
achievements,  but  we  now  see  fraud  in  high  places  eating  at  its  vitals.  Its  revenue 
officers  are  found  stealing  and  dividing  with  whisky  rings.  Its  secretaries  sell 
post  traderships.  Its  Congressmen  raise  their  own  salaries  and  make  them  retro- 
active; take  great  fees  for  argument  on  pavement  jobs  before  boards  of  their  own 
creation  and  pocket  the  dividends  of  great  frauds  like  the  Credit  Mobilier.  Cor- 
ruption rides  in  $1,600  landaulets,  purchased  at  government  expense,  and  Con- 
gressmen build  palaces  at  the  Capitol  while  the  people  toil  and  sweat  under  their 
burdens — they  forget  that  they  are  but  the  servants  of  the  nation  and  act  as  if  they 
were  its  owners  seeking  to  wring  from  it  the  greatest  possible  number  of  dollars 
for  their  own  purposes. 

The  Republican  party  has  done  much  to  purify  itself  within  itself.     Its  Whisky 


GARFIELD    DENOUNCED    BY   REPUBLICANS    OF    HIS    DISTRICT.         253 

Ring  Revenue  officers  are  convicted  and  imprisoned,  Belknap  is  deposed  and  im- 
peaclaed  and  only  escapes  conviction  by  a  technicality.  Its  Salary  Stealing, 
Credit  Mobilier,  Pavement  Jobbing  Congressmen  are  mostly  retired.  James  A. 
Garfield  remains.  Richard  C.  Parsons,  his  compeer  as  a  gi-eat  patent  pavement 
lawyer  nominated  without  opposition  in  a  district  Republican  last  year  by  6,500 
majority,  was  buried  at  the  polls  by  Henry  B.  Payne,  a  Democrat,  by  3,500 
majority.  The  office-holders  nominated  him,  but  the  brave,  honest  people  rebuked 
them. 

James  A.  Garfield  fell  from  10,935  majority  in  1873  to  3,536  majority  in  1874. 
"  Oh,  what  a  fall  was  there,  my  countrymen  ! "  Rebuked,  shorn  of  character  for 
truth  and  integrity,  all  that  is  noble  in  manhood  almost  defeated,  he  stands  a  sad 
and  blackened  monument  of  avarice  and  greed. 

By  the  arts  of  the  orator  and  demagogue,  of  which  he  is  a  consummate  master, 
he  is  striving  and  struggling  and  may  postpone  the  day  of  his  final  doom,  but  he 
bears  upon  his  front  the  writing  on  the  wall  "mene,  mene,  tekel  upharsin." 

"Whom  the  gods  would  destroy  they  first  make  mad." 

Forgetting  his  duty  to  his  country  and  his  constituents,  in  his  haste  to  serve  his 
bond-holding  masters,  on  the  13th  of  July,  1876,  he  committed  himself  to  the  de- 
fense of  that  great  fraud  upon  the  people,  the  demonetization  of  the  silver  dollar, 
and  denounced  its  restoration  as  a  "swindle  on  so  vast  a  scale  as  to  make  the 
achievement  illustrious, " 

That  speech,  so  weak  in  its  logic  and  so  damning  in  its  political  heresies,  and  so 
ruinous  to  the  high  pretensions  of  statesmanship  of  its  author,  is  suppressed  by  the 
Republican  editors  of  his  district  and  is  only  to  be  found  in  the  Congressional  Rec- 
ord. Holding  post-offices  and  places  of  emolument  at  his  will,  they  dare  to  raise 
their  voices  only  in  his  praise. 

If  the  Republican  party  would  survive,  it  must  strike  from  its  rolls  the  last  dis- 
honored name  and  select  only  honest,  true  and  brave  men  to  fill  its  high  places. 

Flaming  oratory  upon  the  horrors  of  Andersonville  and  Libby,  and  the  disor- 
dered condition  of  the  South,  are  a  poor  compensation  for  want  of  integrity.  The 
fools  who  believe  that  another  great  rebellion  or  pajmaent  of  the  rebel  debt  are  im- 
minent, are  only  found  in  the  post-offices  and  lunatic  asylums.  The  people  know 
better,  and  that  cry  of  the  demagogue  to  arouse  their  fears,  that  he  may  get  their 
votes,  ought  to  be  of  no  avail. 

G.    N.    TUTTLE, 
P.   BOSWORTH, 

H.  H.  HiNE,  of  Lake  county. 
J.  A.  GiDDiNGs,  of  Ashtabula. 
D.  E.  DuRFEE,  of  Geauga. 
L.  D.  Brown,  of  Portage. 
A.  YouMANS,  of  Trumbull. 


254        GAKFIELD    AGAINST   THE    SHIPBUILDERS    OF    NEW    ENGLAND. 


GARFIELD  AGAINST  THE  SHIPBUILDERS 
OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


^ REVIVAL  OF  OUR  COMMERCIAL  MARINE— MR.    GARFIELD   SPEAKS  AND  VOTES 

ADVERSELY. 

On  the  28tli  day  of  August,  1870,  Mr.  Lynch,  of  Maine,  introduced  a  bill  to  re- 
vive the  navigation  and  commercial  interests  of  the  United  States.  This  bill 
premised  that  the  late  war  had  nearly  destroyed  the  merchant  marine  of  the 
country,  and  that  now  (^.  e. ,  1870)  it  had  no  protection  from  foreign  competition 
as  afforded  to  other  gi*eat  national  interests  and  industries,  and  was  therefore 
steadily  declining ;  that  its  restoration,  constituting  as  it  did  one  of  the  most  ef- 
ficient means  of  defense  in  time  of  war,. was  of  great  national  importance  and 
necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  our  position  as  a  first-class  power,  and  therefore 
enacting,  in  substance  as  follows : 

That  on  all  imported  lumber,  timber,  h^mp,  manila  and  composition  metal, 
and  iron  and  steel  not  advanced  beyond  rods,  bars  and  bolts,  plates,  beams  and 
f  orgings,  used  and  wrought  into  the  construction  of  steam  or  sail  vessels  built  in 
the  United  States,  for  any  portion  of  such  vessels,  there  should  be  allowed  and 
paid  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  a  rebate  or  drawback  equal  to  the  duties 
on  such  material,  and  that  where  American  material  should  be  used  in  the  con- 
struction of  iron,  steel,  or  composite  vessels  or  steamers,  there  should  be  allowed 
and  paid  an  amount  equivalent  to  the  duties  imposed  on  similar  articles  of  for- 
eign manufacture  when  imported. 

The  bill  also  provided  that  all  ship  stores  and  coal  to  be  consumed  by  any  ves- 
sel on  its  voyage  from  any  port  of  the  United  States  to  any  foreign  port  might  be 
taken  in  whole  packages  in  bond  and  disposed  of  for  such  purposes,  free  of  im- 
port and  internal  duty  and  tax. 

In  order  to  further  encourage  the  restoration  of  our  commercial  supremacy  on 
the  seas,  the  bill  enacted  that  the  owner  of  an  American  sail  or  steam  vessel  en- 
gaged for  more  than  six  months  in  the  year  in  the  carrying  trade  between  Ameri- 
can and  foreign  ports,  or  between  the  ports  of  foreign  countries,  should,  at  the 
end  of  each  fiscal  year,  be  paid  by  the  collector  of  the  port  where  registered,  on 
every  sail  vessel  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  for  each  registered  ton ;  on  every 
steamer  running  to  and  from  the  ports  of  the  North  American  provinces,  one 
dollar  and  fifty  cents  for  each  registered  ton ;  and  on  every  steamer  running  to 
and  from  any  European  port,  four  dollars  per  registered  ton ;  and  on  every  steamer 
running  to  and  from  all  other  foreign  ports,  three  dollars  each  registered  ton. 
Also,  that  in  lieu  of  all  duties  now  imposed  by  law,  a  duty  of  thirty  cents  per  ton 
be  imposed  on  all  ships,  vessels  or  steamers  entered  in  the  United  States  from 
foreign  ports,  the  receipts  of  vessels  paying  such  tax  being  relieved  from  the  tax 


GARFIELD    AGAINST   THE    SHIPBUILDERS    OF   NEW    ENGLAND.        255 

imposed  by  section  103  of  the  Act  of  June  30,  1864,  and  that  vessels  of  all  classes 
trading  regularly  between  ports  of  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  and  south  of 
Mexico  down  to  and  including  Aspinwall  and  Panama  and  ports  of  the  British 
Kortli  American  provinces,  and  with  the  West  Indies,  should  not  be  required  to 
pay  this  tonnage  more  than  once  a  year.     The  act  to  be  in  force  ten  years. 

This  bill  was  debated  in  the  morning  hour  during  a  number  of  weeks,  and  sev- 
eral amendments  were  offered  to  it. 

On  May  34,  the  bill  had  progressed  so  far  that  the  pending  question  was  on  or- 
dering the  main  question  on  its  engrossment  and  third  reading. 

The  yeas  and  nays  were  called  and  Mr.  Garfield  voted  no,  and  the  main, 
question  was  not  ordered  {Glohe,  41st  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  3708). 

The  vote  was  very  full  on  this  call,  the  motion  failing  by  only  12  majority. 

In  the  debates  which  followed,  Mr.  Lynch,  finding  the  opposition  m  his  own 
party  too  great  to  justify  any  hope  of  its  passage,  so  modified  his  bill  as  to  limit 
its  operations  practically  to  the  removal  of  duties  from  all  imported  material  go- 
ing into  the  manufacture  of  American  ships. 

It  should  be  recollected  that  early  in  the  Forty-first  Congress,  a  special  com- 
mittee of  the  House  had  been  instructed  by  resolution  to  devise  some  means  for 
the  restoration  of  our  perishing  commercial  marine,  and  that  after  patient  and 
diligent  investigation  a  sub-committee,  of  which  Mr.  Lynch  was  chairman,  had 
reported  this  bill,  and  it  had  been  fraternized  by  the  special  committee. 

The  bill  as  now  modified  by  Mr.  Lynch  simply  proposed  to  allow  American 
ship  builders  to  import  materials  for  ship  building,  and  for  ship  supplies  free  of 
duty. 

Mr.  Garfield,  in  opposing  the  bill,  whether  as  originally  offered  or  as  modi- 
fied, claimed  that  it  gave  great  advantages  to  builders  of  ships  for  the  coastwise 
trade,  which  he  held  had  not  suffered  except  by  the  competition  of  railroads 
{Mr.  Oarfielcl  had  some  Credit  Mohilier  stock).  He  said  this  proposition  would  take 
ten  millions  a  year  out  of  the  treasury,  and  that  it  would  not  give  any  relief  to 
our  ocean  commerce.  He  contended  that  for  the  purposes  of  foreign  trade  it  was 
inadequate,  and  for  purposes  of  the  coastwise  trade  it  was  unnecessary,  and 
therefore  he  hoped  it  would  be  laid  on  the  table  {Globe,  Alst  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p^,. 
8785,  3786). 

On  May  27th  the  bill  being  again  under  discussion,  Mr.  Allison  moved  to  lay  k 
on  the  table.  The  motion  was  lost,  but  under  a  call  for  the  yeas  and  nays  Mi. 
Garfield  voted  yea  {Globe,  Alst  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  3862). 

On  the  31st  of  May  the  bill  was  variously  amended  and  finally  reached  the 
stage  where  Mr.  Allison  called  for  the  yeas  and  nays  on  ordering  it  to  be  en- 
grossed and  read  a  third  time.  The  call  was  sustained,  and  the  motion  was  lost, 
Mr.  Garfield  voting  no  {Globe,  41st  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  3958). 

Mr.  Maynard  moved  to  reconsider  the  vote. 

Mr.  Allison  moved  to  lay  that  motion  on  the  table. 

The  motion  was  lost,  Mr.  Garfield  voting  yea  {Globe,  2d  sess.,  p.  3959). 

The  bill  was  then  recommitted  to  the  special  committee,  wliere  it  slept  the  sleep 
that  knows  no  waking. 


256  GAKFIELD   AGAINST   THE   DISTILLERS    OF   HIS   OWN   STATE. 


GARFIELD  AGAINST  THE  DISTILLERS  OF 
HIS  OWN  STATE. 


On  the  21st  of  January,  1878,  Mr.  Blackburn  introduced  a  joint  resolution  (H. 
R,  No.  90)  extending  the  time  for  the  withdrawal  of  distilled  spirits  then  in  bond, 
until  July  first  of  the  same  year.  The  resolution  was  referred  to  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means,  and  ordered  to  be  printed. 

At  that  time  there  was  great  agitation  throughout  the  country  on  the  subject  of 
the  reduction  of  the  tax  on  distilled  spirits.  The  subject  was  pending  in  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  and  what  their  action  would  be  was  problem- 
atical. Meantime  persons  interested  in  distilling  spirits  and  holding  spirits  in 
bond  then  under  a  limitation  for  one  year,  were  in  a  disagreeable  predicament.  All 
the  whisky  that  had  then  been  in  bond  for  one  year  had  to  be  drawn  out  from 
month  to  month  during  the  period  of  this  agitation,  with  the  prospect  impending 
of  a  reduction  on  the  tax.  The  distiller  who  was  thus  forced  to  withdraw  was 
also  compelled  to  pay  a  tax  of  90  cents  per  gallon,  with  the  market  falling  on  him 
in  view  of  the  anticipated  reduction  of  the  tax.  In  consequence  he  was  required 
to  pay  so  heavy  a  tax,  that  it  withdrew  that  amount  of  his  capital  to  be  bestowed 
upon  a  product  that  he  could  not  get  a  sale  for.  There  was  danger  that  a  large 
number  of  distillers,  from  whom  the  government  was  deriving  a  very  large 
part  of  its  revenue,  would  go  under  in  view  of  these  conditions.  The  abstraction 
of  a  large  portion  of  the  capital  invested  from  this  industry  to  pay  the  tax,  had 
the  effect  to  cause  many  distilleries  to  stop  running,  and  there  was  a  prospect  that 
many  more  of  the  largest  distilleries  would  have  to  suspend  operations.  The  re- 
duction in  the  production  would  be  followed  by  a  corresponding  reduction  in  the 
revenue  receipts,  and  the  receipts  of  the  government  were  likely  to  be  seriously 
affected  unless  Congress  passed  the  measure  proposed  at  once. 

The  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  foreseeing  what  was  likely  to  occur, 
actually  drew  up  the  resolution  above  referred  to,  and  urged  its  immediate  passage 
as  a  measure  of  necessary  relief. 

Two  days  after  its  introduction  it  was  placed  on  the  House  Calendar,  and  was 
called  up  by  Mr.  Tucker  of  Virginia. 

In  the  discussion  which  took  place  upon  it  Mr.  Garfield  said  : 

I  appreciate  all  that  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Tucker]  has  said  in  regard  to  the  serious 
effect  upon  the  business  of  the  country  of  any  threatened  change  in  our  revenue  laws.  Such  a 
change  always  produces  a  very  serious  effect.  What  he  has  said  on  this  particular  resolution  is  but 
one  out  of  many  examples  of  the  serious  effect  produced  when  the  manufacturers  of  the  country 
are  in  anticipation  of  some  great  and  sweeping  change,  uncertain  as  yet  but  probable  to  come  upon 
their  various  interests.  I  think,  however,  that  no  wise  or  just  consideration  of  revenue  can  prop- 
erly take  out  one  from  the  whole  mass  of  our  industries  and  give  it  exceptional  advantages,  as  this 
joint  resolution  proposes  to  give  to  the  manufacturers  of  distilled  spirits.  If  this  joint  resolution 
be  passed  and  is  followed  up  by  a  reduction  of  the  tax  on  whisky,  that  will  amount  substantially 
to  this  :  that  all  the  whisky  now  m  existence  and  the  tax  upon  which  it  is  suspended  under  the 
operation  of  this  joint  resolution  until  the  lat  of  July  next,  will  escape  the  present  rate  of  taxation. 


GARFIELD    AGAIXST    THE    DISTILLERS    OF    HIS    OWN    STATE,  257 

and  will  pay  only  the  reduced  rate  when  it  comes.  *  #  *  There  will  be  offered 

when  we  come  to  the  discussion  under  the  five  minutes'  rule,  an  amendment  which,  if  the  House  is 
willing  to  adopt  it.  will  settle  all  this  at  once.  I  believe  we  ought  not  to  reduce  the  taxes  at  all.,  and, 
therefore,  we  ought  not  to  pass  this  resolution  {Cong.  Record,  45th  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  574). 

Mr.  Sayler  caused  to  be  read  a  letter  from  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue 

advocating  the  passage  of  the  resolution,  in  which  that  official  said  : 

The  question  of  reducing  the  tax  on  spirits  has  already  largely  affected  the  withdrawal  of  spirits 
for  sale,  and  is  seriously  affecting  the  business  interests  involved.  It  occurs  to  me  as  a  very  proper 
thincj  to  do,  pending  the  discussion  of  this  question  of  reducing  the  tax,  to  give  distillers  the  option 
of  allowing  their  products  to  remain  in  bond. 

The  resolution  was  debated  at  some  length,  and  was  again  taken  up  on  the  30th 
of  January.     In  the  meantime  various  amendments  had  been  submitted. 

Mr.  Banning  submitted  a  telegram  from  distillers  of  Cincinnati  paying  $6,000,- 
000  a  year  taxes  on  distilled  spirits,  urging  the  passage  of  the  joint  resolution. 

A  substitute  was  offered  to  strike  out  all  after  the  enacting  clause  and  insert  in 
lieu  thereof,  "that  the  reduction  of  the  tax  on  distilled  spirits  is  inexpedient." 
This  substitute  was  adopted,  Mr.  GtArfield  voting  yea  (Cong.  Record,  45^.^ 
Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  680). 

The  resolution  as  amended  was  adopted. 


258  gbnejBAL  gakfi:bld  and  Chinese  immijgkation". 


GENERAL  .  GARFIELD     AND    CHINESE 
IM-MIGRATION. 


On  the  subject  of  Chinese  immigration,  which  is  of  such  vital  importance  to 

the  people  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  Garfield  is  as  usual  Janus-faced.     His  record  as  a 

member  of  Congress  is  in  direct  conflict  with  his  letter  of  acceptance.     In  his 

letter  of  acceptance,  dated  July  12,  General  Garfield  says  : 

The  material  interests  of  the  country,  the  traditions  of  its  settlement  and  the  sentiments  of  our 
people  have  led  the  government  to  offer  the  widest  hospitality  to  emigrants  who  seek  our  shores  for 
new  and  happier  homes,  willing  to  share  the  hurdens  as  well  as  the  benefits  of  our  society,  and 
intending  that  their  posterity  shall  be  an  indistinguishable  part  of  our  population.  The  recent 
movement  of  the  Chinese  to  our  Pacific  coast  partakes  but  little  of  the  qualities  of  such  an  emigra- 
tion, either  in  its  purposes  or  its  results.  It  is  too  much  like  an  importation  to  be  welcomed  with- 
out restriction;  too  much  like  an  invasion  to  be  looked  upon  without  solicitude.  We  cannot  con- 
sent to  allow  any  form  ol  servile  labor  to  be  introduced  among  us  tinder  the  guise  of  immigration. 
Recognizing  the  gra-vity  of  this  subject,  the  present  administration,  supported  by  Congress,  had 
sent  to  China  a  commission  of  distinguished  citizens  for  the  purpose  of  securing  such  a  modification 
of  the  existing  treaty  as  will  prevent  the  evils  likely  to  rise  from  the  present  situation.  It  is  confi- 
dently believed  that  these  diplomatic  negotiations  will  be  successful,  without  ,llie  lose  of  commer- 
cial intercourse  between  the  two  powers,  which  promises  a  great  increase  of  reciprocal  trade  and 
the  enlargement  of  our  markets.  Should  these  efforts  fail,  it  will  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  miti- 
gate the  evils  already  felt  and  prevent  their  increase  by  such  restrictions  as  without  violence  or  inj".s- 
tice  will  place  upon  a  sure  foundation  the  peace  of  our  communities  and  the  freedom  and  dignity 
of  labor. 

Two  letters  of  acceptance  by  General  Garfield  have  been  published;  one  of 
them  was  printed — presumably  before  it  was  revised — July  11,  in  all  the  daily 
papers  of  Ohio,  and  was  dated  July  10.  In  this  one  he  says  of  Chinese  immigra- 
tion : 

The  question  of  Chinese  immigration  is  a  living  and  leading  topic  of  the  social  and  political 
economy  of  the  states  of  the  Pacific.  While,  as  a  representative  of  an  Ohio  constituency  I  voted 
against  Chinese  proscription,  in  response  to  a  public  sentiment  that  every  representative  should  be 
bound  to  respect,  my  views  as  a  citizen  of  the  Republic  of  States,  are  not  compromised  thereby.  I 
have  given  this  subject  much  thought  and  careful  investigation,  and  am  convinced  that  a  servile 
race,  emigrating  to  this  country,  not  to  become  citizens,  but  merely  for  mercenary  gain,  should,  in 
accordance  with  the  sentiment  expressed  in  our  platform,  be  restrained  from  landing  upon  our 
shores  or  invading  our  territory.  Nor  can  it  be  argued  that  citizenship  is  due  the  Chinese  as  much 
as  the  children  of  the  continent  of  Africa.  The  African  makes  this  country  his  home.  The  Chinese 
refuses  either  to  become  a  citizen,  or  to  assimilate  himself  into  our  social  and  political  fabric. 

On  the  7th  day  of  January,  1879,  the  Speaker  laid  before  the  House  a  letter  from 

the  Secretary  of  State  of  Oregon,  transmitting  a  memorial  of  the  legislature  of 

that  state  relative  to  Chinese  immigration,  which  was  referred  to  the  Committee 

on  Education  and  Labor.     The  petition  was  ordered  to  be  printed  in  the  Record, 

and  is  in  substance  as  follows  : 

The  Legislative  Assembly  of  Oregon  represent  that  the  continued  immigration  or  importation  of 
Cooly  slaves  or  Chinese  laborers  into  that  State  is  a  violation  of  treaty  stipulations,  which  provide 
that  such  immigration  shall  be  voluntary,  an{L  is  a  very  serious  injury  to  the  laboring  classes  of  the  entire 
Pacific  coasts  by  the  reduction  of  wages  to  starvation  prices;  that  such  importation  tends  to  drive 
white  and  all  other  free  labor  out  of  our  country,  and  ultimately  comjyel  alt  who  subsist  by  manual 
lahw  to  the  alternative  of  thoosing  between  starvation  and  crime.  The  petition  also  states  that  at 
least  75  per  cent,  of  all  the  earnings  of  said  Chinese,  or  Cooly,  slave  labor,  instead  of  being  in  our 
midst,  is  sent  to  China  never  to  return,  thus  withdrawing  the  coin  from  our  country  and  rapidly 
diminishing  our  circulating  medium,  to  the  great  injury  of  the  best  interest  of  the  entire  Pacific 
coast.   That  such  labor  does  not  contribute  to  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  country  by  the  acqui- 


GENERAL    GARFIELD    AND    CHINESE    IMMIGRATION.  259 

sition  of  property  and  the  payment  of  taxes,  but,  by  pauperism  and  crime,  are  a  continnal  source  of 
expense  to  the  country  and  municipalities  of  the  Pacific  coast  states.  That  the  Burlingame  treaty 
of  1868  has  never  been  maintained  on  the  part  of  China  in  accordance  with  its  intent  and  meaning. 
The  right  of  migration  and  immigration  which  it  recognizes  was  to  be  entirely  voluntary,  and  to  be 
exercised  in  view  of  expatriation.  That  the  Chinese  have  no  right  to  be  admitted  under  the  circum- 
stances under  which  they  come— that  is  to  say,  in  hordes  and  m  a  condition  of  semi-slavery,  and 
obligated  to  perform  a  term  of  servitude.  That  the  privilege  accorded  to  contracting  parties  was 
upon  condition  that  the  immigration  to  either  country  by  the  subjects  or  citizens  of  the  other  should 
be  a  voluntary  act.  That  China  has  utterly  failed  to  have  this  condition  observed;  therefore,  the 
memorialists  pray  Congress  to  modify  the  treaty  referred  to  so  as  to  stop  the  imi)ortation  of  Chi- 
nese and  other  Asiatic  laborers  to  the  Pacific  coast  (^Record,  45th  Cong.,  3d  sess.,p.  361). 

Immediately  after  the  ratification  of  the  Burlingame  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  China,  the  so-called  Chinese  Six  Companies  of  California  was  organized 
with  a  view  to  speculating  in  the  labor  of  the  Asiatic  races.  In  a  short  time  their 
operations  assumed  majestic  proportions,  and  a  regular  system  of  peonage,  similar 
to  that  now  existing  in  Mexico,  was  established,  the  Six  Companies  enjoying  the 
profits  of  the  contracts  made  with  the  coolies  for  a  term  of  years.  Thus  in  a  few 
years  the  labor  system  of  the  Pacific  coast  states  was  completely  revolutionized ; 
the  Mongolian  people,  subsisting  on  a  few  cents  a  day,  could  starve  American  free 
laborers  and  drive  American  competition  entirely  out  of  the  field.  This  state  of 
things  has  produced  its  logical  results  in  California,  Oregon,  Nevada,  and  the 
Pacific  coast  territories,  and  is  the  source  of  the  existing  volcanic  condition  of  labor 
all  along  that  coast  to-day. 

THE  BILL   TO  RESTRICT   CHINESE   IMMIGRATION. 

On  the  14th  of  January,  1878,  Mr.  Wren,  of  Oregon,  introduced  a  bill  to  restrict 
the  immigration  of  Chinese  to  the  United  States.  This  bill  prohibited  the  master 
of  any  vessel  from  taking  on  board  at  any  port  of  China,  or  other  foreign 
port  or  place  whatever,  more  than  ten  Chinese  passengers  with  intent  to  bring 
such  passengers  to  the  United  States,  or  from  bringing  on  any  one  voyage  more 
than  ten  such  passengers  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States,  under 
penalty,  on  conviction,  of  payment  of  one  hundred  dollars  fine  for  each  such  pas- 
senger in  excess  of  ten,  so  brought  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States, 
with  imprisonment  six  months,  in  the  discretion  of  the  court.  The  bill  also  pro- 
vided penalties,  imposed  liens  on  the  vessels  violating  the  act,  and  subjected  them 
to  libel  in  any  competent  court  of  the  United  States.  It  also  prohibited  our  con- 
suls in  China  from  granting  certificates  for  more  than  ten  Chinese  passengers  on 
any  one  vessel. 

On  the  same  day,  in  1879,  Mr.  Willis,  of  Kentucky,  reported  this  bill  back  to 

the  House  from  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor,  with  amendments,  and 

it  was  ordered  to  be  printed  and  made  the  special  order  for  the  28th  of  January. 

On  the  day  named,  Mr.  Willis  called  up  the  bill  for  consideration,  and  it  was  read. 

After  some  preliminary  skirmishing,  the  report  of  the  committee  on  the  bill  was 

read.     The  report  discusses  the  question  whether  it  is  in  the  power  of  Congress  to 

repeal  a  treaty ;  dealt  with  the  obnoxious  features  of  the  Burlingame  compact,  and 

the  evils  complained  of  under  them,  and  concluded  in  the  following  language: 

"That  these  complaints  are  not  without  cause  cannot,  upon  the  evidence,  be  doubted.  Your  \/ 
Committee,  in  a  report  accompanying  joint  resolution,  H.  R.'No.  123,  at  the  second  session  of  this 
Congress,  endeavored  to  present  what  seemed  to  them  some  insuperable  objections  to  Chinese  im- 
migration. Further  examination  of  facts  only  confirms  tht*  conclusions  therein  stated.  This  whole 
question  is  not  one  of  right,  but  of  policy.  There  is  no  principle  upon  which  we  are  compelled  to 
receive  into  our  midst  the  natives  of  Asia,  Africa  or  any  other  part  of  the  world.  The  character, 
sources  and  extent  of  immigration  should  be  regulated  and  controlled  with  reference  to  our  own 
wants  and  welfare.  The  difficult  problems,  economic  and  political,  resulting  from  the  presence  of 
the  red  and  black  races  would  be  renewed  in  a  more  aggravated  and  dangerous  form  by  the  yellow 
race.  The  Mongolian,  unlike  the  Indian,  is  brought  in  daily  contact  Avith  our  social  and  political 
life;  and,  unlike  the  African,  does  not  surrender  any  of  his  marked  peculiarities  by  reason  of  that 
contact.  It  is  neither  possible  nor  desirable  for  two  races  as  distinct  as  the  Caucasian  and  Mongo- 
lian to  live  under  the  same  government  without  assimilation.  The  degradation  or  slavery  of  one  or 
the  other  would  be  the  inevitable  result.    Homogeneity  of  ideas,  and  of  physical  and  social  habits, 


260  GENERAL    GARFIELD    AND    CHINESE    IMMIGRATION. 

are  essential  to  national  harmony  and  progress.  Equally  grave  objections  may  be  nrged  against  the 
Chinese  from  an  industrial  standpoint.  Our  laboring  people  cannot  and  ought  not  to  be  subjected 
to  a  comi)etition  which  involves  the  surrender  of  the  i^acred  and  elevating  influences  of  homeTand 
the  sacrifice  of  the  ordinary  appliances  of  personal  civilization.  The  question,  therefore,  is  not  one 
of  competition,  but  of  a  substitution  of  one  kind  of  labor  for  another. 

No  self  governing  country  can  afford  to  diminish  or  destroy  the  dignity,  the  welfare  and  inde- 
pendence of  its  citizens.  Justice  to  the  people  of  the  Pacific  Slope,  the  dictates  of  common  hu- 
manity and  benevolence,  as  well  as  the  plainest  suggestions  of  practical  statesmanship,  all  demand 
that  the  prob'em  of  Chinese  immigration  shall  be  solved  while  it  is  yet  wathin  the  legislative  control. 
"  Governed  by  these  views,  your  committee  present  and  recommend  the  passage  of  the  bill  ac- 
companying this  report." 

TliG  bill  was  then  debated,  and  the  amendments  considered  and  agreed  to,  and 
the  question  recurring  on  engrossing  and  third  reading,  Mr.  Garfield  proposed  an 
amendment  to  prevent  the  bill  from  going  into  effect  until  the  Chinese  empire 
be  apprised  of  the  termination  of  the  treaty.  Mr.  Garfield  characterized  the  bill' 
as  one  merely  for  party  capital. 

The  amendment  was  declared  to  be  out  of  order. 

The  motion  to  engross  and  pass  to  a  third  reading  was  agreed  to,  and  it  was 
read  a  third  time.  On  its  passage,  under  a  call  of  the  yeas  and  nays.  Gen.  Gar. 
FIELD  DODGED.  It  was  passed,  however,  by  155  yeas  to  72  nays  {Recoi'd^  A6th 
Cong.,  ddsess.,2y-  801). 

The  Senate  considered  and  passed  the  bill  on  the  15th  of  February,  and  it  came 
back  to  the  House  with  amendments.  ^, 

Mr.  Willis  moved  to  take  it  from  the  Speaker's  table  and  concur  in  the  Senate  amendments. 
This  was  agreed  to. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  reserve  the  right  to  demand  separate  votes  on  the  amendments. 

The  previous  question  was  seconded  and  the  main  question  ordered. 

Mr.  Willis  moved  to  reconsider  the  vote  by  which  the  main  question  was  ordered,  and  also 
moved  that  the  motion  to  reconsider  be  laid  on  the  table. 

This  motion  was  agreed  to. 

Mr.  Garfield:  I  call  for  separate  votes  on  each  amendment  of  the  Senate. 

A  motion  was  made  to  lay  the  bill  and  amendments  on  the  table.  This  motion  was  lost  by  95 
yeas  and  140  nays.    Mr.  Garfield  voted  tka  {Becord,  45th  Cong.,  M  se8S.,p.  1796). 

The  Senate  amendments  were  then  concurred  in. 

The  bill  then  went  to  the  President,  who,  on  the  1st  day  of  March,  returned  it 
to  the  House  unapproved  and  accompanied  by  a  veto  message.  After  the  mes. 
sage  was  read,  the  question  was,  "Will  the  House,  on  reconsideration,  pass  this 
bill,  notwithstanding  the  objection  of  the  President  ?  The  yeas  and  nays  were 
ordered,  and  the  result  was  yeas  110,  nays  9G.  Two  j;hird3  not  voting  in  the  af- 
firmative, under  the  constitutional  provision  the  bill  stood  rejected.  Gen.  Gar- 
itELD  VOTED  NAY  (Hecord,  AiitJi  Cong.,  Sd  aess.,  p.  2277),  thus  clenching  his 
opposition  to  the  passage  of  the  bill,  and  illustrating  his  disrespect  for  the  dignity 
and  humanity  of  American  labor,  his  contempt  for  the  working  n.an  of  his  own 
race,  and  his  willingness  to  force  white  American  free  laborers  into  competition 
for  their  daily  bread  with  a  race  that  knows  no  God,  no  morality  and  no  obliga- 
tions of  social  decency. 

MR.  GARFIELD  IS  THE  EXPONENT  OP  HIS  PARTY  ON  THE  CHINESE  QUESTION. 

It  is  plain  from  the  foregoing,  that  the  administration  of  Mr.  Hayes  and  the 
Republican  party  of  the  United  Stales,  stand  squarely  upon  the  doctrine  enun- 
ciated in  the  votes  of  Mr.  Garfield  in  the  House  upon  the  bill  to  restrict 
Chinese  immigration.  This  is  plainly  demonstrable  from  the  tone  of  the  veto 
message  of  Mr.  Hayes,  who  in  it  speaks  for  the  party  that  made  him  President 
by  monstrous  fraud.     Mr.  Hayes  in  his  veto  message  says: 

A  denunciation  of  a  treaty  by  any  government  is,  confessedly,  justifiable  only  upon  some  reason 
both  of  the  highest  justice  and  of  the  highest  necessity.  *  *  *  As  the  power  of 

modifying  an  existing  treaty,  whether  by  adding  or  striking  out  provisions,  is  a  pa:.-t  of  the  treaty 


making  power  under  the  Constitution,  its  exercise  is  not  competent  for  Congress,  nor  would  the 
assent  of  China  to  this  partial  abrogation  of  the  treaty  make  tiie  action  of  Congress,  in  thus  pro- 
curing an  amendment  of  a  treaty,  a  competent  exercise  of  authority  under  the  Constitution.  The 
importance,  however,  of  this  special  consideration  seems  superseded  by  the  princijjk?  that  a  denun- 
ciation of  a  part  of  a  treaty,  not  made  by  the  terms  of  the  treaty  itself  separable  from  the  rest,  is  a 


GENERAL   GARFIELD    AXD   CHINESE    IMMIGRATION.  261 

dennticiation  of  the  whole  treaty.  •  As  the  other  hij^h  contracting  party  has  entered,  into  no  treaty 
obligations,  except  such  as  include  the  part  denounced,  the  denunciation  by  one  party  of  the  part, 
necessarily  liberates  the  other  party  from  the  whole  treaty. 

,  I  am  convinced  that,  whatever  urgency  mi^ht,  in  any  quarter  or  by  any  interest,  be  supposed  to  ' 
require  ah  insUmt  suppression  of  further  immigration  from  China,  no  reasons  can  require  the  im- 
mediate withdrawal  of  our  treaty  protection  of  the  Chinese  already  in  this  country,  atul  no  circum- 
stances can  tolerate  an  exposure  of  our  citizens  in  China,  merchants  or  missionarifes,  to  the  conse- 
quences of  so  sudden  an  abrogation  of  their  treaty  protections.  Fortunately,  however,  the  actual 
recession  in  the  flow  of  the  emigration  from  China  to  the  Pacific  coast,  shown  by  trustworthy  statis- 
tics, relieves  us  from  any  apprehension  that  t/ie  treatment  of  the  subject  in  tfie  proper  course  of  diplo- 
matic negotiations  will  introduce  any  new  features  of  discontent  or  disturbance  among  the  com- 
munities directly  affected.  Were  such  delay  fraught  with  more  inconveniences  than  hate  ever  been 
'  suggested  by  tfie  interests  most  earnest  in  promoting  this  legislation,  I  cannot  but  regard  the  summary 
disturbance  of  our  existing  treaties  with  China  as  greatly  more  inconvenient  to  much  wider  and 
■nuyre  permanent  interests  of  the  country. 

It  is  rendered  still  plainer  when  shown  as  below,  that  the  great  apostle  of  the 
Republican  party,  tlic  man  who  maintained  to  the  day  of  his  death  absolute  leader- 
ship of  the  Republican  organization,  and  who,  when  he  spoke,  never  failed  to 
indicate  the  line  of  political  procedure  for  the  party;  gave  utterance  to  senti- 
ments so  pronounced  in  advocacy  of  the  promiscuous  influx  of  Chinese  on  our 
shores,  as  to  shock  the  moral  sense  of  every  enlightened  American. 

HON.    OLIVER  p.    MORTON 

was  chairman  of  a  joint  select  committee  of  the  two  Houses,  to  investigate  the 
Chinese  question,  appointed  in  1876,  and  which  during  the  summer  of  that  year 
sat  at  the  Palace  hotel  in  San  Francisco  long  enough  to  compile  a  volume  of 
testimony  making  1,281  printed  octavo  pages.  This  testimony  was  presented  to 
the  Senate  by  Mr.  Sargent,  one  of  its  members,  on  the  27th  of  February,  1877. 
Mr.  Sargent  made  the  report  on  account  of  the  then  illness  of  Senator  Morton, 
who  subsequently  gave  notice  that  he  would  at  a  future  day  submit  some  re- 
marks to  the  Senate  on  the  Chinese  question.  He  did  not  live  long  enough  to  • 
realize  the  intention  indicated  in  person;  but  he  left  behind  him  the  written 
manuscript  on  that  subject  which  he  had  prepared,  and  which  was,  on  the  17th 
of  January,  1878,  referred  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  and 
ordered  to  be  printed  to  accompany  the  report  which  had  been  made  by  Mr. 
Sargent,  his  colleague  on  the  committee.  Thus  the  views  of  that  chief  apostle 
of  the  Republican  party  speak  to-day  to  the  people  of  California  and  the  country 
as  from  the  grave.  \ 

The  pamphlet  quoted  from  is  Senate  Miscellaneous  Document  No.  20,  2d  ses- 
sion, Forty  fourth  Congress,  and  is  entitled 

"views  op   the   LATE  OLIVER  P.    MORTON 

on  the  character,  extent  and  effect  of  Chinese  immigration  to  the  United  States." 

In  thiig  document,  Mr.  Morton  starts  out  with  the  doctrine  that: 

A  cardinal  principle  in  our  government,  proclaimed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in  the 
Articles  of  Confederation,  and  recognized  by  our  Constitution,  is,  that  our  country  is  open  to 
immigrants  from  all  parts  of  the  world;  that  it  was  to  be  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed  and  unfor- 
tunate. It  is  true  that  when  the  government  was  formed,  and  for  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury, no  immigration  was  contemplated  except  from  nations  composed  of  white  people;  but  the 
principles  upon  which  we  professed  to" act,  and  the  invitation  we  extended  to  the  \iox\A,  cannot 
and  ought  not  to  he  limited  or  controlled  by  race  or  color,  nor  by  the  character  of  the  civilization  of 
the  codntries from  which  immigrants  may  come.  Among  the  nations  of  ^urope,  civilization  widely 
varies,  conflicting  in  many  Important  particulars,  and  differing  greatly  in  degree.  Nor  sJumld  the 
operation  oftJiese  irrinciples  be  limited  on  accoimt  of  the  religious  faith  of  nations.  Absolute  relig- 
ious toleraiion  was  regarded  by  our  fathers  as  of  vital  importance.  Kot  only  were  the  different 
sects  of  Christians  to  oe  tolerated,  but  the  deists,  atheists,  the  Mahommedan  and  the  Buddhist  were 
to  be  free  to  express  and  enjoy  their  opinions. 

Further  along  Mr.  Morton  discourses  thus: 

As  to  all  other  rights  of  foreigners  coming  to  our  shores  to  work,  to  trade,  or  to  live  and  acquire 
property,  we  have  never  made  any  distinction.  To  do  that  now  would  be  a  great  innovation  upon 
the  policy  and  traditions  of  the  government,  and  would  be  a  long  step  in  the  denial  of  the  broth- 
erhood of  man  and  the  broad,  humanitarian  policy  inaugurated  by  our  fathers. 

The  limitation  of  the  right  to  become  naturalized  to  white  persons  was  placed  in  the  law  when 
slavery  was  a  controlling  influence  in  our  government,  was  maintained  by  the  power  of  that  insti 


262  GENERAL    GARFIELD    AND    CHINESE    IMMIGRATION. 

tntion,  and  is  now  retained  by  the  lingering  prejudices  growing  ont  of  it.  After  having  abolished 
slavery  and  by  amendments  to  our  Constitution  and  the  enactments  of  various  statutes  establish- 
ing the  equal  civil  and  political  rights  of  all  men,  without  regard  to  race  or  color,  and,  at  a  time 
when  we  are  endeavoring  to  overcome  the  prejudices  of  education  and  of  race,  and  to  secure  to 
colored  men  the  equal  enjoyment  of  their  rights,  it  would  be  inconsistent  and  unsound  policy  to 
renew  and  reassert  the  prejudices  against  race,  and  another  form  of  civilization  by  excluding  the 
copper-colored  people  of  Asia  from  our  shores.  It  would  be  again  to  recognize  the  distinctions  of 
race  and  to  establish  a  new  governmental  policy  upon  the  basis  of  color  and  a  different  form  of 
civilization  and  religion.  In  California  the  antipathy  to  the  Mongolian  race  is  equal  to  that  which 
was  formerly  entertained  in  the  older  states  against  the  negro;  and  although  the  reasons  given  for 
this  antipathy  are  not  the  same,  and  the  circumstances  of  its  exhibition  are  different,  still,  it  be- 
longs to  the  family  of  antipathies  springing  from  race  and  religion. 

TENDER  CONSIDERATION  FOR  THE  HEATHEN  CHINEE. 

As  Americans,  standing  upon  the  great  doctrine  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  seeking  to  edu- 
cate the  masses  into  their  belief,  and  charged  with  the  administration  of  the  laws  by  which  equal 
rights  and  protection  shall  be  extended  to  all  races  and  conditions,  we  cannot  now  safely  take  a 
new  departure,  which,  in  another  form,  shall  resurrect  and  re-establish  those  odious  distinctions 
of  race  which  brought  upon  us  the  late  civil  war,  and  from  which  we  fondly  hoped  that  God  in  his 
providence  had  delivered  us  forever.  If  the  Chinese  in  California  were  white  people,  being  in  all 
other  respects  what  they  are,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  complaints  and  warfare  made  against  them 
would  have  existed  to  any  considerable  extent.  Their  difference  in  color,  dress,  manners,  and  re- 
ligion have,  in  my  judgment,  more  to  do  with  this  hostility  than  their  alleged  vices  or  any  actual 
injury  to  the  white  people  of  California.  The  inquiry  which  the  committee  were  instructed  to  make 
does  not  involve  the  political  rights  or  privileges  of  the  Chinese.  As  the  law  stands,  they  cannot 
be  naturalized  and  become  citizens;  and  I  do  not  know  that  any  movement  or  proposition  has  been 
made  in  any  quarter  recently  to  change  the  law.  But  the  question  is,  whether  they  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  come  to  our  country  to  work,  to  engage  in  trade,  to  acquire  property,  or  to  follow  any 
pursuit. 

But  before  entering  upon  the  discussion  of  any  other  principles,  I  may  be  permitted  to  observe 
that,  in  my  judgment,  the  Chinese  cannot  be  protected  in  the  Pacific  States  while  remaining  in  their 
alien  condition.  Witfwut  representation,  in  the  legislature  or  Congress,  without  a  voice  in  the  selec- 
tion of  oncers,  and  surrounded  by  fierce  and,  in  many  respects,  unscrupulous  enemies,  the  law  will 
befouna  insufficient  to  screen  them  from  persecution.  Complete  jtrotection  can  be  given  them  only  by 
avowing  them  to  become  citizens  and  acquire  the  right  of  suffrage,  when  their  votes  would  become  im- 
poT'tanciJi  elections,  and  their  persecutions,  in  great  part,  converted  into  kindly  solicitation. 

But  in  his  solicitude  for  injecting  this  race  of  Joss  worshippers,  among  Ameri- 
cans, and  making  them  citizens,  Mr.  Morton  betrays  his  adherence  to  another  pet 
Republican  dogma,  to  wit :  Tliat  of  undeviating  hostility  to  American  commerce, 
and  an  anxiety  and  fear  that,  by  restricting  the  exodus  of  Chinese  from  their  na- 
tive shores,  we  shall  interfere  seriously  with  the  dominancy  of  the  British  carry 
ing  trade.     In  this  connection  he  says : 

TENDER  CONSIDERATION  FOR  BRITISH  COMMERCE. 

In  considering  any  proposition  to  prohibit  Chinese  immigration,  or  to  limit  it,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  the  fact,  fully  cPtabhshed  by  the  evidence,  that  the  Chinese  landing  upon  our  Pacific  coast 
come  entirely  from  the  British  port  of  Hong  Kong.  Though  subjects  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  they 
embark  at  a  British  port,  and  in  that  respect  are  invested  with  the  rights  of  British  subjects,  and 
in  any  legislation  or  treaty  by  which  we  would  propose  to  limit  or  forbid  the  landing  upon  our 
shores,  of  Chinamen,  or  any  other  class  of  people  embarking  at  a  British  port,  we  must  deal  with 
the  British  Government,  and  not  that  of  China.  With  the  laws  of  England,  or  the  marine  regula- 
tions by  which  the  people  of  China  are  permitted  to  enter  a  British  province  and  to  embark  from  a 
British  port,  we  have  nothing  whatever  to  do:  but  it  is  quite  clear  that  any  legislation  of  ours 
which  would  interfere  with  the  landing  upon  our  shores  of  any  class  of  people  embarking  at  a 
British  port,  whether  they  be  Chinese  or  Japanese  subjects,  would  be  an  interference  with  the 
trade  and  commerce  of  that  port.  It  may  be  an  important  commercial  matter  to  Great  Britain 
that  the  port  of  Hong  Kong  shall  be  open  to  the  reception  of  people  from  China  or  any  other  part 
of  the  world  who  propose  to  emigrate  to  the  United  States  or  any  other  country,  and  if  we  cut  off 
such  emigration,  in  whole  or  in  part,  it  is  not  an  interference  with  the  Government  of  China,  for 
which  we  should  answer  to  that  government,  but  with  the  Government  of  England.  Our  refusal 
to  permit  a  Chinaman  to  land,  who  had  embarked  at  a  British  port  upon  a  British  vessel,  would 
certainly  be  a  question  with  the  English  government,  and  not  with  that  of  China. 

THE  HEATHEN  CHINEE  AS  GOOD  AS  ANYBODY. 

The  following  excerpts  from  this  interesting  pamphlet  will  give  the  intelligent 
reader  an  idea  of  Mr.  Morton's  honest  opinion  of  the  moral  and  religious  condi- 
tion and  capacities  for  equal  citizenship  with  Americans  the  race  of  men 
whom  he  was  willing  to  make  voters,  and  to  endow  with  every  other  right  now 
possessed  by  the  American  people : 

The  intellectual  stagnation  in  China  is  the  result  of  their  institutions.  The  minds  of  men  have 
been  diverted  from  science  and  the  arts  to  the  endless  ceremonies  and  ritual  of  innumerable  gods. 
It  was  said  long  ago  that  "  no  people  can  rise  above  the  plane  of  the  gods  they  worship";  and 
Chinese  civilization  long  ago  rose  to  the  level  of  the  gieods. 


GEXERAL    GARFIELD    AlffD    CHINESE    IMMIGRATION.  263 

Nearly  all  of  them  upon  their  arrival  become  members  of  one  or  the  other  of  the  Six  Companies 
in  San  Francisco,  for  which  they  pay  an  initiation  fee,  and  through  that  they  do  their  business, 
make  their  contracts  for  labor,  make  remittances  to  China,  deposit  their  money,  and  make  arrange- 
ments for  the  return  of  their  bones  to  China,  ehould  they  die. 

A  few  families  have  come,  but  nearly  all  the  men  are  unmarried.  About  five  thousand  Chinese 
women  have  come,  the  most  of  them  prostitutes,  imported  by  procurers,  who  manage  and  dispose 
of  them  on  their  arrival. 

************* 

A  vice  to  which  they  are  peculiarly  addicted  is  gambling.    This  they  carry  on  extensively. 
:|c  *  *"^*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  # 

A  common  vice  with  them  is  perjury  in  the  courts.  The  testimony  shows  them  in  many  in- 
stances to  have  very  imperfect  conceptions  of  the  obligations  of  an  oath.  They  are  in  every  respect 
free  men,  and  no  form  or  semblance  of  slavery  or  serfdom  exist?  among  them.  But  it  is  also  true  that 
their  prostitutes  are  imported  as  slaves,  and  are  often  bought  and  sold  for  that  purpose  in  San 
Francisco.  It  is,  of  course,  a  voluntary  bondage  in  this  country,  but  it  is  submitted  to  by  the  miser- 
able beings,  who  are  helpless  and  defenceless  among  strangers,  and  must  submit  to  the  will  of  their 
masters  for  the  mere  matter  of  existence.  In  many  cases  Chinamen  who  buy  them  live  with  them 
as  wives  and  raise  families.  Labor  must  needs  be  free,  and  have  complete  protection,  and  be  left 
open  to  competition.  Labor  does  not  require  that  a  price  shall  be  fixed  by  the  law,  or  that  men 
who  live  cheaply,  and  can  work  for  lower  wages,  shall  for  that  reason,  be  kept  out  of  the  country 

BAYARD  TAYLOR'S  TESTIMONY. 

But  the  testimony  of  another  distinguished  Republican  politician,  scholar  and 
political  writer  may  also  be  given,  to  show  the  character  and  moral  attributes  of 
a  race  whom  Mr.  Morton  and  the  Republican  party  were  willing  to  see  placed  on 
an  absolutely  political  and  social  equality  with  American  citizens. 

Mr.  Bayard  Taylor,  lately  deceased,  at  the  time  of  his  death  American  Minister 

at  the  German  Empire,  in  his  work  on  India,  China  and  Japan,  published  in 

1855,  says  : 

"It  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that  the  Chinese  are,  morally,  the  most  debased  people  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  Forms  of  vice,  which  in  other  countries  are  barely  named,  are,  in  China,  so  common 
that  they  excite  no  comment  among  the  natives.  They  constitute  the  surface-level,  and  below  them 
are  deeps  of  depravity  so  shocking  and  horrible  that  their  character  cannot  even  be  hinted.  There 
are  some  dark  shadows  in  human  nature  which  we  naturally  shrink  from  penetrating,  and  I  made 
no  attempt  to  collect  information  of  this  kind  ;  but  there  was  enough  in  the  things  which  I  could 
not  avoid  seeing  and  hearing— which  are  brought  almost  daily  to  the  notice  of  every  foreign  resi- 
dent—to inspire  me  with  a  powerful  aversion  to  the  Chinese  race.  Their  touch  is  pollution  ;  and, 
harsh  as  the  opinion  may  seem,  justice  to  our  own.  race  demands  that  they  should  not  be  alloioed  to 
settle  on  our  soil.  Science  may  have  lost  something,  but  mankind  has  gained,  by  the  exclusive  pol- 
icy which  has  governed  China  during  the  past  centuries." 

All  the  above  is  Republican  testimony  ;  and  it  was  to  impose  upon  the  millions 

of  American  citizens  who  have  their  homes  on  the  Pacific  coast  the  infliction  of 

a  people  such  as  is  described  and  testified  to  in  the  extracts  made,  that  General 

Garfield  consented,  when  he  voted  against  Mr.  Wren's  bill ;  that  Mr.  Hayes 

consented,  when  he  vetoed  that  bill ;  and  that  the  Republican  party  of  the  United 

States,  including  Mr.  Garfield,  consented,  when  it  sustained  that  veto  in  the 

House  of  Representatives. 


264  MR.  Garfield's  opposition  to  foreigners. 


DUTY   ON   PRINTIICt  PAPER, 


On  the  3d  day  of  March,  1865,  Mr.  Garfield  voted  in  favor  of  increasing  the 
duty  on  printing  paper  from  three  to  fifteen  per  cent,  ad  valorem.  The  bill,  as  it 
passed  the  House,  fixed  the  duty  on  paper  used  exclusively  for  hooks  and  newspapers 
at  three  per  cent.  When  the  bill  went  to  the  Senate  the  following  amendment 
was  adopted : 

"  There  shall  be  levied,  collected  and  paid,  a  duty  of  fifteen  per  cent,  ad 
Talorem." 

Mr.  Washburne  mov^ed  to  concur  in  the  Senate  amendment,  and  demanded  the 
previous  question. 

Mr.  Holman  called  for  the  yeas  and  nays,  and  the  question  was  decided  in  the 
negative — yeas  53,  nays  67.     Mr.  Garfieh>  recording  his  vote  in  the  affirmative. 

Thereupon  Mr.  Farnsworth  moved  to  lay  the  amendment  on  the  table,  and  on  a 
call  of  the  yeas  and  nays  the  motion  was  lost — yeas  46,  nays  63. 

Again  Mr.  Garfield  stood  by  the  monopolists  by  voting  nay  {Cong.  Globe,  dStli 
Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.     ). 


MR.  GARFIELD'S  OPPOSITION  TO  FOREIGNERS. 


On  the  8th  of  March,  1867,  at  the  first  session  of  the  Fortieth  Congress,  Mr. 
Fernando  Wood  asked  unanimous  consent  to  offer  the  following  resolution: 

Resolved,  That  this  House  extends  its  sympathy  to  the  people  of  Ireland  in 
their  pending  struggle  for  constitutional  liberty.  If  the  despotic  governments  of 
Europe  shall  be  allowed  to  establish  monarchical  institutions  in  America,  so 
should  the  United  States  foster  and  promote  the  extension  of  republican  institu- 
tions in  Europe. 

Mr  Broomall  (Rep.)  objected.  The  motion  was  then  to  suspend  the  rules  to 
enable  the  resolution  to  pass.  The  question  was  taken,  and  there  were  104  yeas 
and  14  nays.  Thirteen  of  those  who  voted  nay  were  Republicans,  and  James  A. 
Garfield  was  one  of  that  number. 

In  the  C'ongressioruil  Olobe,  April  17,  1871,  first  session,  part  2,  page  735,  will 
be  found  the  following: 

Mr.  Kinsella:  1  move  a  suspension  of  the  rules  and  the  adoption  of  the  follow- 
ing resolution,  which  I  send  to  the  desk. 

Whereas,  a  conference  is  now  being  held  between  joint  high  commissioners 
representing  the  government  of  the  United  States  and  that  of  Great  Britain; 
and. 

Whereas,  it  is  expected  and  desired  that  the  several  questions  which  keep  up 
unkind  feeling  between  the  people  of  the  respective  countries  shall  be  settled 
through  the  labors  of  such  joint  high  commissions;  and 

Whereas,  the  prolonged  incarceration  in  the  prisons  of  the  Dominion  of  Can- 
ada of  persons  accused  of  violating  the  neutrality  laws  is  a  source  of  irritation 
to  a  large  number  of  American  citizens ;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be  respectfully  requested  to 
have  the  case  of  such  persons  presented  before  such  joint  high  commission,  to 
the  end  that  their  release  may  be  effected. 

James  A.  Garfield  objected,  and  voted  against  the  passage  of  this  strictly  just 
resolution,  showing  thereby  his  hatred  not  alone  of  the  unfortunate  Fenian  pris- 
oners referred  to  in  the  resolution,  who  were  confined  in  Canadian  dungeons 
for  more  than  five  years,  but  of  the  whole  Celtic  race. 


GENERAL    GARFIELD  S    RELIGIOUS    INTOLERANCE.  265 


GENERAL  GARFIELD'S  RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE. 


The  Sundry  Civil  Appropriation  Bill  of  first  session,  Forty -third  Congress, 
came  back  from  the  Senate  to  the  House,  with  a  number  of  amendments,  among 
which  was  one  giving  the  sura  of  $25,000  to  a  Catholic  Institution  in  Washington, 
called  "The  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor." 

Mr.  Garfield  opposed  the  appropriation,  because  it  was  to  aid  an  association 
strictly  sectarian.  He  said  that  no  woman  not  a  Catholic  could  be  a  corporator 
in  this  charity. 

Mr.  Butler,  of  Mass.,  made  the  point  that  there  could  not  be  a  Catholic  in  the 
Women's  Christian  Association  of  Washington,  a  Protestant  organization,  for 
which  a  similar  amount  had  been  appropriated. 

Mr.  Garfield,  said: 

The  association  known  as  the  "  Woivien's  Christian  Association,"  does  not  as  such  belong  to  any- 
church.  The  members  of  that  corporation  are  from  various  churches.  But  here  is  an  association 
whose  very  title,  "  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor,"  is,  as  I  understand,  descriptive  of  an  order  within 
the  Catholic  Church.  Here  is  an  organization  composed  exclusively  of  people  of  one  religious  de- 
nomination. Under  its  charter  the  members  are  wholly  and  only  of  one  religious  sect,  and  of  one 
society  within  that  religious  sect. 

After  brief  debate  in  which  Messrs.  Hoar  and  Butler,  of  Mass. ;  Cessna,  of  Pa. ; 
and  Parker,  of  Missouri,  took  ground  in  favor  of  the  appropriation,  the  amend- 
ment was  agreed  to  notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  Mr,  Garfield  {see 
Hecord,  43d  Cong.,  l8tsess.,p.  5584). 


266  CIVIL   TE^IURE — IMPEACHMENT. 


CIVIL  TENME-IMPEACHMENT. 


Mr.  Garfield  first  voted  against  the  impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson,  but  after- 
wards repented,  and  became  a  furious  advocate  of  impeachment.  He  had  sup- 
ported the  Tenure-of-Offlce  Act  of  March  3,  1867,  and  held  that  Andrew  John- 
son deserved  to  be  impeached  and  turned  out  of  the  presidential  office  for  violat- 
ing that  law  in  removing  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  and  appointing  Lorenzo  Thomas  to 
serve  in  his  place,  as  Secretary  of  War.  For  seventy-five  years  the  Presidents  of 
the  United  States  had  exercised  the  power  of  appointing  and  removing  the  mem- 
bers of  their  Cabinets,  and  subordinate  executive  and  ministerial  oflicers.  This 
power  was  conferred  by  the  Constitution,  and  had  always  been  so  recognized  by 
Congress.  But  when  the  Republican  majority  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  dis- 
covered that  Andrew  Johnson  was  opposed  to  the  policy  of  perpetuating  disunion 
by  keeping  the  states  of  the  South  in  subjection  to  the  will  of  lawless  military  up- 
starts, it  was  proposed  to  strip  the  President  of  all  power  to  aid  in  restoring  and 
upholding  constitutional  government.  The  Tenure-of-Office  Act  was  the  first 
attempt  in  this  direction.  It  was  designed  to  prevent  the  removal,  by  the  Presi- 
dent, of  any  officer,  for  any  cause,  who  was  devoted  to  the  scheme  of  perpetuat- 
ing the  ascendancy  of  the  Republican  party. 

The  best  legal  minds  of  the  country  regarded  that  law  as  unconstitutional.  The 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  so  regarded  it.  Even  Edwin 
M.  Stanton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  a  member  of  Mr.  Johnson's  Cabinet  at  the 
time  the  act  was  passed  advised  Mr.  Johnson  that  it  was  unconstitutional,  and 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  veto  it.  President  Johnson  having  made  the  removal, 
solemnly  declared,  in  a  message  to  the  Senate,  that  his  object  was  to  place  the 
question  in  such  shape  that  it  could  be  submitted  to  the  courts  for  decision.  If 
Mr.  Johnson  can  be  blamed  at  all  in  the  matter  of  this  removal  of  Stanton,  it  is 
that  he  delayed  it  too  long;  but  his  desire  to  submit  the  question  thus  raised  to 
judicial  determination,  deserves  the  applause  of  every  honest  citizen. 

Mr.  Garfield  trimmed  his  sails  to  the  wind  very  closely  in  discussing  civil 
tenure  and  impeachment.  Of  course,  he  would  not  have  favored  the  impeach- 
ment of  Johnson,  if  the  then  acting  Vice-President  had  been  a  Democrat  The  ob- 
ject of  that  stupendous  farce  was  to  place  Ben  Wade  in  the  White  House,  and 
turn  over  to  the  Radical  party  all  the  offices  of  the  country,  and  the  whole  power 
of  every  department  of  the  government.  Mr.  Garfield  found  it  convenient  to 
abandon,  for  the  time  being,  his  cherished  doctrine  that  the  administration  was 
the  government.  To  sustain  impeachment  it  was  necessary  to  set  up  the  theory 
that  Congress  was  the  government,  whose  supreme  will  Mr.  Johnson  had  not  recog- 
nized with  the  alacrity  required  by  the  Republican  managers. 

CIVIL  TENURE. 

Mr.  Butler  introduced  a  bill  (H.  R.  No.  3),  to  repeal  the  act  of  March  2d,  1867, 


CIVIL   TENURE — IMPEACHMENT.  267 

entitled  "  An  Act  Regulating  the  Tenure  of  Certain  Civil  Officers."  The  bill  was 
passed  without  debate  under  the  operation  of  the  previous  question,  and  on  the 
call  of  yeas  and  nays  on  its  passage,  Mr.  Garfield  dodged  (Globe,  41st.  Cong., 
Istse8s.,p.  40).  The  bill  went  to  the  Senate,  where  various  propositions  were 
made,  all  of  which  finally  resolved  themselves  into  the  passage,  by  that  body,  of 
a  substitute,  to  amend  the  Civil  Tenure  Act,  by  repealing  the  first  and  second 
sections,  and  substituting  in  their  place  two  sections  of  the  following  purport : 

1st.  That  every  person  holding  any  civil  office,  or  to  which  he  may  hereafter 
be  appointed  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  shall  be  entitled 
to  hold  such  office  during  the  term  for  which  he  shall  have  been  appointed,  unless 
sooner  removed  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  &c. 

2nd.  Giving  the  President  power  during  any  recess  of  the  Senate  to  suspend 
any  civil  officer,  (except  judges  of  the  United  States  Courts,)  until  the  end  of  the 
next  session  of  the  Senate,  and  to  designate  some  one  to  perform  the  duties  of 
such  suspended  officer  in  the  meantime ;  and  thirty  days  after  the  commencement 
of  each  session  of  the  Senate  to  nominate  persons  to  fill  all  vacancies  in  office 
which  existed  at  the  meeting  of  the  Senate,  whether  temporarily  filled  or  not,  and 
also  in  the  place  of  all  officers  suspended,  and  in  case  of  the  refusal  of  the  Senate 
to  advise  and  consent  to  an  appointment  in  place  of  any  suspended  officer,  then, 
and  not  otherwise,  the  President  was  given  power  to  nominate  another  person  for 
the  place  of  the  officer  so  suspended. 

WANTED  TO  REPEAL  THE  LAW  FOR  GRANT'S  BENEFIT. 

The  Civil  Tenure  Act  passed  in  1867,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  Andrew 
Johnson  from  exercising  the  Presidental  prerogative  to  remove  obnoxious  persons 
from  office,  became  a  plague  to  the  Radical  Congress  on  the  accession  of  Ulysses 
S.  Grant  to  the  Presidency.  Such  interference  with  the  Executive  power  as  had 
compelled  President  Johnson  to  retain  in  office,  even  Cabinet  officers  who  were 
constantly  plotting  with  his  enemies  for  his  overthrow,  was  at  once  deemed  by 
the  Radical  House  entirely  too  unjust  to  be  exercised  against  Ulysses  S.  Grant ; 
so  the  House,  under  B.  F.  Butler's  domination,  made  haste  to  restore  to  Grant  the 
prerogative  they  had  torn  by  unconstitutional  legislation  from  Mr.  Johnson. 

THE   SENATE  WANTED  TO  HOLD  ON  TO  ITS  POWER. 

But  the  Senate  having  experienced  the  advantage  of  being  able  to  dictate  not  only 
Executive  appointments,  but  also  Executive  removals,  was  not  willing  to  yield  it 
up  even  to  gratify  their  idol.  President  Grant.  Hence  the  amendment  of  that 
body  to  the  repeal  measure  of  the  House,  whereby  the  Senate  made  it  possible  for 
any  officer  of  the  Federal  government,  howsoever  unworthy,  corrupt  or  dis- 
honest, to  stay  in  office  so  long  as  he  might  hold  sufficient  influence  with  the 
Senate  to  retain  him.  The  Senate  amendment  went  back  to  the  House,  and  on 
the  25th  of  March  Mr.  Butler  called  it  up  from  the  Speaker's  table,  and  moved  to 
refer  it  to  the  Judiciary  Committee.  During  the  debate  which  followed  this 
motion  Mr.  Butler  used  this  language  : 

In  other  words  we  have  now  before  us  a  proposition  to  clothe  the  Senate  with  power  to  control 
the  appointments  made  by  the  executive.  Now,  1  hold  that  it  is  against  the  principles  of  this  gov- 
ernment and  against  the  theory  of  our  constitution,  that  the  executive  officer  of  this  government 
shall  be  called  upon  to  do  work  when  he  cannot  control,  independent  of  everybody  else,  the  ap- 
pointments of  the  officers  to  do  that  work. 

Whv  you  put  in  a  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  and  ask  him  to  collect  the  taxes;  and  he  cannot 
do  so,  because  there  is  a  i)ower  over  him  keeping  unfit  men  in  office,  or  giving  them  encourage- 
ment that  they  wil.  be  retained  in  office.  President  Grant,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  Com- 
missioner of  Internal  Revenue,  cannot,  while  thus  hampered,  collect  your  taxes  and  execute  your 
laws.  Let  us  see  where  we  are.  The  moment  suspension  takes  place,  then  comes  a  quarrel,  then 
comes  a  struggle  in  every  district  in  the  United  States,  between  the  man  who  has  been  removed 
and  who  hopes  to  get  back  and  the  man  who  has  been  appointed  and  who  hopes  to  retain  his  place. 


268  CIVIL  TENUEE IMPEACHMENT. 

The  struggle  thus  inaugurated  vrill  go  on  in  every  district  for  six  or  nine  months,  the  effort  being 
to  see  which  can  bring  the  strongest  influence  to  bear  upon  the  Senate. 

Mr,  Butler  who  had  impeached  Andrew  Johnson,  in  1867,  mainly  because  he 
had  resisted  the  operation  of  a  law  so  evil  in  its  operations,  had  come  to  think  in 
1869,  what  he  embodied  in  the  words  above  quoted.  At  all  events,  the  Senate 
amendment  went  to  the  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Butler,  was  chairman. 

Mr.  Garfield  under  the  call  of  the  yeas  and  nays  voted  no. 

Mr.  Butler  entered  a  motion  to  reconsider,  and  then  the  House  adjourned. 

The  next  day  (March  26th),  Mr.  Butler  called  up  his  motion  to  reconsider  ths 
vote  by  which  the  bill  had  been  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  his  an- 
nounced reason  being  a  purpose  to  see  if  an  amendment  could  not  be  made  which 
would  cover  the  points  of  difference  of  the  two  Houses  on  it. 

GARFIELD  STANDS  BY  THE  SENATE. 

In  the  discussion  which  followed  this  motion,  Mr.  Garfield  got  the  floor,  and 

in  the  course  of  his  remarks  said : 

I  repeat  that  the  whole  impeachment  trial  was  based  on  the  proposition  that  the  President  alone 
did  not  possess  the  power  of  appointment  or  removal  of  any  officer  to  whose  appointment  the  con- 
sent of  the  Senate  was  necessary.  *  *  *  The  third  article  of  impeachment 
which  was  voted  for  by  the  geHtlemen  from  Massachusetts,  charged  directly  that  the  President  had 
attempted  to  appoint  and  remove  without  consent  of  the  Senate  while  that  body  was  in  session. 
*  *  *  Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  this  subject  was  argued  very  elaborately  in  this  House, 
and  still  more  elaborately  before  the  Senate,  and  this  was  the  ground  on  which  we  planted  our 
cause,  that  the  power  of  removal  except  by  imjjeachment  is  not  conferred  in  express  terms  cither 
upon  the  President  or  the  Senate,  but  that  it  is  incident  to  the  power  of  appointment  and  that  a 
man  is  removed' from  office,  except  in  cases  of  impeachment  only  by  the  appointment  of  his  suc- 
cessor, by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  the  appointment  so  made  and  so  con- 
firmed incidentally  working  a  removal.  *  *  *  ]3y(;  j^g  j  g.jjjj  before,  never  by 
my  vote  shall  Congress  give  up  the  constitutional  principle,  and  allow  to  any  one  man,  be  he  an 
arujel frcnn  heaven,  the  absolute  and  sole  control  of  appointments  to  and  removals  from  office  in 
this  country.  No  feeling  of  pride  that  I  belong  to  the  House  of  Representatives  and  must  there- 
fore restrain  the  power  of  the  Senate,  shall  keep  me  from  doing  this  great  act  of  justice  and  leav- 
ing upon  the  statute  book  the  substantial  principle  of  this  law.  *  *  *  i  shall 
vote  against  all  measures  to  delay  or  seriously  to  modify  this  bill.  I  shall  vote  against  non-concur- 
rence. I  shall  vote  to  concur  ixi  the  bill  as  it  comes  to  us  from  the  Senate  {Globe  Fortieth  Cong.,  'Zd 
6Ci^s.,iJ/).  315,316,  317). 

Mr.  Garfield  thus  placed  on  the  record  his  indorsement  of  the  unconstitu- 
tional principle,  which  was  nothing  less  than  an  usurpation  by  the  legislative 
power  of  the  Executive  prerogative  to  remove  Federal  oflicers  for  cause  without 
consulting  the  Senate. 

A  CONSERVATIVE  REPUBLICANS  VIEWS. 

Mr.  Blair,  of  Michigan,  who  was  a  member  of  the  same  political  party  as  Mr. 

Garfield  took  exactly  opposite  ground.     In  the  course  of  his  remarks,  Mr.  Blair, 

said: 

I  thank  the  gentleman  from  New  York  (Mr.  Davis),  for  calling  the  attention  of  the  House  to 
the  fact  that  for  the  fir!«t  time  in  the  government  of  the  Uuited  States,  the  aristocratic  branch  of 
the  government  has  asserted  its  power  in  an  amendment  to  an  act  which  we  have  given  them  to 
have  a  voice  in  all  removals  from  office.  It  says  that  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  not 
remove  except  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  and  for  that  amendment  they 
ask  us  to  vote.  There  is  the  whole  question.  They  ask  us  to  say  here  to-day  for  the  first  time  un- 
der this  government,  no  removals  shall  be  made  except  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate.  *  *  *  j  gay  tii^t  i  shall  vote  for  no  bill  of  the  sort.  *  *  * 

I  remember  that  while  we  come  directly  from  the  people  with  our  commission  from  them,  and 
while  the  President  comes  directly  from  the  people  and  brings  his  commission  from  them,  the  body 
which  sits  at  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol  does  not  come  directly  from  the  people,  but  from  the  legis- 
latures of  the  states,  and  I  shall  resist  as  much  as  I  can  their  getting  this  power  into  their  hands. 

After  further  debate,  the  motion  to  reconsider  was  agreed  to,  and  the  bill  was 
taken  up.  And  on  the  question  to  non- concur  in  the  Senate  amendment  to  the 
bill,  Mr.  Garfield  on  a  call  of  the  yeas  and  nays,  voted  yea.  So  the  amend- 
ment was  non-concurred  in.  General  Garfield  stood  up  all  the  way  through 
by  voice  and  vote,  in  favor  of  concurrence  in  a  proposition  so  glaringly  and 
monstrously  an  act  of  usurpation  and  tyranny,  that  even  Ben  Butler,  and  Blair  of 
Michigan,  denounced  it  in  the  unmeasured  terms  above  quoted. 


GENERAL   C.    A.    ARTHUR's   CIVIL   RECORD.  269 


GENERAL  C.  A.  ARTHUR'S  CIVIL  RECORD. 


Gen.  Chester  A.  Arthur  succeeded  Thomas  Murphy,  Grant's  old  pet,  as  Col- 
lector of  Customs  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  December  21,  1871.  Murphy  was 
forced  to  resign  by  the  pressure  of  the  entire  mercantile  community  of  New 
York,  who  were  outraged  by  his  mal-administration  of  the  custom-house. 
Gen.  Arthur  is  the  political  creature  of  Roscoe  Conkling.  The  Senator  from 
New  York  ruled  the  Republican  party  of  New  York  State  with  a  rod  of  iron 
during  Grant's  administration.  He  controlled  absolutely  the  vast  patronage  of 
the  Federal  government  in  the  Empire  State,  and  with  the  power  of  a  despot 
rewarded  his  friends  and  punished  his  enemies.  The  New  York  custom-house 
is  the  heart  of  the  Republican  machine  in  New  York  State,  from  which  vast 
arteries,  like  the  blood  channels  in  the  human  body,  extend  to  the  remotest  sec- 
tions of  the  commonwealth.  The  selection  of  Gen.  Arthur  as  Collector  of  Cus- 
toms made  him  Mr.  Conkling's  political  lieutenant. 

The  expenditures  annually  in  the  custom-house  during  Gen.  Arthur's  eight 
years  service  as  collector  averaged  $2,500,000.  There  were  employed  in  the 
custom-house  during  the  greater  part  of  his  term  of  office  1,036  regular  clerks, 
exclusive  of  the  appraiser's  department,  consisting  of  deputies,  clerks,  inspectors, 
weighers  and  guagers.  The  immense  political  power  exerted  by  this  band  of 
organized  politicians  can  readily  be  imagined. 

Of  the  character  of  Gen.  Arthur's  administration  nothing  can  be  learned, 
except  from  reports  of  Republican  officials  and  commissions  appointed  by  the 
Treasury  Department  to  investigate  the  custom-house.  The  fitness  of  the 
Republican  candidate  for  vice-president  for  election  to  the  second  highest  posi- 
.  tion  in  the  land  can  only  be  determined  by  the  testimony  of  his  own  party  asso- 
ciates. Those  records  are  amply  sufficient  to  prove  his  unworthiness  for  the  high 
position  he  has  been  nominated  for.  The  citizen  who  was  removed  from  an 
administrative  office  by  the  de  facto  President  and  Senate  of  the  United  States  for 
his  faithlessness  and  incapacity  should  not  be  elected  to  the  highest  post  of  legis- 
lative honor  under  the  government. 

INVESTIGATIONS  OF    THE    CUSTOM-HOUSE. 

In  1870  and  1871  the  Joint  Committee  of  Congress  on  investigation  and  re- 
trenchment investigated  the  New  York  Custom-House.  Abuses  of  such  magni- 
tude were  found  to  exist  there  that  Collector  Grinnell  was  removed  and  Murphy 
was  installed  in  his  place.  The  abuses  grew  under  Murphy,  and  Arthur  assumed 
the  reins.  When  Murphy  resigned,  Grant  eulogized  him.  Early  in  1877  the 
Jay  Commission,  consisting  of  John  Jay,  Lawrence  Turnure  and  J.  H.  Robin- 
son, was  appointed  to  investigate  the  New  York  custom-house.  Nearly  70  per 
cent,  of  the  customs  revenues  are  collected  at  that  port,  and  since  1872,  the  year 
following  Mr.   Arthur's  aplDointment  as  collector,  the  receipts  from  customs  had 


270 


GENEEAI.   C.    A.    ARTHUR  S    CIVIL    RECORD. 


steadily  decreased,  while  the  expenses  of  collection,  with  the  exception  of  one 
year,  had  constantly  increased.  The  following  statement,  taken  from  a  letter  of 
Secretary  Sherman  to  William  A.  Wheeler,  Jan.  15,  1879,  shows  the  receipts  and 
expenditures  alluded  to  above : 


Yeak. 

Receipts. 

Expenditures. 

1872 

$148,881,446 
126,824,900 

10,972,062 
108,590,256 
101,745,268 

91,056,962 

$2,301,496 
2,373,305 
2,466,192 

1873.            .                                                    

1874 

1875 . 

2,668,159 
2,516,309 
2,306,226 

1876 

1877 

Note.— In  1876  there  was  a  reduction  of  10  per  cent,  of  all  salaries. 

The  Jay  Commission  made  its  first  report  in  May,  1877,  and  recommended  a 
reduction  in  the  force  of  employees  of  20  per  cent.  Collector  Arthur  opposed 
this  reduction  and  said  that  a  reduction  of  more  than  13  per  cent,  would  cripple 
the  service.  The  reduction  recommended  by  the  commission  was  ordered,  how- 
ever, and  an  annual  saving  in  salaries  of  $235,298  effected.  This  circumstance 
proves  beyond  peradventure  the  oft  repeated  charge  that  men  were  borne  upon 
the  rolls  of  the  custom-house  who  did  no  work,  and  were  paid  simply  for  polit- 
ical services. 

ARTHUR  PALLS  OUT  WITH  THE  FRAUDULENT  ADMINISTRATION. 

The  operations  of  the  Jay  commisssion  were  very  distasteful  to  Mr.  Arthur. 
He  wanted  to  be  left  alone.  His  chief,  Senator  Conkling,  was  sulking  in  his 
tent  at  the  indifference  manifested  towards  him  by  Mr.  Hayes.  He  lost  no  op- 
portunity of  making  faces  at  the  Fraudulent  Administration.  He  sneered  at  its 
measures  and  openly  spoke  contemptuously  of  the  Cabinet.  It  was  but  natural 
that  Gen.  Arthur  should  share  the  opinions  of  his  chief.  Threats  of  a  change  in 
administration  of  the  custom-house  were  heard,  but  Mr.  Conkling  defied  the 
Administration  to  do  its  worst.  John  Sherman  claimed  that  neither  collector 
Arthur  nor  Naval  Officer  Cornell  were  in  sympathy  with  the  reforms  recom- 
mended by  the  Commission.  In  the  Fall  of  1877  Mr.  Arthur  was  requested  to 
resign.  The  kind  invitation  was  not  accepted,  and  in  September  following  Mr. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  was  appointed  Collector,  and  L.  Bradford  Prince  Naval  Offi- 
cer of  the  Port  of  New  York.  The  Senate  met  in  December,  and  on  the  13th  of  ^ 
that  month  Mr.  Hayes's  nominations  were  rejected.  The  defeat  of  Roosevelt 
and  Prince  was  due  to  the  personal  appeals  of  Mr.  Conkling  to  his  brother  Sena- 
tors. In  July,  1878,  Gen.  Arthur  was  suspended,  and  Mr.  Hayes  appointed  E. 
A.  Merritt  collector  and  Mr.  Burt  naval  officer  to  succeed  Mr.  Cornell.  Mr. 
Conkling  having  won  one  victory  did  not  propose  to  abandon  the  fight. 

As  soon  as  Congress  met  in  the  following  December  the  New  York  nomina- 
tions were  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Commerce,  and  on  the  27th  of  January, 
1879,  they  were  reported  to  the  Senate  with  an  adverse  recommendation.  It  was 
at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  that  the  Republican  candidate  for  Vice-President 
was  arraigned  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  his  unfitness  to  retain  public 
office  shown  in  a  manner  which  caused  the  prompt  confirmation  of  his  successor. 
On  the  15th  of  January,  1879,  John  Sherman  sent  to  the  Senate  the  following 
Executive  communication.  It  is  an  able  exposition  of  the  abuses  which  have 
grown  up  in  this  important  department  of  the  public  service,  and  a  clear  state- 
ment of  the  manner  in  which  those  abuses  were  fostered  by  Gen.  Arthur.  The 
letter  is  as  follows  : 


GENERAL   C.    A.    ARTHUR  S    CIVIL   RECORD. 


271 


GENERAL  ARTHUR'S  MALADMINISTRATION. 

Treasttrt  Dbpabtmbht,  1 
Jan.  15,  1879.  f 

The  Hon.  William  A.  Wheeler,  President  of  the  United  States  Senate: 

Sir  :  I  have  the  honor,  by  direction  of  the  President,  to  transmit  to  the  Senate  the  inclosed 
official  reports  to  this  Department  relating  to  the  abuses  and  irregularities  in  the  New  York  Cus- 
tom-House,  and  bearing  upon  the  nominations  pending  in  the  Senate  of  Edwin  A.  Merritt,  for  Col- 
lector of  Customs  at  the  Port  of  New  York,  in  place  of  Chester  A.  Arthur,  suspended  ;  and  of 
Silas  W.  Burt  as  naval  officer  at  that  port  in  place  of  Alonzo  B.  Cornell,  suspended.  I  beg  to  add 
a  fuller  statement  of  the  causes  that  led  to  these  nominations  and  suspensions  than  appears  upon  a 
public  record. 

The  management  of  the  Customs  Service  has  for  several  years  been  open  to  much  criticism  in 
Coneress,  in  the  press,  and  in  popular  and  business  circles,  founded  upon  alleged  arbitrary  abuses 
by  the  officers,  and  upon  imdervaluation  and  frauds.  When  I  entered  this  office,  I  determined  to 
make  a  full  examination  into  these  allegations,  and  into  the  existing  methods  of  conducting  the 
customs  business,  with  a  view  to  economy  and  reform,  not  only  at  New  York,  but  at  every  other 
port  of  the  United  States. 

The  President  took  great  interest  in  the  matter,  and  heartily  supported  the  measure  proposed. 
The  examinations  were  made  mostly  by  committees  of  private  citizens,  and  resulted  in  a  large  sav- 
ing and  many  reforms. 

Naturally  the  Port  of  New  York,  where  about  70  per  cent,  of  the  duties  on  customs  is  collected, 
attracted  the  chief  interest.  It  appears  that  for  a  series  of  years  from  1872,  the  receipts  from  cus- 
toms at  that  port  have  constantly  diminished,  while  the  expenditures  have,  with  the  exception  of 
but  a  single  year,  steadily  increased,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  statement : 


Year. 

Receipts. 

Expendi- 
tures. 

1872 

^148,381,446  00 
126,82<1,900  00 
110,972,061  95 
108.590,256  44 
101,745,268  54 
91,056,967  67 

$2,301,946  00 

1873 

2.373.305  00 

1874 

1875 

2,466,122  00 
2,668,159  07 

2,516,309  18 
2,606,226  61 

1877 

THE  JAY  COMMISSION, 

Consisting  of  two  eminent  citizens  of  New  York  and  one  officer  of  the  Department  of  Justice 
made  a  very  full  and  elaborate  examination  of  the  methods  of  business  in  the  custom-house  at  that 
port,  and  their  reports,  copies  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  send  you,  show  great  abuses. 

It  appears  from  their  first  report  that  in  May,  1877,  there  were  in  the  collector's  office  923  persons  ; 
in  the  naval  office  81,  and  in  the  surveyor's  office  32,  making  in  all  1,036  permanent  employees  in  the 
custom-house,  exclusive  of  the  a,ppraiser'8  department,  consisting  of  deputies,  clerks,  nispectors, 
weighers  and  gangers,  and  that  this  number  could  be  safely  reduced  20  per  cent.  This  reduction 
of  20  per  cent,  was  opposed  by  Collector  Arthur. 

The  second  report  shows  that  it  was  a  common  practice  among  entry  clerks,  withdrawal  clerks, 
liquidating  clerks,  weighers,  gangers,  inspectors  and  storekeepers  to  receive  from  importers  and 
brokers  irregular  fees,  emoluments,  gratuities  and  perquisites  in  the  nature  of  bribes. 

This  practice  was  a  matter  of  general  notoriety  in  the  custom-house,  and  it  does  not  appear 
that  any  effort  was  made  by  the  collector,  naval  officer  or  surveyor  to  suppress  it.  *         * 

The  third  report  shows  that  the  gravest  irregularities  existed  in  the  department  of  weighers 
and  gangers  ;  that  the  larger  number  of  the  thirteen  weighers  and  eight  gangers  rendered  but  lit- 
tle, if  any,  personal  service  to  the  government ;  that  the  weighers'  fireman  performed  but  little 
service  ;  that  the  weighers'  clerks  in  some  instances  performed  no  duty  ;  that  in  most,  if  not  all, 
the  weighers'  offices  men  were  hired  as  employees,  and  assigned  to  do  the  work  of  the  regular  clerks ; 
that  the  number  of  laborers  thus  assigned  varied  from  four  to  eight  persons  in  each  weigher's 
office  ;  thacthe  men  so  assigned  had  but  little  duty  to  perform;  that  persons  were  borne  on  the 
pay-rolls  as  laborers  as  a 

REWARD  FOR  POLITICAL  SERVICES 

who  performed  no  service  except  to  sign  their  names  to  the  rolls  and  receive  their  pay  ;  that  a 
part  of  the  weighable  merchandise  was  not  weighed  by  the  government  officers,  but  by  city  weigh 
ers,  who  furnished  memoranda  upon  which  the  United  States'  weighers  rendered  their  returns  ; 
that  a  part  of  the  weighable  goods  were  not  weighed  at  all,  but  the  marked  weights  on  the  pack- 
ages were  copied  off  and  returned  by  the  weighers  as  if  weighed  ;  that  the  weighers  had  adopted  a 
Bchedule  of  irregular  fees,  which  they  illegally  collected  irom  merchants  for  special  returns  and 
conies  of  weights,  delaying  to  make  returns  to  the  custom-house  until  the  importers  paid  .hese  •rre' 
gular  fees  ;  that  by  reason  of  these  irregularities  the  cost  of  weighing  and  gauging  imported  goods 
at  the  port  of  New  York  had  increased  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $346,524.80  per  annum. 

These  evils  were  known  to  Collector  Arthur,  yet  he  made  no  attempt  during  his  term  of  office 
to  remedy  them.  *  *  *  rp^e  existence  of  all  these  irregularities  was  subse- 

quently verified  by  independent  investigations  made  under  my  direction. 

*  *  *  *  It  appears  also  from  the  evidence  on  file  in  this  department  that  a 

vicious  practice  had  for  a  long  time  existed  of  granting  free  permits  for  imported  goods  without 
authority  of  law.  *  *  *  From  a  detailed  statement  on  file  in  (his  department, 

it  appears  that  over  two  hundred  of  such  permits  were  granted  from  March,  1874  till  May,  1875, 
The  value  of  the  goods  thus  illegaly  delivered  free  of  duty  amounts  to  a  very  large  eum.  In  a 
single  instance  the  value  was  $53,000.  The  total  value  it  is  impossible  to  estimate,  from  the  fact 
that  except  in  a  very  few  cases  no  appraisement  was  had.  From  inspection  of  the  papers  it  is  ap- 
parent that  much  of  this  merchandise,  if  it  had  been  properly  entered  and  appraised,  would  have 
been  subject  to  duty.  The  government  has,  therefore,  by  this  illegal  practice,  lost^-very  large 
sum. 


272 


ARTHUR  S   COMPENSATION. 


*  *  *  Dnring  the  period  of  his  service  his  compensation  amonnted  to  $155,860.36, 

a  detailed  statement  of  which  is  herewith  transmitted.  An  officer,  charged  with  the  high  duties  of 
the  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  and  receiving  snch  compensation,  ought  properly  to  be 
held  responsible  for  all  abuses  that  grew  up  or  continued  during  his  term  of  office  ;  and  the  exist- 
ence of  such  abuses  is  sufficient,  if  within  his  power  to  correct  them,  to  justify  his  removal. 

The  President  was  strongly  of  the  opinion,  upon  the  reports  of  the  Jay  Commission,  that  the  ■ 

PUBLIC    INTEREST   DEMANDED   A    CHANGE 

in  the  leading  offices  in  the  New  York  Custom-house.  I  preferred  to  try  to  execute  the  reforms 
proposed  with  Mr.  Arthur  in  office,  rather  than  a  stranger.  The  President  acquiesced  in  this  view, 
but  gradually  it  became  evident  that  neither  Mr.  Arthur  nor  Mr.  Cornell  was  in  sympathy  with  the 
recommendations  of  the  Commission,  and  could  and  did  obstruct  their  fair  execution. 

The  President  became  entirely  satisfied  that  it  was  his  duty  to  make  a  change  in  both  offices  ; 
but,  with  the  view  of  consulting  the  Senate,  this  was  postponed  until  the  beginning  of  the  follow- 
ing session,  when  Messrs.  Roosevelt  and  Prince  were  nominated  for  the  offices  of  collector  and 
naval  officer.  The  Senate,  however,  deemed  it  best  not  to  confirm  these  nominations,  and, 
without  fnrther  controversy  or  any  attempt  or  desire  to  send  to  the  Senate  other  nojninations, 
Messrs.  Arthur  and  Cornell  remained  in  their  positions. 

NO   HOPE   OF   SECURING  REFORMS, 

A  very  brief  experience  proved  that  any  hope  of  carrying  out  any  systematic  reforms  or  changes 
in  the  mode  of  conducting  the  business  would  be  abortive  while  the  collector  held  his  position. 
The  same  system,  the  same  persons,  the  same  influences  prevailed  as  before.    *  *  * 

General  Arthur  did  not  give  that  personal  attention  to  the  business  of  the  office  that  would  seem  to 
be  necessary  for  the  proper  discharge  of  its  duties.  He  did  not  usnally  arrive  at  his  office  until 
after  noon.  Continued  complaints  came  from  other  ports  of  entry  that  unconstitutional  discrim- 
inations were  made  in  favor  of  the. port  of  New  York  by  the  methods  of  conducting  business  at 
that  port ;  that  allowances  for  damages,  not  permitted  at  other  ports,  were  made  ;  that  a  system  of 
undervalnatious  prevailed  :  and  that,  by  these  means,  important  branches  of  business  were  turned 
from  their  usual  course  almost  exclusively  to  the  port  of  New  York,  causing  reduction  of  the 
revenue  and  injustice  to  other  ports  and  to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 

I  respectfully  call  your  attention  to  the  report  of  General  Appraiser  John  F.  Meredith  and  Special 
Agents  N.  W.  Bingham  and  B.  II.  Hinds,  of  the  date  of  July  17,  1878,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith 
transmitted.  These  gentlemen  having  had  long  experience  in  the  customs  service,  were  directed 
to  examine  into  alleged  irregularities  m  the  administration  of  the  customs  laws  in  the  chief  ports 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  general  result  of  their  examination  is  disclosed  in  their  report.  From 
the  testimony  taken  and  the  documents  referred  to  by  them,  all  of  which  will  be  placed  at  j'our 
service,  it  would  appear  that  the  system  of  frauds  complained  of,  including  undervaluations,  false 
classifications,  improper  weights  and  measures,  and  illegal  damage  allowances,  was  clearly 
proven.    These  officers  say,  in  regard  to  Collector  Arthur  : 

A  NEGLIGENT   PUBLIC   OFFICER. 

It  came  to  our  notice  early  in  our  investigation  that  the  collector,  as  a  rule,  neglected  to  appear 
at  his  office  uutil  Friday  or  after.  *  *  *  a  neglect  of  duty  so  conspicuously 

displayed  in  the  presence  of  a  large  corps  of  subordinates,  must  inevitably  have  produced  a  very 
demoralizing  effect,  upon  the  morale  of  the  office,  and  it  is  particularly  lamented,  as  it  occurred  at 
a  port  of  the  magnitude  of  New  York,  where  over  twelve  hundred  subordinate  officers  are  em- 
ployed, and  where  nearly  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  entire  customs  duties  of  the  country  is  collected. 

In  this  connection  we  would  respectfully  call  attention  to  our  special  report  in  relation  to  certain 
practices  of 

SPECIAL   DEPUTY  LYDECKER, 

and  to  the  several  reports  in  relation  to  him  of  a  similar  character,  which,  as  we  are  informed, 
have  heretofore  been  submitted  to  you.  We  were  surprised  to  learn  that  Collector  Arthur,  after 
having  been  advised  of  the  connection  of  his  special  deputy,  Mr.  Lydecker,  with         ' 

SCHEMES   TO   DEFRAUD   THE   GOVERNMENT, 

and  after  proofs  of  such  official  misconduct  had  been  submitted  to  him,  still  appears  to  repose  in 
Lydecker  the  most  implicit  confidence,  and  to  allow  him  to  practically  control  the  business  man- 
agement of  the  office.  We  found  that  the  more  honest  and  intelligent  officials  at  the  custom- 
house had  long  had  reason  to  distrust  Mr.  Lydecker's  inte^ity,  and  that  the  influence  exercised 
by  him  over  the  collector  had  been  for  a  long  time  the  suoject  of  comment  among  them.  This 
matter,  as  well  as  the  collector's  neglect  of  office  hours,  was  repeatedly  referred  to  in  an  unfavor- 
able manner  by  the  merchants  who  were  associated  with  us  in  the  early  part  of  our  investigation 
at  this  port. 

It  would  appear,  also,  from  the  special  report  made  by  the  same  officers,  of  the  date  of  June  25, 
1878,  that  Mr.  Lydecker,  the  chief  deputy,  had  been  guilty  of  certain  neglect  and  fraudulent  prac- 
tices therein  stated.  I  also  inclose  a  copy  of  a  report  of  the  date  of  May  2, 1878,  made  by  Assistant 
Secretary  French  and  J.  H.  Robinson,  Assistant  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  relative  to  the  abuses 
and  irregularities  in  the  New  York  custom-house. 

These  documents,  together  with  many  detailed  reports  of  officers  of  this  department,  convinced 
me.  after  several  months'  trial  and  consideration,  that  without  any  arraignment  of  the  personal 
character  of  the  collector  aud  naval  officer,  the 

%  PUBLIC   SERVICE   DEMANDED  A  CHANGE 

in  the  incumbents  of  these  offices.  Some  time  after  the  close  of  the  session  of  Congress,  and 
after  the  experiment  had  been  fully  tried,  the  President  suspended  these  officers  and  appointed 
General  Mwritt,  then  surveyor  of  the  port,  as  collector,  and  Mr.  Burt  as  naval  officer.  Mr.  Burt 
had  been  for  years,  practically,  the  naval  offlcer,  and  had  conducted  the  business  with  fidelity  and 


GENERAL    C.    A.    ARTHUR'S    CIVIL    RECORD.  273 

skill,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all.  Mr.  Cornell  held  simply  a  sinecure  position,  the  real  duties  beijie; 
discharged  by  his  deputy,  and  Mr.  Burt  is  now  performins:  the  duties  both  of  naval  officer  and 
those  formally  discharged  by  him  as  comptroller,  the  latter  having  been  discontinued. 

*  *  *  *  It  is  respectfully  submitted  that,  under  the  circumstances,  the  resto- 

ration of  Messrs.  Arthur  and  Cornell  would  be  a  serious  injury  to  the  public  service,  involving  a 
loss  of  public  revenue  and  an  increased  revenue.  It  would  establish  a  constant  irritation  and 
struggle  between  old  abuses  that  existed  and  reforms  that  are  sought  to  be  accomplished.  It  would 
destroy  the  discipline  of  the  department;  for,  after  all,  the  collector  of  customs  is  but  a  subordi- 
nate of  this  department,  and  though  possessed  of  great  powers,  can  do  but  little  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  the  Secretary,  but  he  may  seriously  obstruct  the  department  in  the  conduct  of  business 
according  to  its  ideas  and  plans. 

IMPORTANCE    OP   THE   NEW    YORK   COLLECTORSHTP. 

It  has  been  the  established  custom  that  this  great  office  should  be  held  as  an  administrative 
office,  like  that  of  a  Cabinet  minister;  for  the  officer  who  collects  over  two-thirds  of  the  revenue 
from  customs  performs  functions  equal  to  those  of  a  Cabinet  minister;  but  the  law  requires  con- 
stant supervision  and  approval  of  his  acts  by  this  department. 

To  require  this  business  to  be  performed  by  persons  in  hostility  to  the  general  policy  of  the 
administration,  would  create  discord  and  contention  where  there  ought  to  be  unity  and  harmony. 
It  would  be  unjust  to  the  President  and  personally  embarrassing  to  me  in  the  discharge  of  my 
duties  to  have  the  office  of  collector  of  customs  at  New  York  held  by  one  who  will  not  perform  his 
duties  according  to  the  general  policy  of  the  department.  *  *  *  * 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully, 

JOHN  SHERMAN,  Secretary. 

Hon.  Wm.  A.  Wheeleu,  President  of  the  United  States  Senate. 

Collector  Arthur  addressed  a  letter  to  Senator  Conkling,  in  reply  to  the  commun- 
ication of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Gen.  Arthur  attempted  to  justify  his 
administration  of  the  custom-house,  but  signally  failed.  On  the  31st  of  January, 
John  Sherman  wrote  a  letter  to  the  President  on  the  subject  of  the  abuses  in  the 
custom-house,  which  Mr.  Hayes  immediately  transmitted  to  the  Senate,  with  the 
following  communication : 

R.    B.    HAYES'   OPINION   OP   ARTHUR. 

To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States : 

I  transmit  herewith  a  letter  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  relation  to  the  suspension  of  the 
late  Collector  and  Naval  Officer  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  with  accompanying  documents.  In  addi- 
tion thereto  I  respectfully  submit  the  following  observations  : 

The  custora-house  in  New  York  collects  more  than  two  thirds  of  all  the  customs  revenues  of 
the  government.  Its  administration  is  a  matter  not  only  of  local  interest  merely,  but  is  of  great 
importance  to  the  people  of  the  whole  country.  For  a  long  period  of  time  it  has  been  nsed  to  man 
age  and  control  political  affairs. 

The  officers  suspended  by  me  are,  and  for  several  years  have  been,  engaged  In  the  active 

PERSONAL  MANAGEMENT  OF  THE  PARTY  POLITICS 

of  the  city  and  state  of  New  York.  The  duties  of  the  offices  held  by  them  have  been  regarded  as 
of  subordinate  importance  to  their  partisan  work.  Their  offices  have  been  conduet^d  as  a  part  of 
the  policical  machinery  under  their  control.  They  have  made  the  custora-house  a  center  of  parti- 
san political  management. 

The  custom-house  is  a  business  office.  It  should  be  conducted  on  business  principles.  General 
James,  the  Postmaster  of  New  York  City,  writing  on  this  subject  says  :  "  The  post  office  is  a  busi- 
ness institution  and  should  be  run  as  such.  It  is  my  deliberate  judgment  that  I  and  my  subordi- 
nates can  do  more  for  the  party  of  our  choice  by  giving  the  people  of  this  city  a  good  and  efficient 
postal  service,  than  by  controlling  primaries  or  dictating  nominations.'''  The  New  York  custom- 
house should  be  placed  on  the  same  footing  with  the  New  York  post-office.  But  under  the  sus- 
pended officers  the  custom-house  would  be  one  of  the  principal  political  agencies  in  the  state  of 
New  York.  To  change  this,  they  profess  to  believe,  would  be,  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Cornell,  in 
his  response,  "to  surrender  their  personal  and  political  rights." 

Convinced  that  the  people  of  New  York  and  the  country  generally  wish  the  New  York  custom- 
house to  be  administered  solely  with  a  view  to  the  public  interest,  it  is  my  purpose  to  do  all  in  my 
power  to  introduce  into  this  great  office  the  reforms  which  the  country  desires. 

With  my  information  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  responsible  obliga 
tion  imposed  opou  me  by  tlie  Constitution  "  to  take  care  that  the  laws  be  faithfully  executed,"  I 
regard  it  as  my 

PLAIN   DUTY   TO   SUSPEND   THE   OFFICERS  IN  QUESTION, 
and  to  make  the  nominations  now  before  the  Senate,  in  order  that  this  important  office  may  be 
honesUy  and  efficiently  administered. 

R.  B.  HAYES. 
ExBcuTivB  Mansion,  January  31, 1879. 

SHERMAN     ARRAIGNS    ARTHUR    FOR     "UNLAWFUL    PRACTICES,     FRAUGHT    WIT^ 
GREAT   DANGER  TO  THE   REVENUE." 

Trkasurt  Department,  OrricE  of  the  Secretary,  I 
Washington,  D.  C,  January  31,  1879.  f 

The  President:  The  letter  of  Mr.  C.  A.  Arthur,  late  Collector  of  Customs  at  New  York,  of 
the  date  of  the  2l8t  inst.,  to  the  Hon.  Roscoe  Conkling.  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce 
of  the  Senate,  was  first  seen  by  me  in  the  New  York  Tribune  of  the  38th  inst. 

18 


274  GENERAL    C. 

On  the  23d  inst.,  and  before  Mr,  Arthur's  letter  was  acted  upon  by  the  committee,  I  caused  to 
be  delivered  to  the  chairman  of  the  committee  a  request  for  a  copy  of  it,  to  enable  the  department 
to  verify  any  statement  in  its  letter  of  the  15tli  inst.  which  might  be  disputed  by  Mr.  Arthur,  and 
to  present  such  answer  to  his  allegations  as  would  place  the  wliole  case  before  the  Committee. 

To  this  rec[uest  no  answer  was  made,  and  I  am  not  now  advised  whether  it  was  communicated 
to  the  Commutee.  It  is  to  be  presumed  that  it  was  not  done,  for  it  appears  by  the  public  journals 
that  the  committee  acted  upon  the  nominations  before  an  opportunity  had  been  given  to  the  de- 
partment to  establish  the  reasons  stated  by  it  for  the  suspension  of  Mr.  Arthur. 

READY   TO    SUPPLY   THE   PROOFS. 

I  now  repeat  that  all  the  allegations  stated  in  department  lester  of  the  15th  inst.,  are  susceptible 
of  closest  proof,  and  the  department  is  prepared  to  verify  them  if  It  id  the  pleasure  of  the  Senate 
to  give  the  opportunity, 

Mr.  Arthur  thinks  that  if  the  department  letter  of  the  15th  inst.  contains  all  that  can  be  said 
against  his  administration  of  the  office  of  collector,  his  suspension  is  directly  contrary  to  all  the 
professions  of  your  administration,  and  a  \iolation  of  every  principle  of  justice.  This  is  a  matter 
of  opinion  as  to  what  constitutes  just  cause  of  removal.  If  to  secure  the  removal  of  an  officer  it  is 
necessary  to  establish  the  actual  commission  of  a  crime,  by  proofs  demanded  in  a  court  of  justice, 
then  it  is  clear  that  the  case  against  Mr.  Arthur  is  not  made  out,  especially  as  his  answer  is  held  to 
be  conclusive  without  reference  to  the  proofs  on  the  public  records  and  tendered  to  the  committee 
and  the  Senate, 

But  if  it  be  held,  that  to  procure  the  removal  of  Mr.  Arthur  it  is  suflScient  to  reasonably 

ESTABLISH  THAT  GROSS  ABUSES  OF  ADMINISTRATION 
have  continued  and  increased  during  his  incumbency  ;  that  many  persons  have  been  regularly  paid 
on  his  rolls  who  rendered  little  or  no  service;  that  the  expenses  of  his  office  have  increased  while 
collections  have  been  diminishing;  that  bribes,  or  gratuities  in  the  nature  of  bribes,  have  been 
received  by  his  subordinates  in  several  branches  of  the  custom  liouse;  that  efforts  to  correct  these 
abuses  have  not  met  his  support,  and  that  he  has  not  given  to  the  duties  of  liis  office  the  requisite 
diligence  and  attention,  then  it  is  submitted  that  the  case  is  made  out.  This  form  of  proof  the 
department  is  prepared  to  submit.  *  *  *  * 

That  the  mode  of  conducting  public  business  in  the  custom  house  in  New  York  during  the  en- 
tire administration  of  Mr.  Arthur  as  Collector,  was  subject  to  grave  criticism  is  hardly  a  matter  of 
dispute.  The  developments  made  by  the  Committee  of  the  Senate  in  1872,  of  which  Mr.  Bucking- 
ham was  chairman,  excited  the  attention  of  the  country.  The  abuses  whicn  sprang  out  of  the 
moiety  system  were  fully  disclosed  by  the  examination  and  discussion  that  preceded  the  passage 
of  the  Anti-moiety  Act  of  1874.  Numerous  reports  of  special  agents  called  tlie  attention  of  the 
department  to  existing  irregularities.  *  *  *  *  jj^^  Arthur,  himself,  claims 

credit  for  attempts  to  oring  about  reforms,  and  admits  that  at  the  beginning  of  his  administration 
there  was  a  necessity  for  a  very  large  reduction  of  expenses.  Kindred  abuses  which  it  was  be- 
lieved had  crept  into  the  public  service  in  all  p.irts  of  the  country,  led  to  a  general  examination  of 
the  methods  of  conducting  the  customs  business  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  United  States.  The  Jay 
Commission  was  organized  to  conduct  such  examination  at  the  port  of  New  York. 

MR.  ARTHUR   COMPLAINS  OF   THE  PERSONNEL   OF   THIS  COMMISSION  AND  THE 
MANNER  OF   PURSUING  ITS  INQUIRIES, 

It  appears  from  the  correspondence  with  Mr.  Arthur  that  he  was  both  personally  and  by  letter 
consulted  as  to  the  persons  forming  this  commission. 

He  came  to  Washington  on  the  14th  of  April,  1877,  and  was  fully  advised  of  the  object  of  the 
investigation.  He  was  authorized  to,  and  aid,  confer  with  each  member  of  this  commission,  and 
selected  Mr.  Turnure  as  one  of  them.  It  was  the  desire  of  the  department  that  Gen.  John  A.  Dix, 
formerly  naval  officer,  should  be  the  chairman  of  the  commission,  and,  tlirough  Mr.  Arthur,  he 
was  invited  to  accept  tliat  position,  but  the  dangerous  illness  of  his  son  prevented  him  from 
accepting.  Mr.  Arthur  then  tendered  the  position  to  Mr.  Royal  Phelps,  of  New  York,  but  he,  too, 
declined.  Then,  with  the  concurrence  of  Mr.  Arthur,  Mr.  Jay  was  named  by  the  department  as 
chairman,  and  he,  with  great  reluctance,  consented  to  serve  in  that  position.  Mr.  Robinson,  the 
third  member  of  the  commission,  is  an  offlcer  of  the  Department  of  Justice,  holding  the  position 
of  Assistant  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury.  No  special  agent  or  officer  of  this  department  served  on 
the  commission,  and  I  never  heard  any  objection  to  any  member  of  it  made  by  Mr.  Arthur  until 
after  its  report.  The  two  citizens  selected  on  the  commission  were  of  opposite  politics,  and  men 
of  eminent  position  and  high  character. 

He  complains  of  the  mode  of  their  proceeding ;  but  it  appears  that  he  testified  before  them 
that  every  person  he  requested  to  b^  called  was  called  and  examined,  and  every  opportunity  was 
given  to  him  to  present  his  view  of  the  facts.  *****  # 

His  complaint  of  unfair  treatment  by  the  department  is  entirely  unfounded.  He  states  that  the 
first  notice  of  hie  intended  removal  was  accompanied  with  an  offer  of  an 

IMPORTANT   FOREIGN   APPOINTMENT 

under  another  department  of  the  government.  This  statement  is  entirely  inconsistent  with  the 
pretense  that  he  was  treated  unjustly. 

In  September,  1877,  after  the  first  two  or  three  reports  of  the  commission,  Mr.  Arthur  freely 
talked  of  resigning— said  he  had  private  business  that  demanded  his  attention;  that  the  passage  of 
the  anti-moiety  act  had  greatly  reduced  the  compensation  of  the  office,  and  that  he  had  no  great 
desire  to  retain  it.  *  *  *  * 

In  seeking  his  resignation  I  earnest! v  desired  to  avoid  controversy  in  the  Senate  at  the  beginning 
of  your  administration.  Changes  had  been  made  during  the  count  of  the  electoral  vote  in  the 
tenure  of  offices  in  New  York  that  I  believe  indicated  that  any  change  made  by  the  present  ad- 
ministration, however  important  to  the  public  service,  would  be  contested. 

THE   TENURE   OP   OFFICE  ACT, 
of^  which  your  predecessor  complained,  left  it  within  the  power  of  the  Senate  to  compel  you  to 


GENERAL    C.    A.    ABTHUr's    CIVIL    RECORD.  275 

employ,  in  the  discharge  of  the  most  delicate  executive  duties  imposed  upon  yon  by  the  constitn- 
tionand  the  laws,  persona  whom  you  believed  unfit  to  be  trusted  with  such  duties,  and  the  well 
known  practice  in  tlie  Senate  to  defer  largely  to  the  Senator  representing  the  party  in  tlie  state 
where  the  'ifttcc  is  located,  made  it  at  all  times  difficult  and  sometimes  impossible  to  make  the  ne- 
cessary changes. 

When  Mr.  Arthur  declined  to  resign,  I  still  hoped  that  the  reforms  suggested  by  the  commission 
might  be  executed  by  him,  and  the  voluminous  correspondence  of  the  department  will  show  the 
difficulties  encountered  and  the  kindly  action  of  the  department  to  Mr.  Arthur.  If  I  committed  any 
fault  in  connection  with  this  matter,  it  was  in  not  concurring  heartily  and  promptly  in  the  lorjic  of 
iA^reporfJstf^ic/i  c?wian«?ea{«c/ia«<7«  in  the  loading  officers  of  the  custom-house.         *         *         * 

The  Senate  having  rejected  the  nominations,  Air.  Arthur  continued  in  the  office.  The  corre- 
epondence  will  show  that  after  that  time  every  proper  effort  was  made  to  secure  his  co-operation  in 
the  necessary  reforms,  but  w  ithout  success,  except  in  an  unwilling  way  that 

OBSTRUCTED    WHILE   CONSENTING. 

I  come  now  to  the  specific  charges  to  which  he  replies;  and,  first,  as  to  the  gratuities  in  the  na- 
ture of  bribes  given  to  clerks  and  oi  her  employees.  *  ♦  ♦  ♦  * 
•"  The  evidence  taken  shows  that  most  of  the  witnesses  who  were  interrogated  on  this  point,  tes- 
tHled  thht  gratuities  were  constantly  received.  It  was  in  testimony  with  regard  to  inspectors,  that 
they  were  anxious  to  be  sent  to  discharge  steamers  xaxhat  than  sailing  vessels,  because  they  were 
paid  by  the  owners  of  the  steamships 

A  GRATUITY  OF    FROM  TEN  TO  FIFTY  DOLLARS,      ' 

technically  called  ''house  mon^y.''''  The  agent  of  one  of  the  lines  stated  that  thirty  dollars  was 
paid  to  each  inspector  discharging  their  pteamers  as  '•  house  money."  The  agent  of  another,  testi- 
fied that  perquisites  were  constantly  paid  to  inspectors  for  discharging  vessels;  that  the  shorter 
the  time  the  vessel  was  to  be  in  port  the  larger  the  amount  paid;  that  the  inspectors  received  a 
gratuity  for  permitting  the  vessel  to  discharge  before  the  custom-house  permit  reached  the  ship; 
that  if  these  fees  were  not  paid,  the  inspector  had  it  in  his  power  to  delay  the  vessel  in  many  ways, 
and  that  it  was  merely  a  question  between  the  owner  and  the  inspector  as  to  how  much  it  was 
■worth  to  the  former  to  obtain  these  facilities;  that  is,  whether  it  was  cheaper  to  pay  the  inspector 
a  gratuity  for  obtaining  these  facilities  than  to  have  the  inspector  stand  upon  the  strict  letter  of 
the  law,  and  throw  obstructions  in  his  way.  It  was  also  in  testimony  that  other  irregular  fees 
were  constantly  received  by  inspectors,  customarily  called 

"  HATCHETS  "   AND    "  BONES," 

"hatchets"  being  fees  received  from  merchants  for  the  privilege  of  holding  their  goods  on  the 
dock,  instead  of  going  into  the  general-order  store  at  once,  and  "bones  "  being  paid  by  passengers 
for  favors  extended  to  them  "in  the  examination  of  their  baggage."  With  regard  to  weighers  it 
was  testified  that  there  was  a  complete  list  of  irregular  fees  adopted  by  all  of  them,  to  be  exacted 
of  merchants  for  supplying  copies  of  weights.  These  fees  ranged  from  two  cents  to  thirty  cents  a 
ton  for  iroi  and  other  metals,  and  a  schedule  upon  which  the  foreman  of  the  weighers  was  accus- 
tomed tt  make  the  demands,  shows  in  detail  the  amount  to  be  collected  upon  each  barrel,  package 
and  bag,  upon  rice,  sugar  and  many  other  articles.  It  was  also  distinctly  testified,  that  the  collect- 
or's entry  clerk  received  fifteen  cents  for  each  entry  from  brokers  and  merchants,  for  facilities  in 
passing  the  entries. 

THE  RECEIPT   OF  THESE   IRREGULAR    FEES 

for  entry  withdrawal,  export  entry  and  refund  clerk  was  afterward  fully  shown  from  the  books  of 
the  custom-house. 

In  addition  to  all  this  it  is  clear,  from  letters  addressed  to  the  Jay  Commission,  by  the  collector, 
naval  officer  and  surveyor,  in  regard  to  this  very  question,  that  the  practice  of  taking  illegal  fees 
was  well  known.  *  *  *  ;^i._  Arthur  speaks  of  my  action  in  relation  to  the  re- 

taining in  office  a  certain  entry  clerk  and  an  inspector  shown  to  have  received  money  from  brokers. 
But  the  evidence  before  me  was  clear  that  and  conclusive  that  this  practice  was  common  to  all 
such  clerks.  «  *  *  r^x^Q  reply  of  Mr.  Arthur  to  the  charge  made  by  the  depart- 

ment "  that  a  vicious  practice  has  for  a  long  time  prevailed  of  allowing  free  permits  for  imported- 
goods  without  authority  of  law,"  is  a  complete  evasion  of  the  charge.  It  is  true  that  the  law  allows 
certain  goods  to  be  admitted  free  of  duty  after  a  lawful  examination  by  proper  officers,  and  it  is  the 
daily  practice  in  accordance  with  the  law  to  issue  permits  for  that  purpose,  but  these  are  not  the 

{)ermits  of  which  the  department  complains,  but  permits  issued  by  the  collector  and  deputy  col- 
ector  without  authority  of  law  for  the 

FREE  ENTRY    OF   GOODS   SUBJECT   TO  DUTY 
without  examination  and  without  appraisement,  and  as  a  matter  of  favor  to  individual  persons. 
Such  H  practice,  whether  of  long  or  short  duration,  opens  the  door  to  fraud,  invites  the  commis- 
sion of  like  frauds  by  all  subordinates,  and  exempts  friends  and  favorites  from  equal  burden  of 
the  revenue  laws.  *  *  *  As  these  permits  were  granted  in  most  cases  without 

lawful  examination  of  the  goods,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  how  great  or  how  little  was  the  value  of 
the  goods  thug  illegally  admitted,  or  whether  they  conformed  to  the  invoices.  The  single  case  re- 
ferred to  by  Mr.  Arthur,  *  *  *  where  the  value  was  alleged  to  be  $5.3,000,  was 
cited  simply  as  an  instance  that  these  illegal  entries  are  not  articles  of  trifflmg  value,  and  in  that 
case  it  is  admitted  that  no  examination  or  entry  of  the  goods  was  made  in  conformity  to  law.  * 
*  *  In  the  case  to  which  reference  has  been  made,  Mr.  Lydecker  issued  an  order  to  the 
inspector  at  the  importing:  vessel  to  send  the  package  to  the  importer's  place  of  business,  and  the 
merchandise  was  thus  dtlivered  without  question. 

The  record  shows,  that  for  years,  under  Mr.  Arthur's  administration  these 

IMPROPER  PRACTICES  WERE  OF  ALMOST  DAILY  OCCURRENCE, 

and  the  articles  thus  permitted  to  pass  without  entry  or  payment  of  duty  embraced  merchandise  in 
many  instances  of  very  considerable  value,  such  as  horses,  carriages,  jewelry,  cases  of  wines,  bran- 


276  GENERAL    C.    A.    ABTHUR's    CIVIL    RECORD. 

dies  and  other  liquors,  cases  of  cigrars,  and  packages  the  contents  of  which  are  not  known,  and  may 
have  been  of  great  value.    These  unlawful  practices  fraught  with 

GREAT  DAInGER  TO  THE  REVENUE  AND  TO  THE  REPUTATION  OF  HONEST  MEN, 

Mr.  Arthur  treats  as  trivial  in  character  and  scarcely  worthy  of  mention.  The  particular  cases  are 
not  stated  here,  as  injustice  might  be  done  to  persons  ia  this  way,  bat,  if  desired,  a  full  ptatement 
of  all  the  fac^s  shown  upon  the  records  will  be  given  of  these  cases,  from  which  it  will  appear  that 
they  are  not  "  the  harmless  free  permits  granted  in  the  ordinary  course  of  business  to  free  goods," 
but  are  in  violation  of  law,  of  dangerous  example,  and,  if  permitted,  can  be  made  the  cover  of 
fraud  to  any  extent  with  litle  danger  of  detection. 

I  stated  that  clerks  engaged  in  makmg  statements  for  refunds  in  the  well-known  "  Charges  and 
Commissions"  cases  received  gratuities  for  the  work  done  by  them  for  the  attorneys  themselves, 
who  were  pressing  these  cases  before  the  Courts  and  Department. 

In  what  manner  does  Mr.  Arthur  answer  this  grave  charge  ?  Ho  begins  by  explaining  that 
several  years  since  it  was  the  custom  for  the  attorneys  to  compel  the  referee  by  subpoena  to  pro- 
duce before  himself  the  papers  lodged  in  the  custom-house,  and  while  in  his  hands  to  permit  the 
calculation  to  be  made  by  persons  employed  by  the  attorneys  ;  that  the  practice  was  afterwards 
changed  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury  for  the  reason  that  it  would  be  better  to 
employ  clerks  in  the  custom-house,  as  then  the  original  entries  and  invoices  would  not  be  removed 
from  the  custody  of  the  government. 

In  accordance  with  this  suggestion,  clerks  were  employed  on  this  work  and,  of  course,  Mr.  Ar- 
thur states,  they  were 

PAID    BY   THE   IMPORTERS 
and  their  attorneys,  the  work  being  outside  of  government  hours  and  not  done  for  the  govern 
ment. 

It  will  thus  be  perceived  in  the  statement  of  Mr.  Arthur  himself,  that  under  his  coUectorship, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  clerks  were  allowed  to  receive  illegal  fees  from  importers  and  their  attorneys, 
pressing  claims  for  refund,  many  of  which  were  without  foundation.  *  *  *  * 

It  appears  from  documents  submitted  to  the  House  of  Representatives  and  oral  statements 
made  to  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  in  the  presence  of  the  attorneys  for  these  claims,  that 
forged  protests  were  introduced  in  many  cases  to  give  jurisdiction  in  such  cases  ;  that  there  was  a 
failure  to  plead  the  statute/)f  limitations  ;  that  the  amount  already  paid  on  these  antiquated  claims 
is  ^1,980,000;  and  that  there  are  still  claims  pending,  all  of  which  are  over  fourteen  vears  old,  which 
if  allowed,  would  require  the  further  sum  of  at  least  $750,000.  It  is  now  contended  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice  before  the  courts  of  New  York,  that  the  great  body  of 

THESE   CLAIMS  ARE  FRAUDULENT. 

While  Mr.  Arthur  admits  that  expenses  increased  and  receipts  from  the  revenue  steadily  dim 
inished  during  his  administration,  he  claims  that  there  were  improperly,  if  not  illegally,  charged 
to  the  expense  of  collection  large  amounts  over  which  he  had  no  control,  and  which,  in  strictness, 
had  nothing  to  do  with  current  expenses. 

But,  leaving  out  of  consideration  the  extraordinary  expenses  to  which  he  refers,  as  well  as  those 
incurred  by  the  Naval  Office  and  Surveyor's  and  Appraiser's  Department,  it  is  shown,  by  the 
accompanying  tabular  statements,  made  np  by  the  treasury  registers,  giving  the  number  and  com- 
pensation.of  tlie  employees  in  the  several  divisions  of  the  collector's  office,  and  of  the  weighers, 
gangers  and  insp>ectors,  all  appointed  upon  the  nomination  of  the  collector,  that  the  force  and 
expenses  of  bis  own  department  increased  steadily  from  the  date  of  assuming  his  duties  as  col- 
lector to  the  30th  of  June,  1874,  in  number  251  persons,  and  in  amount  $364,574  more  than  in  1871, 
and  this  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  receipts  had  fallen  off  in  the  time  mentioned  many  millions 
of  dollars.        *        *        *        *      •  * 

INCREASE   OF  EXPENSES  BY  GENERAL  ARTHUR. 

In  the  collector's  immediate  office  it  is  seen' that  the  force  and  expenses  were  increased  from 
eight  persons  and  $13,200  in  1872,  to  eighteen  i>ersons  and  $36,700  in  1877.  *  *  *  * 

Mr.  Arthur  compares  the  cost  of  weighing  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1872,  with  the  cost  for  the 
year  ending  June  30,  1873,  showing  a  decrease  in  f;;vor  of  the  latter  year  of  $7,767.91. 

When  it  is  considered  that  tea  and  coffeeweve  made  free  July  1,  1872,  and  that  there  were,  there- 
fore, many  millions  of  packages  weighed  in  1872  for  which  there  was  no  corresponding  expense  for 
1873,  the  ingenious  character  of  this  defense  will  be  appreciatc^d,  especially  as  free  tea  and  coffee 
were  not  forgotten  when  a  decrease  of  revenue  receipts  was  to  be  accounted  for. 

Mr.  Arthur  assumes  that  in  my  letter  of  the  15th  he  is  held  responsible  by  the  department  for 
the  falling  off  of  the  revenue,  which  in  fact  was  cansed  by  the  reduction  of  taxes.  No  such 
accusation  was  made  against  him,  but  it  is  insisted  that  while  by  law  taxes  were  reduced,  and  the 
labor  of  his  office  diminished,  the  expenses  were  increased.  *♦#*■(: 

Two  of  the  weighers  directly  state  that  the  receipt  of  these  [illegal]  fees  was  a  custom  long 
established,  and  known  to  and  approved  by  the  collector  aud  surveyor  of  the  port.         #        *        * 

Mr.  Arthur  attempts  to  defend  his  deputy  against  the  clurges  contained  in  the  Meredith  Com- 
mission by  characterizing  them  as  "  stale,"  referring  to  the  fact  that  the  transaction  occurred  ten 
years  ago  *  *  *  *  rpjjg  evidince  in  relation  to  the  principal  charge,  and 

which  is  most  conclnsive  and  unanswerable,  was  first  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  department 
by  said  report.  This  evidence  Cf)nsist3  of  orders  issued  by  Mr.  Lydecker  that  appeared  upon  the 
fraudulent  entries  and  invoices  in  his  own  hand  and  over  his  own  signature.  *      .    .  * 

It  is  submitted  whether  the  Statute  of  Limitations,  which  may  operate  as  a  bar  to  criminal  pros- 
ecution and  so  enable  a  guilty  officer  to  escape  the  punishment  of  the  law,  can  properly  be  urged  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  his  retention  in  office.  *  *  *  *  Among  the  reports 

to  this  department,  to  which  attention  was  called  by  Messrs.  Meredith,  Bingham  and  Hinds,  in 
their  report  of  July  17,  1878,  as  reflecting  upon  the  official  conduct  of  Special  Deputy  Collector  Ly- 
decker, ia  a  report  by  a  special  agent,  dated  March  13,  1876,  in  which  are  described  the  following 
cases  : 

FRAUD  COMMITTED  BY   LYDECKER. 

let.  A  firm  of  theatrical  managers,  iu  New  York,  in  January,  1875,  made  two  entries  of  stage 
scenery,  stating  the  value  as  $3,000.  These  were  passed  free  by  Mr.  Lydecker  as  "  tools  of  trade" 
ia  violation  of  law. 


2in 

2d.  An  actress,  January  5, 1875,  imported  silk  and  velvet  dresses  whicli  were  sent  as  samples  to 
the  appraiser's  office,  and  returned  by  the  appraiser  as  of  the  value  of  $400,  and  subject  to  a  duty 
of  60  per  cent.  By  order  of  Lydecker,  in  direct  violation  of  law,  these  dresses  were  admitted  to 
entry  free  o/duti/.  A  iriplicate  invoice  on  file  in  the  custom-houee  shows  that  they  were  purchased 
goods,  and  the  value  given  in  the  invoice  is  the  equivalent  of  $575,  duty  upon  which  would  amount 
to  $340.  *  *  *  * 

4th.  A  dressmaker  imported  three  cases  of  merchandise  which  were  sent  by  order  of  said  Ly- 
decker directlj' to  her  store  (falsely  described  as  puWic  store)  without  entry.  *  *  ♦ 

It  has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  department  that  these  cases  were  selected  by  the  specia 
agent  as  samples  of  a  large  number  of  transactions,  extending  over  more  than  two  yeara,  where  the 
same  facilities  for  fraud  had  been  extended  to  the  same  person  by  the  said  Lydecker. 

Mr.  Arthur  admits  that  he  did  not  sometimes  reach  the  office  at  the  hour  when  by  law  it  is  open 
to  public  business,  but  intimates  that  the  time  after  office  hours  that  he  spent  at  the  custom-house 
was  an  off-set.  His  presence  after  office  hours  could  be  of  little  use  to  the  public.  I  am  advised 
by  persons  entirely  familiar  with  the  subject,  that  the  time  of  Mr.  Arthur,  when  at  the  custom- 
house, was  often 

OCCUPIED   WITn   OTHER  THAN  GOVERNMENT  MATTERS. 

That  it  was  sometimes  difficult  for  a  merchant,  who  was  dissatisfied  with  the  ruling  of  a  subordi- 
nate, to  obtain  a  hearing.  It  is  susceptible  of  proof  that  he  habitually  did  not  arrive  there  until  after 
noon,  and  was,  therefore,  absent  during  a  period  when  his  attendance  was  necessary  to  the  transiac- 
tion  of  public  business,  and  this  was  espiecially  so  after  the  action  of  the  Senate  upon  the  nomina- 
tion of  his  successor. 

The  watchful  care  of  a  collector  at  a  port  of  such  importance  as  New  York  over  the  action  of  his 
snbordinates  in  their  methods  of  doing  business,  is  at  all  times  imperatively  necessary  for  the  pro. 
taction  of  tie  revenue. 

In  a  case  which  has  come  to  light  since  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Arthur,  it  has  been  shown  tha 
goods  upon  which  the  duties  amounted  to  $120,000  were  delivered  to  the  parties  without  payment 
of  any  duties  to  the  government,  and  in  a  suit  to  recover  these  duties,  it  is  claimed  by  the  importers 
that  the  unlawful  delivery  was  due  to  the 

NEGLIGENCE   OR  SOMETHING  WORSE 

on  the  part  of  the  customs  officers  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Arthur. 

It  soon  became  apparent,  after  January,  1878,  from  the  daily  business  of  the  department  with 
the  New  York  custom-house,  that  anything  like  harmony  or  heartiness  in  the  administration  of 
the  duties  of  collector  could  not  be  brought  about  while  Mr.  Arthur  remained  in  office,  and,  there- 
fore, after  full  trial,  I  reccommended  his  suspension.  *  *  *  *  The  letter  of 
Mr.  Arthur,  carefully  written,  with  full  knowledge  of,  and  access  to,  all  the  public  records,  and  his 
familiarity  with  them,  is  controverted  by  the  careful  investigation  of  the  Jay  Commigsion,  by  the 
testimony  submitted  herewith,  by  the  reports  of  the  special  agents,  and  by  the  Meredith  Commission, 
together  with  my  well-considered  opinion,  based  upon  the  business  as  it  was  brought  before  me 
officially,  and.your  own  personal  examination  of  the  different  reports  submitted  to  you.         *         * 

It  will  be  expected  by  the  public  that  you  see  that  these  officers  act  in  harmony  with  your  policy 
in  correcting  all  abuses  that  are  developed,  and  securing  all  possible  reforms,  and,  if  they,  in  your 
opinion,  fail,  that  you  ehaU  exercise  the  potfer  given  to  you  by  the  constitution  to  secure  officers 
who  will  do  so.  *  *  ♦  * 

Very  respectfully, 

JOHN  SHERMAN,  Secretary. 


278  CIVIL    SERVICE    RBFOKM. 


CIYIL  SERVICE  EEFOM. 


For  tMrteen  years  the  Republican  party  has  discussed  the  question  of  reform 
in  the  Civil  Service.  During  those  years  one  attempt  was  made  to  inaugurate 
such  a  reform.  It  was  abandoned  after  less  than  two  years  trial.  The  term 
"  Civil  Service  Reform  "  is  now  held  in  undisguised  contempt  by  the  Republi- 
can party.  The  agitation  for  reform  in  the  Civil  Service  was  begun  by  Hon. 
Thomas  Jenckes,  of  Rhode  Island,  in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  1867.  He 
made  a  speech  in  favor  of  a  bill  "to  regulate  the  Civil  Service  of  the  United 
States  and  promote  the  eflaciency  thereof.*'  Again  in  May,  1868,  he  spoke  upon 
the  same  subject.  At  that  time  the  party  had  made  no  definite  pledges  of  Civil 
Service  Reform  to  the  country.  J.  D.  Cox,  of  Ohio,  a  short  time  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  under  Grant,  was  one  of  the  first  Republican  martyrs  to  the  cause  of 
civil  service  reform.  In  1870  the  clerks  in  the  departments  received  a  circular 
from  the  Congressional  Committee  assessing  them  one  per  cent,  of  their  salaries 
for  political  purposes.  On  the  third  of  August,  1870,  Mr.  Cox  received  a  letter 
from  the  Republican  Executive  Committee  requesting  a  full  list  of  the  employees  in 
his  department  from  Ohio  with  the  amount  of  salaries,  &c.,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  an  assessment  upon  them  for  state  and  Congressional  campaign  purposes. 
Then  as  now  Ohio  politicians  were  in  the  front  rank  of  those  levying  political 
contributions.  Mr.  Cox  declined  to  furnish  the  lists  requested.  A  horde  of 
hungry  politicians  principally  from  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  turned  upon  him  and 
made  his  position  so  unpleasant  that  he  resigned.  Grant  promptly  accepted  his 
resignation. 

On  March  3d,  1871,  a  clause  attached  to  the  sundry  Civil  Appropriation  Bill 
was  passed,  authorizing  the  President  to  appoint  a  commission  to  prescribe  rules 
and  regulations  for  promoting  the  efficiency  of  the  civil  service.  This  provision 
was  opposed  by  the  Repubhcan  leaders  in  the  Senate,  Messrs.  Conkling,  Cam- 
eron, Morton  and  others.  They  openly  avowed  their  disbelief  in  the  success  of 
any  attempt  to  reform  a  civil  service  which  they  then  pronounced  to  be  the  best  in 
the  world.  The  rules  recommended  by  the  advisory  board  were  approved  and 
President  Grant,  April  16,  1873,  approved  them  in  an  executive  order  which 
especially  forbade  the  levying  of  political  assessments  on  office  holders.  From 
that  time  until  the  present  day  the  farce  has  been  enacted  with  unvarying  regu- 
larity by  the  Republican  party  whenever  a  state  or  national  convention  has  made 
a  platform.  The  civil  service  reform  plank  has  been  laid  down  with  such  firm- 
ness and  has  remained  unused  so  long  that  it  has  finally  grown  rotten,  and  the 
Committee  on  Resolutions  in  the  recent  Convention  at  Chicago  omitted  to  make 
any  reference  to  the  subject. 

THE  FLANAGAN  SPEAKS  AT  CHICAGO. 

The  omission  was  noticed  by  an  obscure  delegate  from  Massachusetts,  Mr, 


CIVIL   SERVICE    BEFOEM.  279 

Barker,  who  sent  to  the  Chairman's  desk  the  stereotyped  profession  of  civil  ser- 
vice reform.  The  utter  insincerity  of  the  thing,  the  hollowness  of  the  pretension, 
was  so  great  that  a  speech  made  by  an  honest  delegate  from  Texas,  named  Flana- 
gan, was  received  with  great  applause.  He  expressed  the  sentiment  of  the  Con- 
vention in  these  words  : 

"We  are  not  here  for  the  purpose  of  getting  offices  for  the  Democracy.  What  are  we  here  for 
except  to  get  the  offices  ? 

************ 

If  the  Republicans  are  victors  they  are  entitled  to  the  offices,  and  those  who  fought  in  the  cause 
will  get  them  if  justice  is  done." 

This  speech,  though  honest,  was  indiscreet.  It  compelled  the  convention  to 
make  Mr.  Barker's  resolution  a  part  of  the  platform.  Had  it  not  been  for  Flan- 
agan's speech  the  Republican  party  would  have  finally  abandoned  at  Chicago  the 
false  colors  under  which  they  have  been  sailing  for  so  many  years. 

The  letters  of  acceptance  of  presidential  candidates  are  generally  considered  as 
the  real  platform  of  political  parties.  The  promises  made  by  the  candidates  are 
of  more  importance  to  voters  than  the  code  of  party  principles  laid  down  by  the 
conventions.  The  latter  are  declarations  of  belief.  The  former  are  solemn 
pledges  to  the  country.  Does  Gen.  Garfield  promise  in  the  event  of  his  election 
to  reform  the  civil  service  of  his  country  ?  Let  his  letter  of  acceptance  speak  for 
him.     He  says  : 

MACHINE  POLITICS. 
To  select  wise'y  from  our  vast  population  those  who  are  best  fitted  for  the  many  offices  to  bo 
filled  requires  an  acquaintance  far  beyond  the  range  of  any  one  man.  The  Executive  should,  there- 
fore, seelc  and  receive  the  information  and  assistance  of  those  whose  knowledge  of  the  communi- 
ties in  which  the  duties  are  to  be  performed  best  qualifies  them  to  aid  in  making  the  wisest 
choice.' 

When  Gen.  Garfield  wrote  this  paragraph  of  his  letter  he  must  have  have  had 
before  his  eyes  a  speech  made  by  the  late  Senator  Morton,  of  Indiana,  in  the  Sen- 
ate, January  4,  1871.     Mr.  Morton  said  : 

Now,  Mr.  President,  I  come  to  the  principle  of  the  bill  and  insist  that  it  is  false  in  itself.  I  un- 
dertake to  say  that  to  say  that  the  greatest  security  an  executive  can  have,  who  can  know  but  a  very 
small  number  of  the  American  people,  is  the  fact" that  he  can  rely  upon  members  of  Congress,  hw 
political  friends,  for  recommendation  to  office.  How  so  ?  Take,  a  member  of  the  House.  He  is 
expected  to  recommend,  if  he  is  a  political  friend  of  the  President,  for  the  local  offices  in  his  dis- 
trict. The  people  understand,  and  if  there  is  a  bad  appointment  made,  if  there  is  a  bad  postmaster, 
if  a  horse  thief  is  appointed  postmaster,  they  hold  the  member  of  Congress  directly  responsible  for 
it.  They  expect  that  in  the  natural  course  of  things  he  has  recommended  that  man.  Therefore  it 
becomes  his  interest  at  once  to  recommend  good  men  for  these  offices  :  his  re-election  depends 
upon  it. 

In  other  words,  under  the  system  recommended  by  Gen.  Garfield,  Gen.  Arthur, 
Senator  Conkling,  Senator  Cameron,  and  all  the  prominent  members  of  the  Re- 
publican party,  the  tenure  of  ofiice  of  politicians  depends  upon  the  manner  in 
which  the  local  offices  are  given  to  the  underlings  who  control  primaries  and  ma- 
nipulate ward  conventions. 

The  Republican  party  assembled  in  convention  at  Cincinnati  in  1876  promul- 
gated the  principle  that,  under  the  constitution,  the  president  and  heads  of  de- 
partments are  to  make  appointments ;  the  Senate  is  to  advise  and  consent  to  ap- 
pointments, and  the  House  is  to  accuse  and  prosecute  faithless  oflicers.  The 
enforcement  of  this  constitutional  principle  is  impossible  when  the  officers  who 
are  to  advise  and  consent  to  appointments,  and  to  prosecute  and  judge  faithless 
officers,  are  allowed  to  recommend  and  dictate  the  appointments.  Gen.  Garfield 
promulgates  a  principle  which  the  Republican  party  four  years  ago  solemnly 
repudiated. 

GENERAL  ABTHUR  AND  CIVIL  SERVICE  HEFORM. 

But  if  it  be  held  that  to  procure  the  removal  of  Mr.  Arthur  it  is  sufficient  to  reasonably  establish 
that  gross  abuses  of  administration  have  continued  and  increased  during  his  incumbency;  that 
many  persons  have  been  regularly  paid  on  his  rolls  who  rendered  little  or  no  service;  that  the  ex- 


280  CIVIL   SERVICE    REFORM. 

penses  of  his  office  have  increased  while  collections  have  been  diminishing;  that  bribes  or  gratni- 
ties  in  the  nature  of  bribes,  have  been  received  bj'  his  subordinates  in  several  branches  of  the  cus- 
tom-house; that  efforts  to  correct  these  abuses  have  not  met  his  support,  and  that  he  has  not  given 
to  the  duties  of  his  office  the  requisite  diligence  and  attention,  then  it  is  submitted  that  the  case  i» 
made  out.  This  form  of  proof  the  department  is  prepared  to  submit.  (Secretary  Sherman's  letter 
to  R.  B.  Hayes,  January  31,  1879.) 

The  Republican  candidate  for  Vice -President  has  been  the  conspicuous  example 
held  up  before  the  eyes  of  the  American  people  by  the  present  administration  as 
the  great  violator  of  civil  service  reform ;  the  incarnation  of  all  that  is  corrupt 
and  bad  in  the  organization  of  the  public  service.  The  complete  record  of  Gen. 
Arthur  as  an  administrative  oflBcer  is  contained  in  another  part  of  the  Text  Book. 
It  is,  perhaps,  unfortunate  for  the  Republican  champions  of  civil  service  reform 
that  Gen.  Arthur  has  been  nominated  for  the  second  instead  of  the  first  place  on 
the  ticket.  While  his  acts  have  always  tended  to  degrade  the  civil  service,  his 
professions  for  the  future,  contained  in  his  letter  of  acceptance,  are  much  more 
manly  and  comprehensive  than  those  of  Gen.  Garfield. 

THE  HAYES  ADMINISTRATION  AND  REFORM. 

When  R.  B.  Hayes  was  fraudulently  declared  President  of  the  United  States 
by  the  partisan  eight  of  the  Electoral  Commission,  he  sought  to  appease  in  some 
measure  the  w^ounded  honor  of  the  country  and  to  allay  the  popular  indignation 
at  the  outrage,  by  promising  a  reform  administration.  The  corruptions  of  the 
Grant  administration  had  disgusted  the  honest  masses  and  a  general  demand  for 
reform  was  heard  from  the  people.  It  was  this  desire  for  reform  which  elected 
Tilden  and  Hendricks  by  the  largest  popular  majority  ever  cast  for  a  presidential 
ticket.  Hayes,  therefore,  sought  to  gain  same  popularity  or  toleration  by  pledg- 
ing himself  to  do  what  the  Democratic  candidate  had  already  done  in  the  state 
of  New  York. 

In  his  inaugural  address  Mr.  Hayes  said  : 

I  ask  the  attention  of  the  public  to  the  paramount  necessity  of  a  reform  in  our  civil  service  ; 
a  reform  not  merely  as  to  certain  abuses  and  practices  of  so  called  official  patronage  which  have 
come  to  have  the  sanction  of  usage  in  the  several  departments  of  our  government,  but  a  change  in 
the  system  of  appointment  itself  ;  a  reform  that  shall  be  thorough,  radical  and  complete  ;  a  return 
to  the  principles  and  practices  of  the  founders  of  the  government.  They  neither  expected  nor 
desired  from  public  officers  any  partisan  service.  They  meant  that  public  officers  should  owe 
their  whole  service  to  the  government  and  to  the  people.  They  meant  that  the  officer  should  be 
secure  in  his  tenure  as  long  as  his  personal  character  remained  untarnished  and  the  performance  of 
his  duties  satisfactory.  They  held  that  appointments  to  offict;  were  not  to  be  made  nor  expected 
merely  as  rewards  for  partisan  services,  nor  merely  on  the  nomination  of  members  of  Con- 
gress, as  being  entitled  in  any  respect  to  the  control  of  such  appointments.  The  fact  that  both  the 
great  political  parties  of  the  country,  in  declaring  their  principles  prior  to  the  election,  gave  a 
prominent  place  to  the  subject  of  reform  in  our  civil  service,  recognizing  and  strongly  urging  its 
necessity  in  terms  almost  identical  in  their  specific  import  with  those  I  have  employed,  must  be 
accepted  as  a  conclusive  argument  in  behalf  of  these  measures.  It  must  be  regarded  as  the 
expression  of  the  united  voice  and  will  of  the  whole  country  upon  this  subject,  and  both  political 
parlies  are  virtually  pledged  to  give  it  their  unreserved  support. 

His  failure  to  fulfill  his  pledges  has  disgusted  the  people  fully  as  much  as  did 

the  rottenness  of  Grantism,  and  the  term  "civil  service  reform"  has  become  a 

by -word  and  a  reproach.     The  fraudulent  President  inaugurated  his  reform 

policy  by  issuing  the  following  order  : 

CIVIL   SERVICE   ORDER  NO.    1. 

Executive  Mansion, 

Washington,  June  83,  1877. 
Sir :  I  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  the  following  paragraph  in  a  letter  addressed  by  me  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  on  the  conduct  to  be  observed  by  the  officers  of  the  general  govern- 
ment in  relation  to  the  elections  : 

"  No  officer  shall  be  required  or  permitted  to  take  part  in  the  management  of  political  organiza- 
tions, caucuses,  conventions  or  election  campaigns.  Their  right  to  vote  and  to  express  their  views 
on  public  questions,  either  orally  or  through  the  press,  is  not  denied,  provided  it  does  not  interfere 
witn  the  discharge  of  their  official  duties.  No  assessments  for  political  purposes  on  officers  or 
subordinates  should  be  allowed." 

This  rule  is  applicable  to  every  department  of  the  civil  service.  It  should  be  understood  by 
every  officer  of  tne  general  government  that  he  is  expected  to  conform  his  conduct  to  its  require- 
mentB.  Very  respectfully, 

R.  B.  HAYES. 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM.  281 

HOW   THE   ORDER  HAS   BEEN   OBEYED. 

The  first  part  of  the  order  that  no  officer  should  take  part  in  political  manage- 
ment has  never  been  enforced  except  in  the  cases  of  objectionable  officials  whom 
the  administration  wanted  to  get  rid  of.  For  instance,  Postmaster  Filley,  of  St. 
Louis,  was  removed  from  office  for  advising  and  directing  some  local  primary 
elections,  and  at  the  very  same  time  Secretary  Schurz,  who  insisted  upon  his  re- 
moval, was  making  political  speeches  in  Ohio,  and  but  a  short  time  afterwards 
Secretary  Sherman  also  went  to  Ohio  and  delivered  a  political  speech.  After  the 
election  in  Ohio  that  year  (1878)  Mr.  Hayes  congratulated  both  Sherman  and 
Schurz  upon  the  effect  their  speeches  had  apparently  had. 

The  memorable  contest  between  the  administration  and  Senator  Conkling  over 
the  removal  of  Messrs.  Cornell  and  Arthur  from  the  positions  of  Naval  Officer 
and  Collector,  respectively,  of  the  port  of  New  York,  was  another  instance  of  the 
enforcement  of  "Civil  Service  Order  No.  1."  By  purchasing  the  votes  of  a 
number  of  Republican  Senators  by  Federal  patronage,  Hayes  and  John  Sherman, 
after  a  long  struggle,  in  which  they  were  once  signally  beaten,  obtained  the 
confirmation  of  their  nominees,  and  Cornell  and  Arthur  were  ousted.  In  1879, 
Senator  Conkling,  as  a  rebuke  to  the  administration,  had  Cornell  nominated  as 
the  Republican  candidate  for  Governor  of  New  York,  and  the  "reform"  admin- 
istration forthwith  surrendered.  Hayes  advised  all  Republicans  in  New  York  to 
vote  for  Cornell,  and  John  Sherman  and  Wm.  M.  Evarts  made  speeches  in  the 
canvass  in  behalf  of  the  regular  nominees.  John  Sherman,  in  the  course  of 
these  speeches,  eulogized  the  man  he  had  pronounced  unfit  to  hold  the  position 
of  naval  officer  and  urged  the  people  of  the  state  to  make  him  their  governor. 
The  administration  raid  upon  the  New  York  Custom-house  in  1877-'78  was 
simply  a  move  to  get  the  Conkling  machine  out  and  the  Sherman  machine  in. 
Immediately  afterwards  John  Sherman  announced  himself  as  a  presidential  can- 
didate. The  revenue  and  customs  officials  all  over  the  country  were  organized 
and  put  to  work  in  his  interest. 

Collector  Merritt,  the  "reformer,"  who  succeeded  Arthur,  had  his  assistants 
and  employees  formed  into  bands  of  Sherman  workers,  and  none  dared  decline 
the  service.  Each  man  understood  that  it  would  cost  him  his  position  to  refuse 
to  join  in  the  Sherman  Boom.  Prior  to  the  holding  of  the  New  York  Republican 
Convention  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  Chicago  Convention,  Collector 
Merritt  traveled  all  over  the  state  in  the  interest  of  John  Sherman.  He  packed 
primaries,  promised  government  patronage,  and,  in  short,  did  everything  he 
supposed  would  help  the  Sherman  cause.  He  made  no  secret  of  his  mission,  and 
caused  himself  to  be  interviewed  about  the  progress  of  his  labors.  And  yet  not 
a  word  of  reproof  or  reproach  was  uttered  by  the  fraudulent  administration.  His 
bold  and  flagrant  violation  of  the  civil  service  order  was  not  rebuked.  From  the 
opening  of  the  presidential  canvass  for  the  Republican  nomination  until  after 
the  last  state  convention  had  chosen  its  delegates  to  Chicago,  the  various  treasury 
officials  throughout  the  country  devoted  their  time  chiefly  to  packing  primaries 
and  running  local  conventions  in  the  interest  of  John  Sherman.  Every  delegate 
that  Sherman  obtained  in  the  Southern  states  was  won  for  him  by  the  influence  of 
treasury  officials.  The  Grant  men  protested  most  vigorously  against  this  inter- 
ference of  government  officials  and  the  press  called  loudly  for  the  enforcement  of 
Civil  Service  Order  No.  1,  but  Hayes  was  as  dumb  as  an  oyster.  Evidence  could 
be  accumulated  page  upon  page  to  prove  that  Secretary  Sherman  not  only  re- 
quired government  employees  to  work  in  his  interest  but  that  he  also  bribed  dele- 
gates to  support  him  with  Federal  patronage. 


282  CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 

WHAT   THE   NEW   YORK    "  TIMES "   THINKS   OP  IT. 

The  New  York  Times,  tlie  leading  Republican  newspaper  of  the  United  States, 

said  editorially,  in  its  issue  of  May  12th,  1880,  of  Secretary  Sherman's  methods  of 

electioneering : 

Of  the  delegates  to  the  Mississippi  Republican  Convention,  eight  were  employees  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  six  were  postmasters  or  postal  route  agents,  and  one  was  a  United  States  dis- 
trict attorney.  All  these  were,  of  course,  Sherman  men,  since  to  hold  a  Federal  office  in  the  South 
and  support  any  presidential  candidate  except  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  to  invite  removal. 
They  were  aided  by  half  a  dozen  outsiders,  also  in  the  employ  of  an  indulgent  people, whose  money 
is  used  to  the  extent  of  at  least  ^35,000  a  year  to  galvanize  Mr.  Sherman's  candidacy  in  Mississippi. 
Perhaps  the  discreet  journalists  in  Ohio  and  New  England  who  have  been  so  greatly  shocked  by 
the  suggestion  that  Mr.  Sherman  was  not  entirely  without  responsibility  for  the  peculiar  transac- 
tions of  brother-in-law  Moulton  may  condescend  to  explain  the  tactics  by  which  their  immaculate 
candidate  has  pushed  his  candidacy  in  Mississippi.  These  are,  it  is  true,  merely  a  repetition  of  the 
shameless  trickery  practiced  in  North  Carolina  and  Georgia,  but  as  they  are,  if  possible,  a  little 
more  impudent,  they  appear  to  challenge  some  sort  of  notice  from  the  alleged  reformers  who  have 
undertaken  the  somewhat  delicate  task  of  vouching  for  the  statesmanship  and  political  probity  of 
the  eminent  trimmer  from  Ohio. 

One  of  the  special  staff  correspondents  of  the  New  York  Times,  writing  from 

Jackson,  Mississippi,  under  date  of  May  7th,  1880,  charged  that  the  Republican 

Convention  of  that   state  had   been   manipulated  by  Sherman's  hirelings,  and 

that  the  Chairman,  Gibbs,  declared  the  Convention  adjourned  to  avoid  putting  to 

a  vote  a  resolution  indorsing  Grant.     The  correspondent  concluded  his  letters  as 

follows  : 

It  is  well  to  make  this  statement  in  order  that  Mr,  Sherman  may  know  just  how  much  his 
friends  bear  for  his  sake.  Further  for  his  information,  that  of  the  civil  service  reform  adminis^tra- 
tion,  and  the  public,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  give  the  following  list  of  office-holders  who  conducted 
the  Secretary's  Mississippi  canvass.  Those  marked  with  a  star  were  delegates  to  the  convention. 
The  others  did  good  work  on  the  outside: 

PAT. 

*W.  H.  Gibbs,  Census  Supervisor $500 

*Jame3  Hill,  Collector  Internal  Revenue 2,650 

J.  J.  Spellraan,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue 1,200 

*W.  D.  Frazee,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue 1,000 

*W.  M.  Hancock,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue  1,000 

*W.  H.  Noonan,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue 1,000 

*Frank  Hill,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue 1,000 

♦W.  H.  Foote,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue 1,000 

*Jame8  D.  Cesson,  Deputy  Collector  internal  Revenue 1,000 

*J.  P.  Matthews,  Deputy  Collector  Internal  Revenue 1,000 

W.  C.  Raum,  alternate 1,000 

E.  W.  Hall,  alternate ' .' 1,400 

*J.  L.  Morphis,  United  States  Marshal 2,500  and  fees 

Thomas  W.  Hunt,  United  States  Marshal 2,500  and  fees 

*Green  C.  Chandler,  United  States  District  Attorney 2,500  and  foes 

*W.  H.  Kennon,  Postmaster,  about $2,000 

*J.  L,  Wofford,  Postmaster 2:0()0 

♦J.  R.  Smith,  Postmaster 2,000 

*H.  R.  Smith,  Postmaster 2,000 

W.  G.  Henderson,  Collector  Customs 2,500 

I.  N.  O«born,  Deputy  Collector  Customs 1,000 

* W.  H.  Harney,  Route  Agent,  Post  Office  Department 900 

*N.  D.  Sneed,  Route  Agent,  Post  Office  Department 900 

In  addition  to  these  were  a  number  of  messengers  and  minor  "  hangers-on." 

In  order  that  the  public  and  '*  the  civil  service  reform  administration"  may  know  exactly  upon 
what  terms  Mr.  Sherman  is  with  those  of  his  officers  who  aid  him  in  his  effort  to  capture  the 
Presidency,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  publish  the  following  letter,  which  was  signed  by  James  Hill, 
(colored)  Revenue  Collector,  Delegate  at  Large  to  Chicago,  and  Chairman  of  the  State  Executive 
Committee: 

Jackson,  Miss.,  May  6,  1880. 
The  Hon.  John  Sherman,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Washington  City: 

Dear  Sir:  My  friend,  Mr.  A.  H.  Kennedy,  is  one  of  the  most  worthy  working  Republicans  in 
our  state,  and  will  do  to  depend  upon  on  any  p^rt  of  the  ground.  He  was  a  delegate  from  his 
county,  and  assisted  vs  largely  in  your  behalf.  I  think  his  services  have  been  such  as  deserve  recog- 
nition at  the  hands  of  the  administration.  He  and  his  family  are  all  stt'ong  Republicans,  and  have 
never  held  or  asked  for  oflBcial  position  until  now,  that  I  am  aware  of.  Any  assistance  that  you  may 
be  able  to  give  him,  I  am  sure,  will  be  fully  appreciated  by  him,  by  the  party  of  the  state  at  large, 
and  by  myself.    I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant,  JAMES  HILL, 

Chairman  State  Executive  Committee. 

This  letter  was  sent  to  Mr.  Sherman  Inst  night.    I  have  sworn  evidence  of  its  authenticity.    That 

Sortion  of  it  which  reads,  "  He  was  a  delegate  from  his  county,  and  assisted  us  largely  in  your  be- 
alf — I  think  his  services  have  been  such  as  to  deserve  recognition  at  the  hands  of  the  Administra- 
tions—needs no  comment.  Still,  it  may,  perhaps,  be  remembered  thct  Mr  Sherman—according  to 
his  own  solemn  statement— knows  nothing  of,  and  is  in  no  way  afEected  by,  efforts  of  Federal 
ofUce-holders,  made  either  for  or  against  his  presidential  ambition. 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM.  283 

This  charge  against  John  Sherman  was  made  by  the  ablest  Republican  organ 
in  the  country,  and  with  its  usual  fairness  the  Times  proceeded  to  prove  its  alle- 
gation. It  cannot  be  said,  in  defense  of  Sherman,  that  he  is  the  object  of  Demo- 
cratic slander.  He  has  been  arraigned  by  his  own  party,  and  the  better  portion 
of  it  has  found  him  guilty.  That  Mr.  Hayes  connived  at  Sherman's  prostitution 
of  the  civil  service  in  the  interest  of  his  candidacy  cannot  be  doubted.  To  say 
lie  was  ignorant  of  the  flagrant  abuse  of  his  civil  service  order  by  Sherman  would 
be  to  pronounce  him  as  stupendous  a  fool  as  he  has  shown  himself  to  be  knave. 

POLITICAL   ASSESSMENTS. 

Having  shown  what  a  farce  was  made  out  of  the  first  clause  of  the  civil  service 
order  relating  to  the  non-interference  of  government  officials  in  elections,  we  will 
now  show  that  the  latter  clause  in  relation  to  assessing  government  employees  for 
campaign  purposes  was  also  ignored.  Hayes'  persistent  pretensions  in  regard  to 
reform  lead  some  people  to  believe  that  he  would  put  a  stop  to  the  infamous  sys- 
tem of  assessing  government  employees  to  swell  the  corruption  fund  of  the  Re- 
publican party  in  every  canvass.  But  he  has  not  done  anything  of  the  kind. 
That  part  of  his  order  relating  to  assessments  has  remained  as  much  of  a  dead 
letter  as  the  first  clause  forbidding  government  officials  to  take  part  in  political 
management.  The  first  general  election  held  after  Hayes  was  fraudulently  seated 
was  in  the  year  1878,  when  members  of  Congress  were  elected.  In  the  summer 
of  that  year  the  Republicans  organized  their  Congressional  Committee,  who  in 
turn  appointed  a  sub-committee,  called  the  Executive  Committee,  to  manage  and 
direct  the  campaign  from  Washington.  Hon.  Eugene  Hale,  of  Maine,  was  made 
Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee,  and  George  C.  Gorham,  then  Secretary  of 
the  United  States  Senate,  was  made  Secretary.  Mr.  Gorham  was,  in  fact,  the 
head  of  the  committee.  He  managed  and  directed  all  its  affairs,  and  nearly  the 
entire  work  of  the  campaign  was  intrusted  to  him.  The  Special  Committee  of 
the  Senate,  of  which  Senator  Wallace  is  Chairman,  appointed  to  inquire  into  al- 
leged frauds  in  the  elections  of  1878,  investigated  the  matter  of  assessments  upon 
office-holders  that  year,  and  from  the  report  of  that  committee  we  get  the  follow- 
ing facts: 

Mr.  Gorham  testified  that  he,  as  the  executive  officer  of  the  Republican  Com- 
mittee, collected,  in  the  fall  of  1878,  for  use  in  the  Congressional  campaign,  a  total 
of  $106,000,  of  which  sum  over  $93,000  was  obtained  from  the  government  em- 
ployees in  Washington.  Mr.  Gorham  inaugurated  his  assessment  campaign  by 
the  issuance  of  the  following  circular,  which  was  addressed  to  government  em- 
ployees : 

CIRCULAR  NO.  1 

Hkadquartbrs  of  the  Republican  Congressional  Committee,  1878, 1 

1319  P  Street,  Northwest,  Washington.  D.  C.  V 

Washington,  D.  C,  May  27,  1878.  ) 

Sir:  This  committee,  charged  with  laboring  for  the  success  of  the  Republican  cause  in  the  com- 
ing campaign  for  the  election  of  members  of  Congress,  call  with  confidence  upon  you,  as  a  Repub- 
lican, for  such  a  contribution  in  money  as  you  may  feel  willing  to  make,  hoping  that  it  may  not  be 
less  than  8 16. 

The  committee  deem  it  proper,  in  thus  appealing  to  Republicans  generally,  to  inform  those  who 
happen  to  be  in  Federal  employ  that  there  will  be  no  objection  in  any  official  quarter  to  such  vol- 
untary contribution. 

The  importance  of  the  pending  struggle  cannot  easily  be  exaggerated.  That  the  Senate  is  to  be 
Democratic  after  the  4th  of  March,  187y,  is  very  nearly  a  certainty.  In  view  of  this,  the  election  of 
a  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  would,  precipitate  upon  the  country  dangerous  agitations, 
which  would  inevitably  add  to  present  distresses.  Foremost  among  their  schemes  the  opposition 
already  announce  their  intention  to  attempt  the  revolutionary  expulsion  of  the  President  from  his 
office. 

If,  by  the  presentation  of  three  candidates  for  the  Presidency  in  1880,  the  people  should  fail  to 
choose,  the  House  must  elect,  each  state  delegation  casting  one  vote. 

From  what  is  now  known,  and  with  the  growing  dissensions  in  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  the  com- 
mittee have  good  reason  to  enter  upon  their  work  with  courage. 


284  /  CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 

Please  make  prompt  and  favorable  response  to  this  letter,  and  remit  at  once,  by  draft  or  poetal 
money  order,  to  "  Sidney  F.  Austin,  Esq.,  Treasurer,  &c.,  German-American  National  Bank 
Washington,  D.  C. 

By  order  of  the  Committee. 

GEO.  C.  GORHAM,  Secretary. 

In  about  six  weeks,  such  clerks  and  employees  as  had  not  responded  to  the 
notification  contained  in  the  first  circular  to  call  at  Captain  Gorham's  office  and 
settle,  were  reminded  that  the  Republican  party  expected  and  insisted  that  every 
man  should  pay  his  assessment,  by  the  receipt  of  circular  No.  2,  as  follows: 

CIRCULAR  NO.    2. 

Headquarters  of  the  Republican  CoNOREssioMAii  Committee,  ) 
Washington,  July  11,  1878.  ) 

Bear  Sir:  Since  sending  you  circular  under  date  of  May  27,  we  have  ascertained  that  the  rules 
of  your  department  render  difficult  your  absence  during  office  hours,  and  that  you  are  unable  to 
call  at  the  bank  where  contributions  are  received.  We  have,  therefore,  arranged  with  the  treas- 
urer, Mr.  Austin,  to  attend  at  the  German- American  National  Bank  from  4  to  5  o'clock  P.  M..  to 
receive  contributions  from  those  in  your  department  who  have  not  already  responded.  If  more 
convenient,  the  amount  can  be  transmitted  by  mail  to  Sidney  F.  Austin,  Treasurer  Congressional 
Republican  Committee,  as  above.    Respectfully  youre, 

GEO.  C.  GORHAM,  Secretary. 

There  were  still  delinquents,  even  after  the  second  circular  was  sent,  and  such 
were  once  more  called  upon  for  their  money  by  the  following  circular: 

CIRCULAR  NO.    3. 

-,  Dear  Sir:  There  appears  to  be  due  upon  your  subscription  to  our  campaign  fund 
dollars.    We  have  regarded  your  subscription  as  a  debt  of  honor,  voluntarily 


incurred  by  you,  and,  relying  upon  its  payment,  have  taken  it  into  the  account  in  the  conduct  of 
our  work.  We  earnestly  request  immediate  payment,  and  Mr.  N.  B.  Fugitt  will  be  in  attendance 
at  these  headquarters  (second  floor)  daily  from  10  o'clock  A.  M.  till  G  o'clock  P.  M.  to  receive  and 
receipt  for  such  moneys. 

Respectfully,  GEO.  C.  GORHAM,  Secretary. 

These  circulars,  Mr.  Gorham  said,  were  sent  to  Mr.  Hayes,  and  were  substantially 
approved  by  him.  This  last  circular  was  without  date,  but  Mr.  Gorham  testified 
that  it  was  issued  some  time  in  August.  Mr.  Gorham  testified  that  the  rate  of 
assessment — he  persisted  in  calling  it  "contribution" — fixed  upon  by  the  committee 
was  one  per  cent,  of  the  salary  of  each  government  employee.  The  circulars,  as 
was  shown  by  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Gorham  and  his  clerks,  did  not  meet  with  the 
responses  from  the  government  employees  that  the  Republican  committee  wanted. 
From  the  official  Register,  or  "Blue  Book,"  the  names  of  the  various  government, 
employees  and  the  salary  of  each  were  obtained.  The  names  of  the  employees  in 
each  department  were  entered  in  a  book,  and  opposite  each  name  was  written 
the  amount  of  the  assessment  demanded  by  the  committee.  Then  collectors, 
provided  with  these  books,  were  sent  through  the  departments  with  instructions 
to  call  upon  each  employee  personally  for  the  sum  set  opposite  his  name  by  the 
committee.  In  order  to  make  the  authority  of  the  Republican  committee  to  levy 
these  assessments  more  forcible,  the  heads  of  the  several  departments  wrote  their 
names  and  entered  a  contribution  on  the  first  page  of  the  book  intended  for  use 
in  their  departments.  For  instance,  the  assessment  book  used  in  the  treasury 
contained  on  the  first  page  the  names  of  John  Sherman  and  his  assistant  secreta- 
ries, with  amounts  ostensibly  contributed  opposite  each.  The  poor  clerk,  upon 
seeing  this,  would  feel  that  he  dared  not  defy  an  authority  that  had  the  sanction 
of  his  chief,  and  with  trembling  hand  and  unwilling  heart  would  "fork  over" 
the  amount  demanded  by  the  collector. 

now  THE  MONEY  WAS  SQUEEZED   OUT   OP  THE  POOR  CLERKS. 

A  few  extracts  from  Mr.  George  C.  Gorham's  testimony  will  show  how  the 

machine  was  worked : 

Chairman  Wallace:  Who  was  appointed  to  receive  contributions  in  the  Treasury  Department  T 
A.  I  would  state  here,  if  it  has  not  been  stated,  that  a  finance  committee  of  three  gentlemen  of  the 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM.  285 

committee  was  appointed  at  an  early  meeting  to  direct  the  manner  of  collecting  the  money,  and 
that  they  appointed  Mr.  Henry  Baker  (to  assess  the  treasury). 

Q.  To  visit  the  Trcasnry  Department  ?  A.  To  visit  the  Treasury  Department  and  solicit  sub- 
scriptions—ask the  persons  who  chose  to  give  to  so  state  in  a  book. 

Mr.  Gorham,  in  answer  to  a  question,  said  he  had  the  book,  and  would  turn 

it  over  to  the  committee,  which  he  subsequently  did.     When  the  assessment 

books  were  examined,  it  was  shown  that  the  clerks  had  not  voluntarily  entered 

their  names  and  subscriptions  in  them,  but  that  they  were  entered  from  the 

official  register,  and  then  the  clerks  were  called  upon  for  the  amounts  they  were 

assessed.     But  let  Mr.  Gorham  continue  his  story  to  the  committee  : 

By  the  Chairman :  Q.  Was  a  man  named  Fugitt  employed  or  authorized  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  What  was  his  first  name:''  A.  It  was  N.  B.  He  was  clerk  of  my  committee;  Baker  was 
not;  and  when  I  was  left  in  charge  I  called  upon  him  generally. 

Q.  What  one  of  the  departments  did  Mr.  Fugitt  visit  ?  A.  I  think  Mr.  Fugitt  visited  the  Post- 
Ofhce  Department,  I  think  the  Agricultural  Department,  and  I  think  the  Sixth  Auditor's  Office  of 
the  Treasury.  Baker,  I  think,  did  not  visit  that,  and  Fugitt  did;  but  I  am  not  sure.  He  may  have 
gone  to  other  places  in  the  citj .  He  was  generally  the  man  I  relied  on  to  g:>.  I  think  I  sent  him 
up  to  the  Navy  Department. 

Q.  Were  Mr.  Baker's  visits  soliciting  contributions  at  the  treasury  Interfered  with  by  the  rules 
of  the  deparment,  do  you  know  ?    A.  I  never  heard  anything  on  that  subject. 

Q.  Was  this  circular  sent  to  the  navy  yards  and  post-offices  of  the  country  generally  ?  A.  If  it 
was  not  eent  to  every  civil  officer  who  received  over  ^1,01)0  a  year,  gome  of  the  clerks  neglected 
their  duties,  because  that  was  my  instruction. 

Q.  Your  instruction  was  to  send  it  to  all  the  Federal  employees  receiving  over  $1,000  ?  A.  It 
was. 

Q.  To  all  the  employees  of  the  government  ?  A.  That  was  my  object;  to  have  it  reach  every 
man  who  was  in  office  ? 

Q.  Were  the  responses  to  the  leading  circular  (circular  No.  1  I  shall  call  it)  from  th^  collectors 
of  customs  and  postmasters,  and  so  on,  in  the  leading  cities  in  the  country,  in  the  form  of  sub- 
scriptions y  A.  Very  generally;  more  so  than  ever  in  the  history  of  the  party,  I  have  been  told.  Fifty 
percent,  more  in  number  contributed,  probably,  than  did  in  1876.  I  mean  by  that  to  say  that  in* 
1876  the  request  was  for  two  per  cent.,  and  m  1878  the  request  was  for  one  per  cent.,  and  although 
we  only  asked  for  half  as  much,  we  got  three-quarters  as  much. 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  case  in  any  of  the  departments  in  Washington  in  which  men  who  failed 
to  respond  to  your  circular  were  dismissed  within  thirty  days  ?    A.  Do  I  know  of  my  knowledge  ? 

Q.  Yes,  sir  ?    A.  I  do  not. 

Q.  Have  you  heard  of  any  such  case  ?  A.  I  have  heard  of  a  single  man  who  was  removed  from 
a  department,  and  that  man  did  not  subscribe;  but  whether  that  had  any  connection  with  his  re- 
moval I  do  not  know,  and  nobody  connected  with  our  committee  promoted  any  report  about  it  or 
any  change. 

Q.  What  was  the  politics  of  that  man  ?    A.  He  said  he  was  a  Democrat. 

Being  asked  if  his  committee  called  upon  national  banks  for  money  for  the 
campaign  of  1878,  Mr.  Gorham  replied  tJiat  Mr.  Eugene  Hale,  chairman  of  the 
committee,  visited  New  York  City  and  raised  $13,000,  and  he  presumed  some  of 
it  came  from  national  banks. 

POLITICAL   ASSESSMENTS  IN  AN  OFF  YEAR  BRING  IN   $106,000. 

In  the  following  answers  Mr.  Gorham  explains  where  the  Republican  party 

gets  its  sinews  of  war.      He  has  already  shown  how  the  assessment  plan  is 

worked.     Now,  let  him  tell  who  it  is  that,  somehow  or  another,  feels  constrained 

to  make  these  contributions  : 

By  Mr.  Bailey :  Q.  I  understand  that  altogether  the  subscriptions  to  yonr  fund  amounted  to 
about  $106,000  ?    A,  Yes,  sir;  as  near  as  I  can  get  at  it. 

Q.  Of  which  $93,000  came  from  the  officers  ?  A.  From  Senators,  Representatives  and 
others. 

Q.  How  much  of  that  came  from  Senators  and  Representatives  ?  A.  I  cannot  state  it  now  ;  I 
think  that  their  subscription  was  pretty  general ;  there  were,  as  we  know,  thirty-nine  Republican 
Senators,  and  they  gave,  as  a  general  rule,  $100  a-piece.  There  may  have  been  some  exceptions  ;  I 
do  not  remember;  the  Republican  members  of  the  House  gave  us  $50  a-piece. 

Q.  All  of  them,  or  only  a  portion  ?  A.  The  great  body  of  them  ;  the  intention  of  all  was  to  do 
it ;  there  may  have  been  a  case  here  and  there  where  it  was  not  convenient. 

Q .  All  the  remainder  of  the  $93,000  came  from  those  in  the  civil  service  of  the  government  ? 
A.  Yes,  I  think  so. 

Q.  And  from  all  the  Republican  party  outside  of  those  who  were  employed  you  received  but 
$13,000  ?    A.  That  is  all ;  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  was  all  we  got  from  them. 

Q.  Then  your  treasury— 1  mean  the  treasury  of  the  committee — was  recruited  chiefly  from  the 
employees  of  the  government  ?    A.  It  would  appear  so  from  my  last  answer. 

Q.  And  they  bore  the  expenses  of  the  Republican  campaign  chiefly,  with  the  exception  you 
have  named  ?    A.  That  would  be  the  inference  from  the  last  question  and  answer. 

THEY  FARMED  OUT  SOME  OF  THE  BEST  LOTS, 

Mr.  Gorham  further  testified  that  in  various  states  the  state  committees  were  al- 


286  CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 

lowed  to  assess  the  Federal  office  holders,  and  that  the  money  thus  raised  was  in 
addition  to  the  $106,000  collected  by  the  Executive  Committee  at  Washington. 
According  to  Mr.  Gorham's  showing,  the  money  raised  by  assessing  government 
clerks  was  used  to  pay  for  printing  and  sending  out  documents,  to  pay  speakers, 
etc.,  and  to  aid  generally  in  the  election  of  Republican  Congressmen  in  close  dis- 
tricts. The  amounts  sent  out  to  the  different  states  for  use  in  close  districts  were 
distributed  as  follows  : 

Maine,  $5,000;  New  Hampshire.  81,750;  Vermont,  3cl  district,  $500;  Connecticnt,  3d  district,  $1,000, 
New  Jersey,  1st  district,  $1,500;  2d  district,  $500;  5tlii  district,  $500;  Pennsylvania,  irth  district, 
$1,500;  Maryland,  6th  district,  $1,250;  West  Virginia,  2d  district,  $350;  8d  district,  $500;  Virginia, 
2d  district,  $1,000;  4th  district,  $1,300;  North  Carolina,  three  districts,  $1,300;  South  Carolina,  1st 
district,  $1,000;  5th  district,  $600;  state  at  large,  $200;  Florida,  1st  district,  $500;  2d  district,  $1,000; 
Alabama,  4th  district.  $500;  Tennessee,  1st  district,  $500;  2d  district,  $500;  Missouri,  2d  district; 
$500;  3d  district  $500;  7th  district,  $100;  10th  district,  $1,000;  Ohio,  to  nine  districts,  $9,300;  Indi- 
ana, to  state  central  committee,  with  recommendation  that  it  be,  distributed  as  follows:  1st  district, 
$2,000;  4th  district,  ^1,000;  6th  district,  $1,000;  8th  district,  $500;  10th  district,  $500;  cannot  Bay 
whether  or  not  the  distribution  was  made  as  recommended;  Illinois,  18th  district,  $250;  Michigan, 
$5,000;  Iowa,  $5,000;  Wisconsin,  $1,500;  Oregon,  $2,000;  Colorado,  $1,000.     Total,  $53,900. 

The  fradulent  administration,  as  proven  by  the  testimony  of  Gorham  and  his 
assistants,  consented  to  a  few  other  little  irregularities,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  dc 
tailing  of  men  who  were  employed  and  paid  by  the  government  to  do  campaign  work 
for  the  Republican  party,  thus  robbing  the  people  of  service  they  were  paying  for. 

THE  PERSONAL  ACCOUNT   OF  R.    B.    HAYES  WITH  THE  CIVIL   SERVICE. 

They  (the  founders  of  the  government)  held  that  appointments  to  office  were  not  to  be  made  ot 
expected  merely  as  awards  for  partisan  services. 

The  above  was  Mr.  Hayes'  language  in  his  inaugural  address.  This  was  the 
principle  laid  down  by  the  de  facto  President  as  the  rule  by  which  he  should  be 
guided  in  making  appointments.  While  the  words  above  quoted  were  upon  hi§ 
lips  he  had  made  promises  which  involved  their  violation  in  letter  and  in  spirit. 
Placed  in  the  White  House  by  a  conspiracy  against  free  government,  the  conspir' 
ators  demanded  of  the  beneficiary  of  their  plots  payment  in  lucrative  offices. 
The  ready  compliance  of  Hayes  with  their  demands  was  the  most  convincing 
proof  of  his  knowledge  of  the  awful  crime  of  1876.  Convicted  perjurers  and 
thieves  tilled  the  corridors  of  the  executive  mansion  and  jostled  innocent  citizens 
of  the  Republic  in  the  reception  and  anterooms.  The  rogues  who  made  false  re- 
turns and  stole  the  electoral  votes  of  three  states  swaggered  about  the  barrooms 
of  Washington  boasting  of  their  villanies  and  savagely  cursing  Hayes  for  his  tar- 
diness in  settling  the  score. 

WHAT  A  FRAITDULENT  PRESIDENT  COST  THE  PEOPLE. 

Hardly  had  the  printers'  ink  dried  on  the  newspapers  which  printed  the  inau- 
gural address  than  the  work  of  rewarding  crime  was  begun  by  Mr.  Hayes.  How 
well  he  succeeded  the  following  table  will  show. 


CIVIL   SERVICE    REFORM. 


287 


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288 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 


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CIVIL   SERVICE    REFORM. 


289 


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290  CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 

This  record  of  beneficiaries  was  prepared  over  a  year  ago.  It  is  impossible  to 
ascertain  from  the  pay  rolls  of  the  government  what  additions  have  been  made  to 
this  black  list  since.  The  name  of  one  member  of  the  Louisiana  Returning  Board 
is  conspicuous  because  of  its  absence  from  this  list.  Civil  service  reform  was  not 
vindicated,  however,  because  G.  Cassanave  did  not  receive  an  office.  The  sum  of 
$1,750,  paid  to  Cassanave  in  August,  1879,  by  R.  B.  Hayes  and  John  Sherman  as 
the  price  of  his  silence  and  for  services  rendered,  is  not  included  in  the  total  an- 
nual roll  of  $342,170. 

THE   CASE  OF  CASSANAVE. 

The  expenses  of  the  defense  of  the  Louisiana  Returning  Board,  indicted  in  the 

Circuit  Court  at  New  Orleans  for  perjury  and  fraud,  were  $5,000.     As   the  other 

members  of  the  board  were  insolvent,  Cassanave's  property  was  levied  upon  to 

meet  the  judgment  rendered  for  the  $5,000  fee.     On  August  7,  1879,  Cassanave 

wrote  to  Mr.  Hayes  as  follows  : 

If  my  property  is  sacrificed  under  that  judgment  it  will  render  me  bankrupt.  I  am  a  poor  man 
and  unable  to  sustain  such  a  loss.  I  have  always  assumed  a  full  share  of  the  responsibility  attach- 
ing to  the  official  acts  of  the  returning  board,  although  I  have  never  enjoyed  any  of  the  fruits  re- 
suiting  from  its  findings;  and  in  this  connection  I  respectfully  remind  you  that  I  hold  no  office 
under  your  administration,  and  have  derived  no  pecuniary  benefits  whatever  therefrom;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  I  have  sustained  considerable  loss  in  ray  business  on  account  of  my  identity  with  the 
board.  Messrs.  Anderson,  Wells  and  Kenner,  the  other  three  members,  and  their  numerous  family 
connections,  are  enjoying  lucrative  positions  in  the  employ  of  the  government. 

I  called  upon  Mr.  Sherman  yesterday  and  he  proffered  me  a  contribution  of  $100,  as  the  only 
relief  he  could  offer  me,  which  I  was  compelled  to  decline  out  of  respect  for  the  great  finance 
minister  of  our  government. 

Cassanave  wrote  this  letter  in  "Washington.  Before  sending  it  he  had  called  at 
the  White  House  and  had  been  refused  the  assistance  he  demanded.  He  was 
more  successful  in  his  epistolary  efforts,  and  a  few  hours  after  the  letter  had  been 
received  at  the  White  House  $500  was  sent  to  New  Orleans  to  be  paid  on  the 
judgment.  The  following  telegraphic  correspondence  between  Shellabarger  & 
Wilson,  Hayes'  attorneys,  and  E.  North  Cullom,  of  New  Orleans,  who  held  the 
judgment,  explains  the  conclusion  of  the  case: 

DAMNING     CORRESPONDENCE. 

Washington,  D.  C,  August  13,  1879. 
E.  North  Cullom,  New  Orleans,  La.: 

Should  we  send  $1,000  more  on  returning  board  judgment  will  you  give  reasonable  time  for 
balance? 

SHELLABARGER  &  WILSON. 

To  this  dispatch  came  the  following  reply: 

New  Orleans,  August  13,  1879, 
Messrs.  Shellabarger  &  Wilson,  Washington,  D.  C. : 

If  you  send  me  $250  more,  making  a  total  of  $1,750,  and  Cassanave  will  give  security  not  to  dis- 
T)08e  of  his  property,  1  will  wail  till  January  1. 

E.  NORTH  CULLOM. 

On  August  15  Shellabarger  gave  Cassanave  the  following  dispatch  and  directed 
him  to  sign  and  send  it : 

Washington,  D.  C,  August  15,  1879. 
E.  North  Cullom,  New  Orleans  : 

Will  cause  $1,000  to  be  mailed  to-day,  provided  you  stop  sale  and  wait  until  January  Ist  for 
balance.    Answer  immediately.  G.  CASSANAVE. 

Cullom  replied  as  follows  : 

New  Orleans,  August  15th,  1879. 
G.  Cassanave,  Washington,  D.  C: 
I  will  not.    Sale  goes  on.  E.  NORTH  CULLOM. 

Cassanave  carried  the  reply  to  Shellabarger,  who  indorsed  upon  it  the  follow- 
ing : 

To  Secretary  Sherman  : 

I  telegraphed  that  I  would  send  $1,000  to-day  if  sale  would  stop  and  the  plaintiff  wait  for  the 
balance  till  January,  and  this  is  the  answer.    What  hhall  I  do  with  the  $1,000  y 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM.  291 

The  $1,000  had  been  previously  sent  by  R.  B.  Hayes  to  Shellabarger  to  help 
Cassanave  out.  Sherman  wrote  in  reply  to  Shellabarger  '*  You  may  offer  the 
$1,250." 

This  sum  together  with  the  $500  previously  sent  made  up  the  amount  which 

Cullom  demanded  and  the  sale  was  stopped.     Senator  West  in  commenting  on 

this  transaction  in  the  Senate  said  : 

Why  the  President  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  changed  their  determination,  and  what  relation 
-existed  between  the  work  of  the  returning  board  and  the  payment  by  them  of  ^1,750  I  leave  to 
the  candid  judgment  of  honest  men. 

THE  CLOSE  OF   THE  FARCE. 

During  the  past  three  and  one-half  years  of  trickery,  deceit  and  hypocrisy  the 
f rudulent  administration  has  striven  to  hide  its  rank  offenses  against  decency  and 
pure  government  by  a  cloak  of  smooth  words,  voluble  excuses  and  pretentious 
palaver.  In  the  present  campaign,  the  mask  will  be  thrown  off  entirely.  Every 
department  of  the  government  will  be  utilized  to  assist  in  the  election  of  the  Repub- 
lican ticket.  The  standing  army  of  100,000  federal  office  holders  will  be  marched 
into  the  field  and  forced  to  contribute  liberally.  A  refusal  to  pay  promptly  means 
dismissal.  Already  the  heads  of  a  score  of  department  clerks,  who  had  the  bravery 
to  openly  declare  their  preference  for  Hancock  have  fallen.  Free  speech  is 
denied  the  servants  of  the  people.  Democrats  in  the  departments  are  given  the 
alternative  of  subscribing  to  the  Republican  campaign  fund  or  losing  their  places 
The  following  circular  has  been  mailed  to  all  the  government  clerks  : 

CIVIL  SERVICE   ORDER  NO.    1,   ACCORDING  TO  M'PHERSON. 

Headquarters  of  the  Republican  Congressional  Committee,  1 
l.yil  F  St.,  N.W.,  Washington,  D.  C 
Jay  A.  HubhdU  Chairman.  Ediod.  McPherson,  Secretary. 

.'Executive  Committee  :  The  Hon.  William  B.  Allison,  the  Hon.  E.  H.  Rollins,  the  Hon.  Frank 
Hiscock,  the  Hon.  Mark  H.  Bunnell,  the  Hon.  Godlove  S.  Orth,  the  Hon.  Wm.  McKinley, 
the  Hon.  Joseph  Jorgensen,  the  Hon.  G.  R.  Davis,  the  Hon.  H.  G.  Fisher. 

Washington,  D.  C,  April  19, 1880. 
^r  :  This  committee  is  organized  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the  Republican  party  in 
-each  of  the  congressional  districts  of  the  Union,  In  order  that  it  may  prepare,  print  and  circu- 
late suitable  documents  illustrating  the  issues  which  distinguish  the  Republican  party  from  every 
other,  and  may  meet  all  proper  expenses  incident  to  the  campaign,  the  committee  feels  author- 
ized to  apply  to  all  citizens  whose  interests  or  principles  are  involved  in  the  struggle .  Under  the 
circumstances  in  which  the  country  finds  itself  placed,  the  committee  believes  that  you  will  esteem 
it  both  a  privilege  and  a  pleasure  to.make  to  its  fund  a  contribution,  which  it  is  hoped  may  not  be 

less  than  % .    The  committee  is  authorized  to  state  that  such  voluntary  contributions/row 

persons  employed  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  will  not  be  objected  to  in  any  official  quarter. 
The  labors  of  this  committee  will  affect  the  result  of  the  presidential  as  well  as  the  congressional 
struggle  ;  and  it  may  therefore  reasonably  hope  to  have  the  sympathy  and  assistance  of  all  who 
look  with  dread  upon  the  possibility  of  the  restoration  of  the  Democratic  party  to  the  control  of 
the  government. 

Please  make  prompt  and  favorable  response  to  this  letter  by  bank  check  or  draft  or  postal 
money  order,  payable  to  the  order  of  George  Frs.  Dawson,  Treasurer,  post-office,  lock  box  723, 
Washington,  D.C.  By  order  of  the  Committee,  EDWARD  WcPHERSON,  Secretary. 

Collections  were  begun  on  the  1st  of  July  in  the  Treasury  Department. 
When  clerks  refuse  voluntarily  to  pay  the  assessment,  the  disbursing  officer 
deducts  the  two  per  cent,  from  their  salaries. 

ASSESSMENT  ON   DISTRICT  OF   COLUMBIA  CLERKS. 

In  the  general  raid  upon  office  holders,  the  clerks  employed  in  the  government 
of  the  District  of  Columbia  have  not  been  forgotten.  The  following  circular  has 
been  addressed  to  them  : 

Republican  Central  Committee  for  the  District  op  Columbia.  \ 
Washington,  D.C,  July  16,  1880.  f 
Sir:  This  committee,  composed  of  three  members  from  each  of  the  twenty-two  legislative 
districts  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  is  organized  for  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  t  e  Repub- 
lican party  ;  to  aid  the  Republican  cause  in  the  Congressional  districts  in  contiguous  States  ;  to 
provide  for  the  transportation  of  voters  ;  to  circulate  suitable  documents  illustrating  the  issues 
which  distinguish  the  Republican  party  from  every  other,  and  to  do  such  other  campaign  work 
-as  may  be  assigned  it  by  the  National  Republican  committee. 


} 


292  •  CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 

The  committee  feels  authorised  to  apply  to  all  citizens  whope  interests  or  principles  are  involved' 
in  ttie  struggle.  Under  the  ci  cumstances  in  which  the  district  finds  itself  placed,  the  committee 
believes  that  you  will  esteem  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  pleasure  to  make  to  its  funds  a  contribution, 

which  it  is  hoped,  may  not  be  less  than  S .    The  committee  is  authorized  to  state  that  such 

voluntar  •  contribution  from  persons  employed  by  the  District  of  Columbia  will  not  be  objected  ta- 
in any  official  quarter . 

It  has  been  decided  to  hold  a  mass  meeting  of  the  Republicans  of  the  District  of  Columbia  at  an 
early  date  to  ratify  the  nominations  of  the  Chicago  convention.  The  importance  of  our  position  at 
the  national  capital  renders  it  neccessary  that  every  effort  be  made  to  insure  entire  success. 

Please  make  prompt  and  favorable  response  to  this  letter  by  check  payable  to  the  order  of  W.  B. 
Reed,  Chairman  Finance  Committee,  P.O.  box  594,  Washington,  D.C.,  or  in  person,  to  any  member 
of  the  Finance  Committee.  J.  M.  GREGORY,  Secretary 

The  fraudulent  administration  has  been  false  to  every  promise  of  reform  it  has 
ever  made.  Its  shallow  hypocrisy  in  this  regard  has  made  the  very  name  of 
reform  a  reproach.  Civil  service  reform  has  grown  to  be  a  synonym,  in 
ironical  language,  for  all  that  is  hollow  and  deceitful,  disgusting  and  false  irt 
government.  The  crowning  sheaf  to  the  sham  is  the  spectacle  of  the  cabinet  led 
by  Carl  Schurz  stumping  the  country  for  Garfield  and  Arthur. 


CIVIL    SERVICE    REFORM. 


293 


Members  of  KeUogg  legislature  (?)  who  voted  for  Kellogg  for   U.  S.  Senator,  and  afterward  re- 
ceived Federal  offices. 


Names. 


Senators : 

■Z.  E.  Breaux 

J.  H.Burch 

A.  J.  Dumont 

P.Landry .. 

Isaac  Sutton 

M.  A.  Twitchell... 
George  W.  Bryant. 
A.J.  Wakefield.... 


Eight  senators  receive  directly 

Officers  of  the  Senate  : 

•C.  C.  Antoine,  president 

Peter  E.  Bechtel,  Ist  secretary. . 
W.  H.  Green,  ass't  secretary.. 


Senate  officers  receive. 


Members  of  the  House  : 

Charles  F.  Brown  

O.  H.Brewster 

R.  J.  Brooks 

John  E.  Brown 

J.  M.  Carville 

W.  J.  De  Lacy 

W.  H.  Dinkgrave 

Louis  Desmarais , 

A.  De  Joie 

Fred.  Fobb 

George  Gracien 

O.  Bfolt 

■J.J.  Johnson 

Robert  Johnson 

Milton  Jones 

C.  W.  Keeting , 

William  Kern 

W.G.  Lane 

A.  H.  Leonard , 

John  G.  Lewis 

A.  E.  Milon 

M.  L.  McMillen 

W.J.  Moore 

Henry  Raby 

L.  J.  Souer 

George  A.  Swazie 

L.  A.  Snaer 

Jules  Severgnes 

J.  R.  Stewart 

George  Washington 

L.  Como 

R.  Simmes 


Thirty-two  members  of  the 

Officers  of  the  House: 
Robert  Guichard,  chief  clerk . . . 
William  Vigers,  assistant  clerk. 
T.  A.  Clover,  minute  clerk. . . 
C.  H.  Merritt,  house  postmaster 


Four  house  employees. 


Present  offices. 


U.  s.  aepui. 

Clerk  in  New  Orleans  custom-house 

U.  S.  deputy  collector.  New  Orleans 

Laborer  m  N.  O.  custom-house  at  25  cents  per  hour,  or., 

(-  U  U  ((  (i  i( 

Consul  to  Kingston,  Canada 

Laborer  in  N.  O.  custom-house  at  25  cents  per  hour,  or. . 
Night  inspector  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $2.50  per  day,  or, 


Clerk  and  storekeeper  in  N.  O.  custom-house 

"    in  N.  O.  c  istom-house 

U.  S.  inspector,  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $3  per  day,  or. . . 


Laborer  in  N.  O.  custom-house. 

Surveyor-general,  New  Orleans 

Night  inspector  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $2.50  per  day,  or. 

Messenger  in  N.  O.  custom-house 

Inspector  in  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $2.50  per  day,  or 

'•  *'  "  $90per  month,  or.. 

Clerk  in.N.  O.  custom-house 

Cashier      *'  "  

U.  S.  ganger  at  New  Orleans 

Night  inspector  N.O.  custom-house  at  $75  per  month,  or 

Laborer  in  N.  O,  custom-house 

Inspector  in  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $3  per  day . 

Laborer  "  '"  25  cents  per  hour,  or. 

Night  inspector  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $75  per  month,  or 

Revenue  boatman  at  New  Orleans 

U.  S.  ganger  at  N.  O.  custom-house 

•*      deputy  collector  at  New  Orleans 

"     commissioner        "         " 

"     dist.  attorney        "         «' 
Night  inspector  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $75  per  month,  or 

Postmaster  at  New  Orleans 

Ganger  in  N.  O.  custom-house 

Night  inspector  N.  O.  custom-house  at  $75  per  month,  or 

U.  S.  appraiser.  New  Orleans 

Laborer  in  N.  O.  custom-house  

Storekeeper  N.  O.  custom-house 

Night  inspector  N.  C.  custom-house  at  $75  per  month,  or 

Captain  of  night  watchmen  at  N.  O  custom-house 

United  States  boatman.  New  Orleans 

See  testimony  of  James  Lewis,  on  p.  649  of  evidence 

Appointed  since  he  testified.    (See  telegram  in  evidence) 

house  draw  annually 


Examiner  in  N.  O.  custom-house 

Niyht  inspector  N.  O.  custom-house 

Assistant  weigher,  N.  O.  custom-house 

Inspector  New  Orleans  custom-house  at  $3  per  day,  or. 


Salary. 


$1,500 

1,400 

3,000 

720 

720 

1,500 

720 

900 

10,360 


2,000 
1,600 
1,080 

4,680 


600 

1,800 

900 

600 

900 

1,080 

600 

500 

Pees. 

900 

600 

1,080 

720 

900 

600 

1,500 

1,000 


900 
900 

3.500 

Fees. 

900 

3,000 
600 

1,410 
900 
600 
750 


30,070 


1,200 
1,080 

4,980 


RECAPITULATION. 

8  senators  receive $10,360 

3  senate  officers  receive 4,680 

3  i  members  of  the  house  receive 30,070 

4  house  officers  receive 4,980 

47  members  and  officers  draw 49,490 


294  THE  GREAT  FRAUD  OP  1876. 


THE  GREAT  FRAUD  OF  1876. 


When  the  polls  closed  Tuesday  evening,  November  6,  1876,  Samuel  J.  Tildea 
and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  vs^ere  by  the  ballots  in  the  boxes  elected  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.    By  a  popular  majority  of  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  million  of  all  the  votes  cast  the  Tilden  and  Hendricks  electors,  to  the^  • 
number  of  196,  were  beyond  a  possibility  of  doubt  elected. 

By  midnight,  November  6,  1876,  the  fact  of  the  election  of  Tilden  and  Hen- 
dricks was  known  at  the  rooms  of  the  National  Republican  Committee,  in  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel.  There  were  present  there  Zach.  Chandler,  chairman  of  the 
committee,  R.  C  McCormick,  secretary,  George  F.  Edmunds,  Senator  from  Ver- 
mont, W.  E.  Chandler,  member  of  the  committee  for  New  Hampshire,  Chester 
A.  Arthur,  collector  of  the  port  of  New  York,  Alonzo  B.  Cornell,  naval  officer  of 
that  port,  and  divers  other  more  or  less  important  Republican  politicians.  There 
was  a  consultation.  The  news  received  from  Louisiana  left  no  shadow  of  doubt, 
that  the  Democrats  had  carried  that  State  by  a  clear  majority  of  from  6,000  to 
10,000  votes.  That  elected  Tilden  and  Hendricks.  The  probabilities  were  that 
Florida  and  South  Carolina  had  been  likewise  carried  by  the  Democrats.  It  was 
absolutely  certain  that,  excluding  Florida,  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina,  184 
Tilden  and  Hendricks  electors  had  been  elected.  To  make  a  majority  of  the  elec- 
toral votes  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler  the  Republicans  must  have  the  votes  of  Flor- 
ida, Louisiana  and  South  Carolina.  This  was  the  task  the  Republican  conspir- 
ators in  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  set  themselves  to  accomplish  at  midnight,  No- 
vember 6,  1876. 

To  be  successful  they  must  have  the  countenance  and  assistance  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  Ulysses  S.  Grant.  Time  was  precious.  There  must  be 
instant  and  safe  communication  with  him.  He  was  known  to  be  in  Philadelphia, 
accompanied  by  Don.  Cameron,  Secretary  of  War.  There  was  no  train  to  Phila- 
delphia till  four  o'clock  the  next  morning.  A  messenger  by  that  train  could  not 
reach  and  communicate  with  Grant  before  seven  o'clock.  That  might  be  too  late. 
It  would  not  do  to  use  the  wires  of  the  Western  Union  or  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
Telegraph  Companies,  for  a  tell-tale  record  would  be  left  behind.  It  was  sug- 
gested by  some  one  of  the  conspirators,  having  knowledge  of  the  fact,  that  Jay 
Gould  had  a  private  wire  connecting  his  house  and  Philadelphia.  This  intelli- 
gence was  a  ray  of  hope  to  the  desponding  and  well-nigh  hopeless  conspirators. 
To  Jay  Gould's  house,  after  midnight,  the  chiefs  hastened.  It  is  certain  that 
Chandler,  Edmunds,  Cornell,  and  Arthur,  were  of  the  number.  They  roused 
Jay  Gould  from  his  slumbers,  stated  the  object  of  their  visit  at  that  unseemly 
hour,  and  were  admitted.  Then  their  confidential  telegrapher  began  the  work  of 
finding  Grant  and  Cameron  in  Philadelphia.  It  was  not  an  easy  job.  Neither 
Grant  nor  Cameron  was  at  his  accustomed  haunts.     Messengers  scoured  Phila- 


THE    GREAT    FRAUD    OF    1876.  295 

delphia  for  them.  After  much  delay,  to  the  inexpressible  relief  of  the  conspira- 
tors in  Jay  Gould's  private  office,  the  confidential  operator  announced  that  Grant 
and  Cameron  had  been  found,  and  in  a  few  minutes  would  be  at  the  other  end  of 
the  wire.  The  ticker  presently  ticked  off  "all  ready."  and  then  began  in  the 
small  hours  of  the  morning  of  November  7,  187G,  the  communications  between 
Zach  Chandler,  at  Jay  Gould's  house  in  New  York,  and  Grant  in  Philadelphia, 
which  laid  the  foundation  for  the  Great  Fraud  of  1876. 

Chandler  briefly  informed  Grant  of  the  situation.  The  Democratic  184  elec- 
toral votes  certain  without  Florida,  Lousiana  and  South  Carolina.  It  was  very 
evident  that  the  ballots  in  the  boxes  gave  them  Lousiana  by  a  large  majority  and 
that  Florida  and  South  Carolina  were  probably  the  same  way.  With  either  one 
of  these  three  states,  Tilden  and  Hendricks  would  be  elected,  without  all  three  of 
them  Hayes  and  Wheeler  could  not  be  counted  in.  It  was  necessary,  to  accomplish 
this,  to  have  not  only  the  countenance,  but  the  active  assistance,  of  the  Federal 
government.  There  must  be  troops  sent  to  Florida,  and  the  Federal  force  in 
Lousiana  must  be  increased.  To  every  demand  Grant  responded  "  it  shall  be 
done ."  The  orders  for  the  disposition  of  the  troops  were  given  by  Cameron,  who 
left  Philadelphia  on  the  first  train  for  Washington.  The  next  day— the  very  day 
after  this  colloquy  and  conspiring  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  people— came  Grant's 
hypocritical  telegram  from  Philadelphia  declaring  his  purpose  to  see  a  fair  count 
and  saying  that  no  man  worthy  to  hold  the  high  office  of  President  could  accept 
it  if  it  was  obtained  by  unworthy  means. 

Meanwhile  to  Florida,  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina  and  everywhere  went  the 
false,  but  encouraging  telegrams  of  Zach  Chandler,  "Hayes  has  received  185 
electoral  votes  and  is  elected."  Swift  messengers  left  New  York  on  the  first  trains 
Nov.  7th  for  Tallahassee,  Columbia  and  New  Orleans.  The  shrewd  and  wily 
William  E.  Chandler  went  to  Florida  prepared  for  every  emergency,  and  equally 
reliable  and  unscrupulous  men  were  dispatched  to  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina. 
.  The  uncontradicted  testimony  of  men  who  were  familiar  with  the  situation  in  New 
Orleans  and  with  the  hopes  and  fears  of  the  desperate  carpet-bag  politicians  was 
taken.  This  establishes  the  fact  that  they  were  hopeless  during  the  first  twenty-four 
hours  after  the  election.  Then  came  the  reassuring  telegrams  of  Zach  Chandler, 
and  as  fast  as  steam  could  bear  them  on  express  trains  came  also  the  visiting 
statesmen.  John  Sherman  and  James  A.  Garfield  with  others  went  to  New  Or- 
leans. Noyes,  now  Minister  to  France,  and  others  to  Florida,  while  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  courts  of  the  District  of  Columbia  headed  the  delegation  to  South 
Carolina.  The  Second  Assistant  Postmaster-General,  accompanied  by  a  retinue 
of  detectives,  special  agents  of  that  department,  went  to  Florida,  and  the  Secret 
Service  force  of  tlie  Treasury  Department  was  scattered  through  South  Carolina 
and  Louisiana  to  serve  the  purposes  of  the  conspirators.  The  complete  history  of 
the  work  that  was  done  in  those  states  to  accomplish  the  monstrous  conspiracy, 
the  double-dyed  villainy  of  the  visiting  statesmen,  the  perjuries  they  were  privy 
to,  the  forgeries  they  countenanced,  will  never  be  fully  told.  Enough,  however, 
has  been  imperishably  recorded  to  make  all  who  were  concerned  therein  eternally 
infamous. 

The  most  complete  as  well  as  the  most  succinct  account  of  the  frauds  by  which 
the  electoral  votes  of  Florida  and  Louisiana  were  stolen  from  Tilden  and  Hen- 
dricks will  be  found  in  the  Potter  Report,  made  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
at  the  third  session  of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  which  we  here  append  in  full. 


296       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 


ELECTORAL  FRAUDS  IN  THE  LATE  PRESIDENTIAL 

ELECTION. 


Mr,  Potter,  from  the  select  committee  on  alleged  electoral  f ra  ids  in  the  late  presidential  elec- 
tion, submitted  the  following: 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  resolution  of  the  House  "  to  inquire  into  the  alleged  fraudulent 
canvass  and  return  of  votes  at  the  last  presidental  election  in  the  states  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,'' 
and  who,  by  a  subsequent  resolution  of  the  House,  were  authorized  "  to  investigate  frauds  touching 
that  election  in  any  state  where  they  had  probable  cause  to  believe  the  same  existed,"  respectfully 
report: 

That  they  proceeded  at  once  to  the  discharge  of  the  duty  imposed  upon  them.  They  have  ex- 
amined over  two  hundred  witnesses,  and  taken  about  3,000  closely-printed  pages  of  testimony. 

INVESTIGATION  CONFINED  TO  FLORIDA  AND  LOUISIANA. 

No  application  having  been  made  to  them,  either  by  any  member  of  the  committee  or  of  the 
House,  or  from  any  other  quarter,  to  consider  any  matter  conected  with  that  election  in  any  other 
state,  they  have  confined  their  inquiries  to  the  said  states  of  Florida  and  Louisiana. 

WHAT   CONGRESS   SHOULD   INVESTIGATE, 

The  Constitution  provides  that  each  state  shall  direct  the  manner  in  which  its  electors  are  to  be 
appointed.  Their  appointment  is  therefore  conducted  under  state  law  and  determined  by  state 
officers. 

Wrongs  in  connection  with  state  elections  are  not  novelties.  The  stuffing  and  destruction  of 
ballots  and  alteration  of  figures  have  heretofore  occurred,  and  it  is  within  the  power  of  the  states 
in  which  such  frands  occur  to  punish  them.  Such  cases  do  not  require  investigation  by  Congress, 
because  as  to  none  of  them  has  it  any  power  to  remedy  or  punish  the  wrongs  committed.  But 
frauds  in  the  appointment  of  electors  directly  affect  the  choice  of  a  President,  and  therefore  de- 
mand investigation  by  the  Congress. 

FRAUDS  IN   QUESTION   UNPRECEDENTED. 

The  frauds  alleged  in  connection  with  the  appointment  of  electors  in  Florida  and  Louisiana  in 
1876  were  entirely  unprecedented. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  government  electoral  votes,  challenged  as  fraudulent  and 
false,  were  nevertheless  received  and  counted,  and  did  in  fact  change  the  result  of  the  election. 

In  Florida  the  board  of  state  canvassers  usurped  discretionary  powers  and  reversed  the  result 
of  the  votes  cast.  They  did  this  in  the  presence  of  certain  visiting  statesmen  sent  there  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  tiie  United  States,  and  surrounded  by  Federal  troops  vMcLin— Fla.,  144-''5). 

That  state,  by  every  department  of  its  government— legisative,  executive  and  judicial— there- 
upon protestt  d  against  this  action  of  the  state  canvassers,  and  declared  that  the  persons  thus  certi- 
ficated were  not  iis  electors,  and  did  not  r<'present  the  state.  Nevertheless,  it  was  decided  by  the 
Electoral  Commission  that  during  the  few  hours  those  men  pretended  to  be  in  office  they  did  repre- 
sent the  state  ol  Florida  and  did  exercise  its  discretion.  The  President  of  the  United  States  holds 
his  place  by  virtue  of  their  action  (Electoral  Count,  1,  2-24). 

Such  action  may  be  repeated  in  any  state  at  any  Presidential  election,  and  if  the  Congress  can- 
not prevent  this  altogether,  it  is  at  least  within  their  power  to  adopt  measuT-es  that  will  afford  the 
state  in  which  it  may  occur  an  opportunity  to  annul  the  fraudulent  action  so  taken,  and  recall  the 
pretended  vote  so  cast  through  usurpation,  before  the  same  is  finally  received  and  counted  as  her 
genuine  vote. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  election  in  Louisiana  was  determined  by  a  partisan  returning  board,  ex- 
ercising discreti(mary  revisory  power  over  the  votes  cast.  This  power  was  unauthorized,  but  even 
if  au  horized,  the  board  flagrantly  and  outrageously  abused  it.  They  were  supported  in  its  exercise 
by  visiting  stat'  smen,  sent  also  by  the  President  to  Louisiana.  They  were  (surrounded,  while 
engaged  in  it,  by  Federal  troops  (Post,  20-1  ;  Post,  28-29). 

Here,  then,  was  disclosed  a  new  danger.  A  discretionary  power  over  the  result  of  an  election  in 
a  state  by  one  of  the  parties,  to  be  exercised  wiih  the  aid  of  external  influence  ant)  patronage,  and 
with  the  protection  of  Federal  troops,  is,  of  all  conceivable  things,  the  greatest  mockery  in  the 
way  of  an  election  and  the  greatest  danger  to  free  government. 

It  became,  therefore,  the  duty  of  Congress  to  inquire  into  these  frauds  in  order  to  correct  them 
when  within  its  power,  and  when  not,  to  recommend  to  the  state  legislation  to  that  end. 

To  refrain  from  inquiry  into  gross  wrongs  is  to  invite  their  repetition. 

CONDUCT  OP  THE  INVESTIGATION. 

In  conducting  this  investigation,  the  committee  have  not  been  unmindful  of  its  difficulty  and 
importance,  and  have  endeavorid  to  conduct  it  with  absolute  and  judicial  fairness. 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IX    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       297 

Since  it  was  unavoidable  in  an  investigation  of  this  magnitude  that  much  secondary  testimony- 
should  be  received,  some  of  which  might  thus  unjustly  involve  the  fair  fame  of  individuals,  we 
thought  it  proper  that  the  Republican  members  of  the  committee  should  decide  whether  the 
sessions  of  tne  committee  should  be  private  or  open  ;  and  on  their  determination  at  last  that  the 
session  of  the  committee  should  be  open,  it  was  so  ordered. 

We  have  called  every  witness  that  was  required  by  the  minority  of  the  committee  in  respect  of 
questions  at  issue;  and  as  to  any  other  matters,  we  have  endeavored  to  adapt  our  conduct  to  their 

Generally  we  have  desired  that  every  opportunity  consistent  with  our  means  of  ascertaining 
the  truth  should  be  afforded  to  all  concerned:  and  we  are  ^lad  to  know  that  in  this  respect  there  is 
no  difference  in  the  committee,  and  that  the  majority  and  minority  are  alike  agreed  that  every 
proper  facility  has  been  afforded  by  each  to  the  other.  No  complaint,  in  respect  of  the  conduct  of 
the  committee,  has  been  expressed  by  any  member  of  it. 

DIFFICULTIES  OP  SUCH  AN   INVESTIGATION. 

An  investigation  into  the  conduct  of  a  party  in  power,  conducted  by  a  committee  set  on  foot  by 
the  opposition,  is  necessarily  subject  to  great  difficulties  and  embarrassment. 

The  power  of  such  a  committee  to  elicit  truth  is  limited  to  the  willingness  of  witnesses  to  speak 
it;  for  when  witnesses  choose  to  withhold  or  pervert  the  truth  they  can  do  so  without  fear  of  pun- 
ishment, since  punishment  is  alone  lodged  in  the  hands  of  those  for  whom  the  truth  is  withheld  or 
perverted.  Men  are  naturally' unwilling  to  admit  frauds  in  which  they  have  participated,  espec- 
ially when  they  gain  nothing  by  the  admission,  and  they  have  no  inducement  to  admit  their  par- 
ticipation in  such  frauds  to  a  committee  which  has  nothing  to  give  them.  Beyond  the  advantage 
of  telling  the  truth  for  conscience  sake,  the  solace  of  chagrin  at  a  want  of  due  recognition  or  the 
hope  that  a  change  in  parties  may  bring  reward  for  their  confessions,  they  have  no  impelling 
motives  for  such  admissions. 

The  confessions  of  persons  who  participated  in  such  frauds  are  unlikely  to  be  made,  and  when 
made,  are  not  readily  accepted  as  such.  The  committee  do  not  doubt  that  some  of  the  witnesses 
who  have  testified  before  them  as  to  frauds  in  the  election  of  1875,  and  their  participations  in  them 
have  done  so  from  chagrin  and  disappointment;  nor  that  others  may  have  done  so  in  some  hope  of 
a  change  that  might  result  in  their  political  preferment.  But  the  passage  by  the  House  of  the  reso- 
lution that  Mr.  Hayes' title  was  unassailable  put  an  end  to  all  such  hopes,  and  was  at  once  fol- 
lowed by  a  marked  falling  off  in  the  readiness  of  persons  who  had  participated  in  frauds  in  Florida 
and  Louisiana,  and  who  had  not  been  satisfactorily  rewarded,  to  make  or  sustain  their  revelations. 

POWER  OF  PATRONAGE  TO  CONC]pAL  WRONG. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  power  of  an  administration  with  the  absolute  disposal  of  one  hundred 
and  ten  thousand  offices,  some  of  whose  members  are  most  interested  in  disposing  of  them  so  as 
to  sustain  themselves  and  their  action,  is  enormous,  as  has  been  felt  at  every  step  of  the  in- 
vestigation. 

There  is  no  form  of  continuing  influence  equal  for  convenience  and  control  to  that  of  an  office. 
If  a  man  be  bribed  by  a  sum  down  he  may  lose  it  or  waste  it,  and  then  the  control  it  gave  over 
him  will  be  gone.  But  in  an  office  which  he  holds  at  the  pleasure  of  the  person  who  appointed 
him  he  IS  under  continuing  control.  W^hile  he  is  compliant  and  serviceable  he  receives  a  support; 
but  when  he  fails  in  either  regard,  or  confesses  where  he  might  have  kept  silent,  his  supplies  are  cut 
off  and  he  is  turned  out  on  the  world  without  means  and  without  character,  ruined  by  his  confes- 
ijion  of  the  truth. 

Patronage  has,  besides  this,  the  further  advantage  that  it  affords  the  possibility  of  ascribing  its  be^ 
stowment  to  just  causes,  so  that,  while  being  used  for  the  most  reprehensible  purposes,  the  mo- 
tiv  s  of  its  use  may  be  concealed. 

It  is  the  history  of  all  state  conspiracies  that  if  the  conspirators  succeed,  the  means  by  which 
they  do  so  are  rarely  disclosed  or  published  whilst  their  party  remains  in  power. 

How  fully  the  administration  has  profited  by  these  examples,  and  how  desperately  it  has  used 
the  Federal  patronage,  alike  to  reward  and  keep  under  control  those  who  participated  in  the  frauds 
of  1876  and  to  retain  witnesses  in  its  interest,  will  appear. 

CONFESSIONS  BY  THE  GUILTY  QUESTIONABLE. 

The  character  of  persons  engaged  in  conspiracies,  such  as  those  in  question  in  Florida  and 
Louisiana,  requires  that  their  statements,  whether  in  confession  or  denial,  should  be  received  with 
suspicion.  It  was  unavoidable,  from  the  chaiacter  of  those  concerned,  that  the  committee  should  be 
exposed  to  mistake  and  imposition.  It  was  long  ago  said  that  the  investigation  of  conspiracies  was 
alike  odious  and  necessary,  and  your  committee  have  not  found  this  investigation  any  the  less  dis- 
agreeable or  any  the  less  important  than  the  inquiry  into  other  state  conspiracies  have  been.  But, 
however  bad  the  character  of  conspirators  or  however  unreliable  their  statements,  there  are  in 
transactions  of  the  sort,  when  a  sufficient  number  of  witnesses  can  be  examined  and  many  iems 
of  testimony  collected,  certain  general  patent  and  controlling  facts  from  which  a  just  conclusion  as 
to  what  occurred  may  be  reached. 

COMMITTEE  HAVE  RELIED  ON  OTHER  TESTIMONY. 

Your  committee  have  therefore  desired  to  rest  their  conclusions,  so  far  as  might  be,  rather  upon 
such  known  and  patent  facts  and  the  attendant  circumstances  than  on  the  confessions  of  any  of 
the  parties  who  participated  in  these  transactions;  and  they  have  not  found  it  difficult,  apart  from 
these  coufessions,  to  come  to  a  clear  conclusion  in  respect  to  what  in  the  main  occurred. 

MISREPRESENTATION  ON  THE  COMMITTEE. 

Your  committee  have  noticed  that  very  gross  misrepresentations  from  time  to  time,  and  indeed  al- 
most daily,  have  appeared  in  the  public  pi  ess  in  respect  to  their  declarations,  conduct  and  actions. 

Although  they  nad  maintained  the  most  absolute  silence  about  the  purposes  and  action  of  the 
committee,  and  have  conducted  the  investigation  with  the  most  careful  propriety  and  fairness, 
there  is  hardly  any  improper  or  unworthy  statement  which  has  not  been  falsily  put  in  their 
mouths,  nor  any  nefarious  and  corrupt  purpose  which  has  not  been  attributed  to  them.      They 


29S   ELECTORAL  FRAUDS  IN  THE  LATE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION. 

have,  however,  Kept  in  mind  the  rule  which  required  them  neither  to  state  anything  about  the 
action  of  Ihecomm  ttee  nor  about  their  own  views  in  respect  to  the  matter  in  hand  before  making 
th  ir  rc'po  t  to  the  House;  and  having  borne  in  silence  for  montns  tliese  misrepresentations,  they 
desire  to  say  now,  in  this  proper  place,  once  for  all,  that  the  same  are,  and  each  of  them  is,  ab- 
solutely without  any  foundation  whatever. 

UNIFORMITY  AND   UNCONTRADICTED  NATURE   OF   THE   TESTIMONY. 

As  regards  the  transactions  in  the  state  of  Florida  there  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  any  contradic- 
tions or  dispute,  except  to  the  part  the  visiting  statesmen  took  in  some  of  the  occurrences  there. 

No  witnesses  have  appeared  to  contradict  the  witnesses  to  the  frauds  in  that  state  or  th& 
general  facts  to  wliich   they  testified. 

Nor  in  Louisiana  has  tiiere  been  contradiction  about  the  transactions  which  took  place  there, 
except  in  some  degree  to  the  question  of  intimidation  and  as  to  the  participation  in  and  control 
by  the  visiting  statesmen  over  the  action  of  the  returning  board  and  oflicers  of  registration.  Sa 
that,  generally,  your  committee  were  not  embarrassed  in  considering  the  transactions  in  that  state 
by  jiny  conflict  of  witnesses. 

In  this  report  they  make  reference  to  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses,  as  they  proceed,  by  pages.* 


I. 

FLORIDA. 

The  board  of  canvassers  of  the  state  of  Florida  usurped  revisory  power  over  the  votes  cast^ 
Without  warrant  of  law  they  rejected  votes  where  they  saw  fit,  instead  of  compiling  them;  and 
that  they  usurped  this  power  for  partisan  purposes,  and  exercised  it  partially  and  fraudulently,  has 
been  in  part  confessed.  But  a^j  the  power  usurped  had  no  lawful  existence,  the  motives  which 
inspired  its  exercise  may  perhaps  be  regarded  as  immaterial  (McLiu,  Fla.,  98). 

ELECTORS — HOW    APPOINTED. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  (art.  2,  sec.  1)  provides  "  that  each  state  shall  appoint,  in 
such  manner  as  the  legislature  thereof  may  direct,  the  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  for 
that  state." 

The  legislature  of  the  state  of  Florida  directed  that  the  electors  of  that  state  "  should  be 
elected  by  ballot." 

The  laws  of  Florida  provide  that  the  person  having  the  highest,  number  of  votes  cast  for  any  office 
shall  be  elected  to  such  office;  that  upon  the  close  of  the  polls  the  inspectors  shall  proceed  to  can- 
vass the  votes  cast;  that  the  canvass  shall  be  public  and  continuous  until  completed;  that  the  vote* 
shall  then  be  counted  ;  that  if  the  number  t.f  votes  exceed  the  numbers  of  persons  who  have  voted 
according  to  the  clerk's  list,  the  excess  publicly  drawn  out  by  lot  shall  be  destroyed.  Duplicate 
certificates  of  the  result  shall  then  be  sealed  up  and  sent  to  che  clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court  and  the 
judge  of  the  county  tliush's  Digest,  chap.  LXVI). 

Upon  the  receipt  of  the  returns  the  judge  and  the  clerk  are  to  meet  at  the  clerk's  office,  and, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  justice  of  the  peace  of  the  county,  proceed  to  publicly  canvass  the  vote  as 
shown  by  the  retui-ns  on  JUe,  and  to  forward  certificates  of  the  result  to  the  Secretary  of  State  and 
the  governor;  and  within  thirty-five  days  after  the  election  the  Secretary  of  State,  attorney-general 
and  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  to  meet  at  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  canvass  the 
returns,  and  if  any  of  the  county  returns  "  be  shown,  or  shall  appear  to  be  so  irregular,  false  or 
fraudulent  that  the  board  shall  be  unable  to  determine  the  true  vote  for  any  such  officer  or  member, 
they  shall  so  certify,  and  shad  not  include  such  return  in  their  determination  and  declaration,  and 
the  Secretary  of  State  shall  preserve  and  file  in  his  office  all  such  returns,"  and  the  accompanying 
papers. 

POWER  OP  STATE  CANVASSERS. 

This  was  the  only  povsrer  given  the  state  canvassers.  They  had  no  other  powerjwhatever.  The 
authority  thus  given  them  was  an  authority  to  perform  the  ministerial  duty  of  canvassing  and 
compilmg  the  returns  of  the  election  sent  them  by  the  county  officers,  except  when  so  false, 
fraudulent  or  irregular  on  their  face  as  not  to  disclose  the  vote,  and  to  thus  airive  at  the  result  of 
the  vote  cast.  Indeed,  the  naked  power  to  canvass  returns  of  itself  involved  the  power  of  discrim- 
ina  iiig  between  what  were  real  and  what  were  forged  or  only  pretended  returns  of  the  vote  cast. 
Such  a  power  is  a  necessary  concomitant  of  the  power  to  canvass  returns.  In  order  to  count — 
whether  it  be  voles  or  money,  or  any  other  thing— it  is  necessary  that  the  one  who  counts  must 
first  decide  as  to  what  is  to  be  counted.  But  the  discretion  of  determining  what  were  real  returns 
from  the  county  officers,  and  whether  they  expressed  a  vote  that  could  be  determined  from  them, 
was  the  only  power  or  discretion  whatever  committed  to  the  state  canvassers  in  Florida.  Such  has 
been  held  to  be  tbe  law  m  Florida,  both  before  and  since  the  canvass  of  187e  was  made.  In  187a 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Florida,  in  the  case  of  Boxham  vs.  The  State  Canvassers  (13  Fla.,  73-'77), 
declared  that  the  "  object  of  the  law  was  to  ascertain  the  number  of  votes  cast,  and  determine 
therefrom  i.nd  certify  the  result  of  the  election;"  that  it  is  the  "  duty  of  the  state  canvassers  to 
determine  whether  the  paper  received  by  them  purportin<'  to  be  returns  were,  in  fact,  such,  and 
were  genuine,  intelligible  and  substantially  authenticated  by  law,"  ana  if  so,  it  was  their  duty  to 
count  and  canvass  them. 

This  law  was,  in  December,  1876,  reaffirmed  in  Drew's  case  by  the  unanimous  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  of  which  the  majority  were  Republican.     '•  The  duty  and  power  of  the  board  of 

*  References  are  made  to  the  testimony  taken  by  the  committee  by  pages  simply,  thus:  p.  10; 
to  the  te^t)mony  taken  by  the  Florida  sub-commiitee  as  Fla.,  p.  10;  to  that  taken  by  the  first 
Louisiana  sub-committee  as  La.,  p.  10.  The  testimony  taken  by  the  second  Louisiana  sub-committee 
is  embodied  in  the  testimony  of  the  main  committee. 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       299 

state  canvassers,"  saj'  the  Court,  in  that  case,  "  was  confined  exclusively  to  the  compiling  of  suck 
"returns  of  any  election  as  should  come  to  their  hands  from  the  county  canvassing  boards,  and 
"  upon  computation  of  the  aggregate  vote,  as  shown  by  such  returns,  to  ascertain  who  had  received 
"  the  highest  number  of  votes  for  any  office,  and  to  certify  the  result  and  declare  therefrom  who 
"  was  elected  to  any  office  "  (Fla.,  59). 

Such  has  also  been  held  to  be  the  true  meaning  of  similar  laws  in  the  other  states  of  the  Union. 
Indeed,  there  is  no  question  better  settled;  and  none  as  to  which  the  view  established  is  more  in 
accordance  with  the  spiril  of  our  institutions,  separating  government  into  distinct  departments,  in 
which  the  judicial,  the  legislative  and  the  executive  authorities  exercise  distinct  and  independent 
functions, 

UNLAWFUL  ACTION   OF  STATE  CANVASSERS. 

By  the  genuine  returns  made  to  the  board  of  state  canvassers,  the  Tilden  electors  were  chosen 
by  a  majority  of  91.  This  result  the  state  canvassers  overcame  by  arbitrarily  and  unlawfully  re- 
jecting portions  of  the  votes  duly  returned  to  them.  Under  the  claim  of  exercising  a  discretion 
with  which  they  had  not  been  clothed,  tiiey  excluded  the  entire  return  from  Manat6e  county,  and 
parts  of  the  returns  from  the  counties  of  Hamilton,  Monroe  and  Jackson,  amounting  to  over  1,000 
votes,  and  thereby  gave  the  state  to  the  Hayes  electors  by  a  majority  of  220,  instead  of  declaring 
the  true  majority  fur  the  Tilden  electors. 

UNLAWFUL  ACTION   CONCEALED. 

After  all  the  board  had  heard  the  proofs  and  arguments  before  it,  it  conducted  its  final  confer- 
ence in  secret.  Federal  troops  surroun(ied  the  State  House,  and  access  was  only  permitted  through, 
the  state  officials,  of  which  Governor  Stearns  was  the  head.  Throughout  the  wtiole  canvass,  and 
before  the  election,  he  had  been  alike  vigilant,  unscrupulous  and  determined.  It  was  only  on  the 
morning  of  the  6th  of  December  that  it  was  announced  that  the  board  had  decided  to  give  their  cer- 
tificate to  the  Hayes  electors.  At  the  same  time  they  announced  that  Stearns,  the  Republican  can- 
didate, had  been  chosen  governor  (Fla.,  147). 

TILDEN  ELECTORS  MEET  AND  VOTE. 

On  the  same  6th  of  December,  being  the  day  appointed  by  law  for  the  meetmg  of  the  electoral 
colleges  (R.  S.,  §  135),  the  Tilden  electors,  who  had  received  a  clear  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  in 
Florida  at  the  election  of  1876,  and  who  were  thereby,  by  virtue  of  the  constitution  and  laws  of 
the  state  of  Florida,  duly  appointed  the  electors  of  that  state,  met  and  cast  their  votes  in  distinct  bal- 
lots for  Samuel  J.  Tilden  lor  President  and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  for  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  and  certified  the  same  in  due  form  to  the  President  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  State* 
(Electoral  Count,  12-14). 

ACTION   TO   TRY  THE  TITLE  OP  THE  ELECTORS. 

On  that  day,  but  prior  to  their  meeting,  and  prior,  also,  to  the  assembling  of  the  Hayes  electors, 
the  Tilden  electors  also  brought  an  action  by  quo  warranto  to  try  the  title  of  the  Hayes  electors  to 
the  offices  which  they  usurped.  In  that  action  judgment  was  subsequently  given  declaring  that 
the  Hayes  electors  were  usurpers  and  had  no  title  to  the  office,  and  that  the  Tilden  electors  had 
been  duly  elected  thereto,  which  judgment  remalLS  in  full  force  and  effect,  unreversed  and  undis- 
charged. 

ACTION  TO  TRY  THE   TITLE   OF  GOVERNOR. 

At  the  same  time  an  action  was  brought  by  Drew,  claiming  to  have  been  duly  elected  as  gov- 
ernor of  the  state,  for  a  mandamus  directing  the  canvassers  to  re-canvass  the  vote  of  the  state  for 
governor,  according  to  the  established  law  of  Florida,  which,  like  that  of  other  states,  provides  for 
directing  a  re-canvass,  or  completion  of  the  canvass,  in  case  of  mistake,  neglect  or  abuse  by  the  can- 
vassing officers.  In  that  proceeding  the  Supreme  Court  of  Florida  adjudged  and  declared  that  the 
canvassing  board  had  exceeded  its  powers,  and  had  usurped  discretionary  and  revisory  functions 
not  committed  to  It  by  law,  and  that  its  duty  was  to  count  the  votes  returned  to  it,  not  to  discard 
them,  and  directing  it  to  complete  the  canvass  of  the  votes  duly  returned  to  them  (Fla.,  60,  74). 

THE  RE-CANVASS  FOR  GOVERNOR. 

In  obedience  to  that  direction  the  board  of  canvassers  did  proceed  to  re-canvass  the  vote  of  the 
state  for  governor,  and  returned  Drew  as  elected,  and  thereupon  he  entered  upon  the  office  of  gov- 
ernor, ana  has  remained  such,  without  question,  ever  since. 

In  January,  1877,  the  legislature  of  the  state  convened.  It  at  once  declared  that  It  was  the  duty 
of  the  state  canvassers  to  also  count  the  votes  for  electors,  according  to  the  judgment  rendered  by 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state,  and  directed  that  they  proceed  to  re-canvass  the  vote  accordmgly, 
and  to  verify  the  result  of  the  election.  And  the  board  of  canvassers  did  thereupon  proceed  to  re- 
canvass  the  votes  in  accordance  with  the  law  as  settled  by  the  Supreme  Court,  and  as  ordained  and 
directed  by  the  legislature,  with  the  result  that  the  Tilden  electors  were  found  to  have  been  chosen 
by  a  majority  of  ninety-one  votes  (Act  January  7,  1877;  Electoral  Count,  22). 

The  same  statute  declared  the  electors  shown  to  have  a  majority  on  the  re-canvass  made  accord- 
ing to  law  to  be  the  true  electors,  having  the  riirht,  and  alone  having  the  right,  to  cast  the  vote  of 
the  state;  then  superadded  an  appointment  by  the  legislature  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States;  and  also  provided  for  a  lawful  and  conclusive  authentication  of  the  right  of  such  electors 
to  cast  the  vote  of  the  state,  and  for  the  issue  of  true  certificates  by  the  state  canvassers  and  the 
issue  of  true  certificates  by  the  governor  (Electoral  Count,  22). 

Thereupon  the  governor  of  the  state  proceeded  to  issue  his  certificate  in  due  form  (R.  S.,  §  136), 
declaring,  as  provided  by  law,  that  the  Tilden  electors,  which  had  duly  met  and  voted  on  the  6th 
of  December,  the  day  fixed  by  law,  were  the  persons  appointed  to  the  office  of  electors  for  that 
state. 

DECLARATION  BY  THE  STATE  OP  FLORIDA. 

And  thus  it  was  that  the  state  of  Florida,  prior  to  the  second  Tuesday  in  February,  when  the 
votes  of  the  electoral  colleges  were  to  be  opened  and  passed  iijjon  and  counted  in  Congress,  as  pro- 
vided by  the  Constitution  and  the  law,  had  duly  declared,  by  every  department  of  her  government 


SOO       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

—the  executive,  legislative  and  judicial— that  the  votes  cast  at  the  election  of  1876.  in  accordance 
with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  laws  of  that  state,  the  Tilden  electors  were  the 
true  and  only  electors  appointed  in  Florida,  and  were  the  only  persons  entitled,  on  the  6th  day  of 
December,  1876,  to  cast  the  vote  of  that  state  for  President  and  Vice-President,  and  that  the 
Hayes  electors  had  usurped  the  office,  misrepresented  the  choice  of  the  people  and  the  wishes  of  the 
state. 

USURPERS  RECOGNIZED. 

But  it  was  impossible  to  get  any  decision  by  the  court  on  the  quo  warranto  in  the  few  hours  be 
tween  the  announcement  in  favor  of  the  Hayes  electors  by  the  canvassing  board  and  noon  of  that 
.same  day;  and  at  noon  the  persons  who  were  unlawfully  declar  d  by  the  state  canvassers  to  have 
been  chosen  electors  met  and  assumed  to  cast  the  vote  of  the  state  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler.  So  that 
while  the  usurpation  of  the  state  canvassers  was  corrected  by  the  state  at  the  earliest  possible  mo- 
ment, and  the  canvassers,  by  withholding  their  declaration,  had  themselves  fraudulently  prevented 
its  earlier  correction,  and  a  though  the  persons  who  were  really  elected  had  duly  met  and  voted  for 
President  on  the  law  day,  nevertheless,  the  Electoral  Commission  decided,  because  of  the  fraudu- 
lent return  of  the  canvas^-ing  board,  and  because  the  governor  had  fraudulently  withheld  his  certifi- 
cates from  the  true  electors,  and  given  them  to  the  persons  falsely  returned  electors  by  the  canvass- 
ing board,  that  the  spurious  electors  were  in  possession  of  the  office  on  the  law  day,  and  did  exer- 
■cise  the  power  of  the  state,  and  that  all  the  authorities  of  the  state  combined  werrf  powerless  to 

five  evidence,  and  Congress  was  powerless  to  accept  evidence  of  the  public  facts  which  everybody 
new.    And  Mr.  Hayes  holds  his  title  by  this  decision  (Electoral  Count,  11). 

FRAUDULENT  ANIMUS  OF  STATE  CANVASSERS. 

It  was  assumed  in  Florida  that  the  state  canvassers  could  exercise  power  to  go  behind  returns, 
and  during  some  days  evidence  was  introduced  and  discussions  had  before  them  in  contemplation 
•of  that  probability.  It  might  seem,  therefore,  not  to  be  just  to  conclude  from  the  mere  assumption 
by  the  state  board  of  such  powers  that  they  intended  to  act  falsely  and  fraudulently.  But  an  exam- 
ination of  what  they  did  will  disclose  that  their  controlling  purpose  was  to  count  the  state,  at  all 
■events,  for  Hayes.  While  frauds  pointed  out  by  Democrats  were  disregarded,  Democratic  votes 
enough  were  excluded,  without  just  cause,  to  secure  the  result  upon  which  they  had  determined. 

A  review  of  the  votes  cast  returned  to  and  rejected  by  the  state  canvassers  will  make  clear  the 
fraudulent  animus  which  controlle  .  the  Republican  members  of  that  board 

IN  REJECTING  VOTES. 

The  whole  vote  of  the  county  of  Manatee,  which  was  262  for  the  Tilden  and  26  for  the  Hayes 
electors,  was  rejected  for  the  alleged  reason  that  there  had  been  no  clerk  to  conduct  the  registra- 
tion. That  there  was  no  clerk  was  because  Stearns,  the  Republican  governor,  had  failed  to  appoint 
one  for  that  Democratic  county.  For  this  official  dereliction  on  his  part  the  board  deprived  all  the 
voters  previously  registered  of  their  suffrage,  and  rejected  the  whole  vote  of  the  county  (Sen. 
Rep.,  fill,  pp.  356-'64). 

In  Hamilton  county  they  threw  out  the  whole  vote  at  poll  No.  2,  in  Jasper  precinct— where  the 
vote  was  320  for  the  Tilden  electors  and  189  for  the  Hayes  electors— withoat  any  charge  of  illegal 
voting,  but  on  the  alleged  ground  of  irregularity,  because  two  Republican  inspectors  who  conduct- 
ed the  election  and  made  the  return's,  filed  an  affidavit  before  the  board,  stating  that  they  had 
absented  themselves  from  the  polls  different  times  during  the  day  (Ibid.,  pp.  151-154  :  ibid.,  pp. 
416-42.5). 

In  Monroe  county  they  rejected  the  return  of  401  Democratic  and  59  Republican  votes  because 
the  canvass  was  not  completed  that  day,  the  inspectors  having  adjourned  and  completed  it  th':  next 
morning,  although  there  was  not  even  a  suggestion  of  wrong  in  the  count  or  cu^^tody  of  the  bollots. 

In  Jackson  county,  Campbellton  precnct— giving  291  Democratic  and  77  Republican  votes— the 
vote  was  entirely  thrown  out,  althouo:h  it  was  not  even  claimed  that  more  than  133  Republican  votes 
could  have  been  given,  because  the  inspectors  went  to  dinner  and  left  the  ballot-box  meantime 
carefully  locked  in  a  secure  place,  also  locked  and  barred,  placing  the  ke5'8  in  the  possession  of  the 
Republican  inspector,  who  certified  to  the  returns  and  testified  tnat  there  was  no  fraud  nor  wrong 
about  the  election.  And  the  return  for  Friendship  precinct,  giving  145  Demoeratic  and  44  Repub- 
lican vt)tes,  was  rejected,  because  the  inspection  ofiicers,  who  were  colored,  left  the  church,  where 
the  election  was  he^d,  at  night,  without  completing  the  count,  to  go  to  a  neighboring  house  to  get 
lights  and  paper  to  complete  it,  and  tliere  made  their  return  (.Ibid.,  pp.  175-178;  ibid.,  201-2). 

IN  RECEIVING  VOTES. 

On  the  other  hand,  frauds  by  which  the  Democrats  suffered  were  disregarded. 

In  Alachua,  Dennis  was  the  chairman  of  the  Republican  committee,  and  the  virtual  manager  of 
the  Republicans  in  the  county.  To  his  house,  on  the  night  following  the  election,  came  Richard 
H.  Black  and  Thomas  H.  Vance,  two  colored  men  who  had  been  conducting  the  election  at  Archer 
precinct,  box  2  ;  Vance  as  inspector  and  Black  as  clerk,  both  leading  and  managing  Republicans 
<Deimi8,  477;  do.  494;  Fla.,  155-171). 

They  brought  with  them  a  blank  for  the  returns  of  the  election  already  signed  and  sealed,  but 
as  to  which  the  figures  remained  to  be  filled  in.  They  were  asked  by  Dennis  what  was  the 
vote  at  the  precinct  where  they  attended,  and  they  informed  him  that  it  was  178  Republican  and 
141  Democratic  ;  and  they  had  so  announced  it  at  the  polls.  At  that  he  expressed  great  indigna- 
tion, and  declared  that  the  business  had  not  been  properly  managed,  or  no  such  result  could  have 
been  reached.  They  expressed  contrition,  and  their  wiilingness  to  correct  any  error  that  h  id  oc- 
■curred  in  the  returns.  He  accordingly  furnished  them  with  an  upper  room,  and.  with  a  printed  list 
of  the  voters  of  the  county,  and  from  that  printed  list  they  proceeded  to  add  219  fictitious  names  to 
the  poll-list,  and  as  many  to  the  Republican  candidates".  This  brought  the  vote  up  to  a  total  of  31)7 
Republican  and  141  Democratic,  and  their  return  was  filled  up  to  correspond  with  this  result.  This 
fraudulent  return  was  then  forwarded  to  the  county  canvassers,  and  embraced  in  their  return  to 
the  state  canvassers,  notwithstanding  one  of  the  inspectors  at  that  pole  made  affidavit  the  return 
Avas  false  and  forged.  The  visiting  statesmen  allotted  to  Governor  Noyes  the  task  of  maintaining 
the  truth  >  nd  fairness  of  this  return  before  the  state  canvassers  (Dennis  492,  403,  494;  Fla.,  IGJ; 
Denniis  492-^4,  48'.,  486,  49.*:). 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    "^HE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.  301 

These  retrnrns  were  attacked  by  the  Democrats  on  the  grounds  of  this  addition.  Dennis  defended 
them.  The  board  allowed  them.  McLin,  one  of  the  board,  and  Dennis,  Black  and  Vance  were  all 
subsequently  appointed  to  office  by  Hayes.  McLin  and  Dennis  were  thereafter  retired,  and  McLin 
then  admitted  the  fraud  in  Alachua,  and  Dennis  confessed  his  participation  in  it.  Black  and  Vance 
have  been  in  attendance  on  your  committee,  but  have  not  appeared  to  deny  the  transaction.  They 
still  continue  to  hold  their  places  in  the  departments.  The  transaction  itself,  therefore,  may  be 
said  to  remain  uncontradicted  (McLin,  Fla.,  129-lSO;  Fowle,  Fla.,  151-154). 

In  Leon  County,  Bowles,  one  of  the  inspectors  of  the  election  procured  a  lot  of  small  Repub- 
lican tickets,  to  be  printed  in  very  fine  type  and  on  thin  paper.  These  tickets,  spoken  of  in  Florida 
as  "little  jokers,"  ne  had  printed  at  the  official  Republican  printing  office.  Before  the  election  he 
showed  them  to  McLin,  and  stated  his  purpose  of  u?^ing  them.  The  plan  was  to  fold  them  up  inside 
the  ballots  that  were  voted,  and  hav«.!  them  surreptitiously  so  cast,  or  otherwise  to  smuggle  them 
into  the  ballot-boxes,  which  tht-ir  small  size  easily  admitted  of.  McLin  advised  Bowes  not  to  use 
them.  After  the  election  Bowes  stated  that  he  had  managed  to  smuggle  seventy-three  of  them 
Into  the  boxes  in  his  precinct,  and  he  told  McLin,  after  the  state  had  been  awarded  to  the  Demo- 
crats, and  it  was  known  Drew  was  to  be  governor,  that  he  was  in  a  scrape  on  this  account,  and  that 
he  had  to  clear  out  for  stuffing  the  boxes.  It  was  claimed,  because  these  ballots  were  found  loose 
in  the  box,  and  not  folded  inside  the  other  tickets,  that  they  had  been  regularly  cast;  but  it  would 
have  been  very  easy  to  have  produced  that  effect,  either  by  some  other  manner  of  stuffing  the  box 
than  the  one  originally  proposed,  or  by  shaking  the  box  after  they  were  deposited,  and  thus  ecat- 
tering.them,  and  that  circumstance  was  of  no  weight  against  Bowes'  own  admission,  and  against 
the  evidence  of  the  persoiis  receiving  the  ballots,  that  not  one  of  these  small  ballots  was  voted. 
Bowes  fled  the  state  for  protection,  and  found  a  refuge  in  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington, 
where  he  still  remains  (Fla.,  99;  Edwards,  Fla.,  94-'7;  Fla.,  129,  152,  153;  Booth,  153). 

In  a  certain  precinct  in  Jefferson  county,  where  Bell  was  inspector,  the  inspectors  tied  up  the 
tickets  into  bundles  of  one  hundred  each  and  laid  them  out  on  a  counter.  Bell  ingeniously  with- 
drew one  of  these  bundles,  probably  all  Democratic  votes  (but  whether  all  such  or  part  only  and 
gart  Republican,  perhaps,  does  not  clearly  appear),  and  substituted  instead  one  hundred  Republican 
allots;  for  which  little  service— early  admitted  and  confessed  also  to  McLin  when  the  Democrats 
recovered  the  state— Bell  found  a  haven  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior  (McLin,  Fla.,  99,  126- 
130;  ibid.,  126-130). 

THE  FACE   OF  THE  RETURNS. 

It  has  oeen  denied  upon  the  face  of  the  returns  the  Tilden  electors  had  a  majority  of  the  votes 
cast. 

The  Executive  and  the  Repuplican  officials  of  Florida  who  conducted  the  election  well  knew 
the  import«nce  of  having  a  majority  on  the  face  of  the  returns,  and  they  made  the  most  desperate 
efforts  to  secure  one.  But  it  will  be  seen  that  the  effort  failed,  and  that  only  after  it  was  learned 
that  the  returns  gave  the  Tilden  electors  a  majority  that  the  expedient  of  assuming  unauthorized 
discretionary  power  wa^  resorted  to  by  the  state  canvasser(». 

About  this  there  ought  to  be  no  dispute.  The  returns  from.the  various  counties,  as  certified  ta 
the  board  of  state  canvassers,  gave  24,441  votes  for  the  Tilden  electors  and  24,350  votes  for  the 
Hayes  electors.  An  attempt  was  made  to  falsify  the  returns  from  Baker  county  so  as  to  reverse  the 
result.  The  history  of  this  attempt,  as  told  by  the  Republicans  who  conducted  it,  and  confirmed 
by  all  the  evidence,  is  significant  (Bloxham,  Fla.,  54). 

BAKER  COUNTY  FALSE  RETURN. 

The  law  required  the  county  clerk  (clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  county),  county  judge,  and  a. 
justice  of  the  peace  for  the  county,  to  canvass  the  precinct  returns  as  soon  as  they  were  all  received,, 
and  if  not  then  all  received,  to  canvass  those  received  by  the  sixth  day  after  the  election,  and 
certify  the  result  to  the  secretary  of  state  and  governor  (Coxe,  Fla.,  11  and  47). 

In.  case  of  the  absence  or  refusal  of  the  county  judge  or  clerk  to  act,  the  sheriff  of  the  county 
was  to  be  called  upon  to  act  in  his  place.  The  canvass  was  to  be  conducted  publicly  at  the  clerk's* 
office  (Coxe,  11  and  47). 

The  returns  having  been  all  received,  Coxe,  the  clerk  of  the  county,  notified  Allen,  the  sheriff,, 
in  the  absence  of  Driggers,  the  county  judge,  to  attend  on  the  10th  of  November,  at  the  place  pre- 
scribed by  law,  to  canvass  the  returns.  A  like  notification  was  given  to  Dorman,  the  justice  of 
the  county.  Dorman  attended,  but  Allen,  the  sheriff,  refused  to  join  in  the  canvass,  which  the- 
clerk  and  the  justice  thereupon  proceeded  to  make  and  return  to  the  secretary  of  state.  The 
county  contained  four  precincts,  the  votes  from  ail  of  which  were  embraced  in  this  canvass,  and 
gave  238  votes  for  the  Tilden  and  113  votes  for  the  Hayes  electors  (Coxe,  Fla.,  12;  Bloxham,. 
Fla.,  7). 

Drigs'ers,  the  county  judge,  hearing  of  this  canvass,  on  the  10th  of  November  gave  written 
notice  to  Coxe  and  to  Dorman  of  a  canvass  to  be  held  on  the  13th  of  November,  that  being  the^ 
latest  day  allowed  by  law  for  canvassing  the  returns.  He  then  went  to  Tallahassee,  and  there 
learned  the  result  in  the  state,  a  d  that  the  vote  of  Baker  county  gave  the  state  to  Tilden.  He  pro- 
cured there  from  Stearns,  the  governor,  a  commission  to  owe  Green,  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and 
returned  to  Sanderson.  On  the  13th  Dorman  and  Coxe  attended,  upon  the  notice  which  Driggers 
had  given,  to  proceed  with  the  canvass.  Drij.gers  absented  himself  part  of  the  day,  but  they  sub- 
sequently found  him,  and  he  then  refused  to  join  them  in  the  canvass.  Thev  then  applied  to- 
Allen,  the  sheriff,  to  join  in  making  the  canvass,  and  he,  under  instructions  from  Driggers,  refused 
also.  Driggers  told  Allen  that  "  they  (the  Republicans)  were  beat  in  the  state  ;  that  something 
must  be  done,"  and  that  "  he  proposed  to  have  a  canvass  by  himself."  Allen  asked  him  how  he^ 
could  get  any  one  to  act  with  him,  and  he  said  he  "had  got  it  all  right ;"  that  he  "had  a  com- 
mis^ion  for  Bill  Green  as  a  justice  of  the  peace"  (Coxe,  Fla.,  16;  Driggers,  Fla.,  33;  Coxe» 
Fla.,  14-17  ;  Allen,  Fla.,  18  ;  Green,  25). 

Coxe  and  Dorman,  after  waiting  all  the  day,  proceeded,  late  in  the  afternoon,  upon  the  refusal 
of  both  the  sheriff  and  county  judge  to  join  them,  to  complete  the  canvass  themselves.  This  cor- 
responded exactly  with  the  canvass  made  upon  the  10th  ;  and  they  certified  the  result,  with  an 
explanatory  note,  stating  the  refusal  of  the  other  officers  to  participate  in  the  canvass,  and  left  and 
locked  up  the  clerk's  office  (Coxe,  Fla.,  12). 

After  dark  Driggers  procured  a  key  to  the  clerk's  office,  and  taking  Allen  and  Green  with  him, 
entered  and  found  the  returns  lying  on  the  table,  where  Coxe  and  Doiraan  had  left  them .    He  thea 


S02       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

told  Allen  and  Green  that  they  must  throw  out  two  precincts— Darb3'ville  and  Johnsville— which 
gave  Tilden  a  majority  of  126,  and  they  excluded  them  entirely,  and  took  the  addition  of  the  votes 
of  the  other  two  precincts  made  by  Coke  and  Dorman,  and  returned  those  two  precincts  alone  as 
the  vote  of  the  county.  In  excluding  from  the  returns  the  two  precincts  that  thoy  did,  Allen  and 
Green  acted  solely  upon  Drigirers'  direction.  They  had  neither  proofs,  affidavits  nor  other  evidence 
of  any  kind  before  them  ;  but  Driggers  said  that  he  knew  one  case  of  illegal  voting  in  one  precinct 
and  one  of  intimidation  in  another,  and  they  must  exclude  these  precincts,  and  that  it  was 
necessary  for  the  success  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  state  that  they  should  do  it :  and  they  did 
it  (Allen,  Fla.,  19  ;  Allen,  Fla.,  18  ;  Driggers,  Fl;i.,  33  ;  Green,  25). 

When  the  board  of  state  canvassers  came  to  Baker  county,  having  before  them  the  returns  from 
all  the  p  ecincts,  with  which  of  course  the  Coxe  return  corresponded,  they  properly  took  the  Coxe 
return  and  canvassed  it.  McLin  first  read  out  the  Driggers  return  as  if  the  only  one  received,  be- 
cause, as  he  savs,  "  it  was  the  one  most  favorable  to  the  Republicans."  But  on  the  other  return 
being  demanded,  the  fourth-precinct  return  was  reluctantly  produced,  and  was  then  read,  and  was 
canvassed.  This  left  a  majority  upon  the  face  of  the  returns  for  the  Tilden  electors  and  for  Drew, 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor.  But  by  exercising  the  arbitrary  power  of  rejecting  votes 
from  other  counties,  the  state  canvassers  succeeded  in  bringing  out  majorities  for  the  Hayes 
electors  and  for  Stearns,  the  Republican  candidate  for  governor.  But  none  the  less  it  remains 
that  according  to  the  face  of  the  returns  the  Tilden  electors  were  duly  chosen  in  the  state  of 
Florida,  and  should  have  been  so  declared  (Pasco,  Fla.,  55-56  ;  McLin,  Fla.,  105). 

It  was  claimed  that  if  the  canvassers  must  count  by  the  face  of  the  r  turns,  they  were  bound  to 
count  the  Driggers  instead  of  the  full  returns  from  Baker  county,  because  it  was  signed  by  the 
judge,  a  justice  and  the  sheriff,  while  the  full  return  was  only  signed  by  the  clerk  and  a  justice. 
But  the  sheriff  had  no  power  to  act  except  when  the  clerk  or  judge  did  not.  And  as  the  returns 
ghowed  that  b')th  the  clerk  and  judge  had  acted,  they  furnished  the  board  the  evidence  on  their 
face  that  the  contingency  in  which  alone  the  sheriff  was  authorized  to  act  had  never  occurred,  and 
that  his  action  was  a  nullity.  The  board  had,  therefore,  before  it  two  returns,  each  signed  by  two 
authorized  officers  only,  one  returning  the  vote  of  but  two  precincts,  the  other  returning  the  vote 
of  all  the  precincts  in  the  county  and  explaining  the  absence  of  the  judg3  and  sheriff.  On  the  face 
of  the  returns,  therefore,  ihe  latter  was  a  complete,  the  Driggers  return  only  an  incomplete  and 
partial  return  :  and,  under  the  circumstances  disclosed  by  the  returns,  one  suggestive  of  fraud. 

BAD  FAITH  OF  THE   STATE  CANVASSERS. 

The  conduct  of  the  two  Republican  state  canvassers  subsequent  to  thi-<  canvass  shows  their 
•want  of  good  faith  ;  for,  aft.  r  the  direction  of  the  Supreme  Court  requiring  the  re-canvass  of  the 
-vote  for  governor,  they  volunteered  to  re-canvass  the  vote  for  the  electors  in  accordance  with 
Its  decision  in  the  cas  •  of  the  vote  for  governor— that  is,  accordmg  to  the  true  returns  before  them. 
As  doing  this  would  give  a  majority  to  the  Tilden  electors,  when  they  came  to  Baker  county  they 
took  the  return  Driggers  had  manufactured,  containing  but  two  precincts  of  that  county,  and 
thereby  made  the  result  seem  to  be,  upon  the  face  of  the  returns,  for  Hayes.  But  as  between  the 
double  returns  from  this  county  it  was  within  tlieir  province  to  decide,  and  as  they  had  the  facts 
.and  the  precinct  returns  before  them,  and  had  previously  determined  that  the  Driggers  return  was 
l)artial  and  false,  their  adopting  it  on  this  canvass,  under  the  f.il.«e  pretense  of  obedience  to  the 
•court,  was  another  fraudulent  act  in  violation  of  right  and  law  to  make  it  falsely  appear  that  the 
astate  had  gone  for  Hayes.  Especially  clear  is  this,  as  in  both  their  canvasses  of  the  governor's  vote 
they  included  the  fourth-precmct  return  of  Baker  county  (McLin.  Fla.,  107  ;  McLin,  Fla.,  127). 

Howell,  an  employee  in  the  clerk's  office  of  Baker  county,  claimed  the  credit  of  causing  the 
Driggers  canvass,  and  insisted  that  it  was  he  that  had  secured  Mr.  Hayes'  election,  as  the  double 
returns  from  that  county  furnished  the  pretext  for  counting  it  for  Hayes  ;  and  he  was  rewarded 
for  his  ingenious  device  by  being  made  United  States  collector  of  the  port  of  Femandina  (McLin, 
F1&.,  141). 

THE  ACCURACY  OP  THE  PRECINCT  RETURNS. 

An  application  was  made  to  your  committee  to  show  that  the  precmct  returns  in  the  state  of 
Florida  did  not  correspond  with  the  votes  actually  offered.  That  evidence  we  declined  to  receive. 
An  inquiry  as  to  whether  the  local  election  officers  of  the  state  of  Florida  had  improperly  received 
or  rejected  any  votes  would  be  neither  profitable  nor  practicable.  Such  an  inquiry  would  involve 
evidence  not  only  as  to  what  took  place  before  them,  but  as  to  the  residence,  naturalization,  or  other 
fitness,  as  well  of  the  persons  whose  votes  were  rejected  as  of  those  whose  votes  were  received, 
and  might  be  so  conducted  as  to  extend  to  every  man  in  the  state,  and  its  completion  thus  be 
made  absolutely  impracticable  (Allen,  Fla.,  pp.,  22-3). 

Beyond  this  the  laws  of  the  state  of  Florida  do  not  contemplate  such  an  inquiry.  The  laws 
require  the  precinct  officers  to  count  the  votes  cast,  so  far  as  they  tally  with  the  poll-list,  and  re- 
turn the  same  to  the  county  officers,  who  are  to  compile  and  forward  the  votes  thus  returned  them 
by  the  precinct  officers  to  the  board  of  state  canvassers  :  and  the  state  has  withheld  from  them 
liny  other  authority.  When  the  precinct  officers  and  the  county  officers  and  the  state  officers  had 
exercised  these  powers,  and  the  only  authority  vested  in  them,  the  result  showed  that  the  state 
had  cast  its  vote  for  Tilden.  That  vote  had  been  a.scertained  by  the  means  provided  by  law,  and 
an  inquiry  into  the  purpose  or  wishes  of  the  individual  voters  would  have  been  alike  impracticable 
and  without  the  law  of  Florida. 

In  vi'W  of  the  control  which  the  Republican  state  officials  exercised  over  the  election  and 
TCti.rns  throughout  the  state,  and  their  determination  to  use  every  possible  influence,  power  and 
opportunity  to  have  the  state  counted  for  the  Republicans,  it  is  quite  certain  that  no  injustice 
could,  on  the  whole,  have  been  done  to  their  own  party  by  the  local  officers  of  election.  But  had 
it  been  otherwise,  it  was  not  within  the  authority  of  Congress  to  correct  the  evil,  nor  within  its 
powers  efficiently  to  investigate  it ;  and  we  therefore  decided  not  to  enter  upon  an  inquiry  such  as 
the  state  had  not  provided  for,  which  could  not  be  brought  to  any  conclusion  within  the  term  of 
this  Congress,  and  which  could  result  in  no  fact  important  for'the  determination  of  the  real  ques- 
tions involved  in  the  investigation. 

THE  DECISION   OF   THE  ELECTORAL   COMMISSION. 

As  is  well  known,  the  Electoral  Commission,  by  a  strict  party  vote,  refused  to  inquire  into  fraud 
in  the  appointment  of  '^.•lectors,  and  refused  to  receive  evidence  thereof  or  to  inquire  into  their  title, 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       303 

and  refused  also  to  recognize  the  vote  cast  by  the  electors  appointed  in  accordance  with  the  Con- 
stitution and  tlie  laws  of  Florida,  and  which,  upon  the  completion  of  the  canvass  directed  by  the 
legislature,  and  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  judgment  and  direction  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
had  been  verified  as  the  only  real  appointment  by  Florida.  They  persisted  in  counting  instead  the 
vote  given  by  tlie  usurping  electors  on  the  6th  of  December  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler,  which  is  the 
foundation  of  their  title.  ,       ,.,  .         * 

And  yet,  as  has  been  stated,  there  is  really  no  question  or  dispute  about  what  did  occur  in  the 
state  of  Florida,  and  it  is  evident  from  all  the  proceedings  in  that  state  that,  according  to  a  true 
return  and  canvass  of  the  votes  cast,  a  majority  of  the  votes  of  that  state  were  cast  for  Tilden  and 
Hendricks,  and  not  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler. 

Nor  can  it  bo  doubted,  from  a  review  of  the  undisputed  facts,  that  the  action  of  the  state  authori- 
ties in  falsely  returning  the  state  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler,  was  an  intentional  wrong,  fraudulently 
and  knowingly  carried  out  under  the  encouragement  of  the  visiting  statesmen. 

THE  DANGER  FROM   THAT  DECISION. 

Such  a  wrong  mav  be  repeated  in  any  state  at  any  Presidential  election,  and  the  Electoral 
Commission  has  decided  that,  if  it  be  not  corrected  by  the  state  before  the  first  Wednesday  of  De- 
cember following  the  election,  it  cannot,  under  existing  laws,  be  corrected  at  all,  and  that  the  vote 
of  the  usurping  electors  must  be  counted. 

This  we  think  an  erroneous,  unjust  and  dangerous  determination. 

The  exercise  of  choice  l)y  one  entitled  to  suffrage  cannot  be  said  to  be  complete  until  his  vote 
is  finally  deposited.  If  a  man  were  to  approach  a  poll,  and  offer  to  vote  by  handing  up  a  ballot, 
and  his  vote  should  be  challenged,  and  he  should  be  subjected  to  question,  and  finally  be  required 
to  swear  in  his  vote,  and  the  ballot  he  tendered  should  be  passed  up  from  the  officer  who  received 
it  to  one  who  compared  it  with  the  registry,  and  from  him  to  one  who  administered  the  oath  and 
conducted  the  examination,  and  finally  to  that  officer  who  was  to  deposit  it  in  the  ballot-box,  and 
at  the  last  moment  the  latter  should  remark  to  the  voter  :  "I  notice  you  vote  for  A  B,"  and  the 
voter  should  reply;  *'  No  ;  that  is  a  mistake;  I  had  a  wrong  ballot  put  into  my  hand  ;  I  intended  to 
vote  for  C  D;  give  me  back  that  ballot ;"  every  one  would  say  that  the  correction  was  in  time,  and 
that  the  voter  would  have  the  right  to  recall  ti.e  ballot  wh.ch  he  had  mistakenly  passed  up.  Just 
i?o,  it  seems  to  us,  that  when,  by  the  fraudulent  and  unlawful  action  of  the  canvassing  board,  men 
received  certificates  as  electors  who  were  not  entitled  to  them,  and  thereupon  assumed  to  cast  the 
vote  of  the  state,  there  remained  in  the  state,  until  the  return  was  finally  opened  and  Congress 
came  to  decide  what  were  the  electoral  votes,  a  power  to  annul  the  action  unlawfully  taken,  and  to 
declare  that  the  vote  thus  returned  was  not  her  vote. 

AND  ITS  INJUSTICE. 

The  Tilden  electors,  who  had  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast  at  the  President.ai  election  in  Florida 
in  1876  were,  by  virtue  of  the  Constitution  and  the  laws  of  Florida,  thereby  appointed  the  electors 
of  that  state.  It  then  only  remained  to  declare  their  election.  That  the  canvassing  board  fraudu- 
lently declared  persons  not  elected  to  have  been  appointed,  or  that  the  governor  fraudulently  with- 
held his  certificate  from  the  true  electors,  did  not  affect  the  right  of  the  Tilden  electors,  and  when 
they  met  on  the  day  fixed  by  law  and  cast  their  votes  for  President  and  Vice-President,  theirs  were 
the  only  votes  for  those  offices  entitled  to  be  given,  and  when  that  fact  was  made  to  appear  by  the 
action  and  declaration  of  every  department  of  the  state  government,  no  other  votes  should  have 
been  counted. 

Neither  the  Constitution  nor  any  law  in  pursuance  of  it  limits  the  state  from  offering  evidence 
to  verify  its  vote  or  prevent  the  Congress  from  receiving  such  evidence  at  any  time  before  they 
act  in  receiving  and  counting,  or  refusing  to  receive,  the  votes  certififd  as  the  vote  of  the  state. 
And  the  Constitution  makes  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  the  exclusive  and  final  judge  of  what 
electoral  votes  shall  be  counted. 

REMEDY  RECOMMENDED. 

But,  since  the  Electoral  Commission  have  otherwise  decided,  we  recommend  the  passage  of  an 
act  providing  that  in  case  of  contest  as  to  the  choice  of  the  electors  in  any  state,  if  the  highest 
court  of  the  state  shall  hear  and  pass  upon  the  title  of  the  contesting  electors,  its  judgment,  when 
certified  to  the  Congress  any  time  before  the  second  Monday  in  February  following  the  election, 
shall  be  controlling  upon  that  question,  unless  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  otherwise  order  and 
agree. 

MR.    NOYES'   CONDUCT. 

It  was  claimed,  and  this  was  the  only  point  npon  which  there  was  any  conflict  in  the  evidence, 
that  the  wrongful  action  of  the  state  authorities  was  not  procured  by  the  co-operation  of  Mr. 
Noyes,  and  that  he,  at  least,  had  no  knowledge  of  their  fraudulent  purpose  and  conduct  (Dennis, 
478;  McLin,  Fla.,  100). 

Mr.  Noyes  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  the  leader  of  the  Republican  visitors  and  special 
friend  of  Mr.  Hayes.  He  often  spoke  of  Hayes  as  his  intimate  friend,  and  gave  assurances  of 
Haves'  fidelity  to  the  Republican  cause,  and  his  special  desire  to  take  care  of  Southern  Republi- 
cans.   He  occupied,  while  at  Tallahassee,  the  same  room  with  Gen.  Lew  Wallace. 

He  denies  having  made  Mr.  McLin  any  promise  of  office  or  reward  for  his  conduct  on  the  can- 
vassing board,  and  Gen.  Wallace  says  the  assurances  which  McLin  received  were  from  him.  As  it 
was  known  th  it  the  Presidency  was  at  stake,  and  telegrams  from  all  parts  of  the  country  were 
coming  in  to  the  officials  and  canvassing  board  of  Florida  to  stand  firm,  it  doubtless  '-goes  without 
saying"'  that  McLin  and  Cowgill  knew  they  were  to  be  compensated  or  rewarded  for  any  service 
that  they  did  either  party  at  that  juncture,  and  Mr.  No3'es  admits  having  waited  on  McLin  imme- 
<liately  after  the  canvass  to  thank  him  and  offer  his  services  to  obtain  reward  for  him  (McLin, 
Fla.,  98  and  100). 

He  denied  having  even  had  any  private  conversation  with  the  canvassers.  But  as  to  this  he  is 
probably  mistaken  (Noves,  504;  Cocke,  Fla.,  149;  Mcintosh,  Rippey,  1330;  Dennis,  478^81). 

There  was  somedon'ht  about  the  sincerity  of  the  visiting  statesmen's  desire  to  save  the  state  for 
Stearns,  the  idea  being  that  they  cared  only  for  Hayes.  The  Republicans  known  as  carpet-bag- 
gers had  an  indignation  meeting  over  this.    Dennis  had  heard  that  Gen.  Barlow  had  been  negoti- 


304       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

ating  with  the  Democrats  to  have  the  state  counted  for  Hayes  and  Drew,  and  he  went,  as  the  rep- 
resentative of  th- carpet-bag  Republicans,  to  see  Mr.  Noyes,  whom,  he  says,  they  regarded  and 
who  was  generally  understood  to  be  the  personal  representative  of  Mr.  Hayes.  He  found  Noyes 
and  Wallace  in  bed,  and  in  an  excited  manner  stated  the  alarm  he  and  his  friends  felt,  and  added: 
V  We  had  determined  that  the  state  belonged  to  Tilden  and  Drew  or  to  Hayes  and  Stearns;  that  it 
did  not  belong  to  a  Republican  President  and  a  Democratic  governor."  He  demanded  that  the- 
management  of  the  Republican  case  before  the  canvassing  board  be  taken  away  from  Barlow;; 
"that  they  believed  there  was  a  trade  going  on,  by  which  the  national  ticket  was  to  be  saved  and 
the  state  ticket  sacrificed;  and  that  they  intended  to  give  the  state  to  Tilden  in  that  event,  if  they 
could,  and  that  they  believed  they  could."  At  this  Noyes  and  Wallace  both  got  up,  went  speedily 
out,  giving  Dennis  satisfactory  assurances;  and  the  result  was,  that  ihe  munayement  before  the 
board  was  transferred  from  Barlow  to  Noyes. 

Noyes  admits  the  visit;  says  Dennis  was  greatly  excited;  complained  that  the  local  Republicans 
considered  they  were  being  sold  out;  demanded  that  the  c<mduct  of  the  case  should  be  taken  from 
Barlow,  "and  threatened  all  sorts  of  things— -to  give  up.'  try  to  do  nothing'— if  the  demand 
was  not  acced'-d  to."  Noyes  adds  that  Dennis  did  not  explain  what  he  meant  by  selling  out;  that 
he  neither  understood  nor  thought  about  how  it  was  possible,  at  all,  and  only  acted  as  he  did  to 
accommodate  Dennis  and  his  friends,  who  were  angry  and  distrustful  (Noyes,  499). 

Dennis  further  states,  that  in  the  Alachua  case,  in  which  he  procured  the  affidavits  to  support 
the  false  returns,  Noye^  notified  Dennis  of  his  intention  to  call  him  as  a  witness;  Dennis  objected; 
"told  him  he  must  not  do  it,  unless  he  wanted  to  give  up  his  case,  or  words  to  that  elf ect."  "I 
wanted  him,"  he  testifies,  "to  understand  that  I  objected  to  going  on  the  stand,  and  it  would  do 
no  good  to  put  rae  there.  He  asked  for  no  explanation,  and  I  gave  him  nont-,  and  lef^him  to  draw 
his  own  inferences."  "He  knew  that  I  was  familiar  wiih  the  election  proceedings  in  Alachua 
county,  and  in  getting  the  evidence.    He  knew  that  I  did  all  the  work  there  myself  (Dennis,  482). 

fsoyes  states  that  he  asked  Dennis  to  be  sworn  because  he  had  msisted  upon  the  correctness  of 
the  Alachua  returns,  and  had  undertaken  to  prove  it,  and  had  proved  it  to  his  own  satisfiaction; 
but  that  he  had  learned  that  Dennis'  life  had  been  threatened;  that  he  had  heard  somewhere  of  his 
calling  together  tlie  colored  people  of  the  vicinity,  and  having  them  kneel  down  and  raise  their 
hands  and  "swear  that  if  he  was  killed  they  would  lay  wa«te  in  every  direction  and  avenge  his 
death."  "  That,"  he  adds,  "made  an  impression  on  mo.  Knowint',  therefore,  the  dangtr  which, 
he  and  others  regarded  him  as  being  in,  the  impression  I  got  was  that  he  did  not  wish  to  U  stify  so 
as  to  bring  himself  into  conflict  with  anybody,  especially,  perhaps,  because  he  himcelf  was  a  candi- 
date for  the  Senate,  and  his  own  election  was  at  stake.  That  was  the  only  impression  I  had'* 
(Noyes,  497). 

Many  persons  may  regard  these  explanations  as  far  from  satisfactory,  and,  unfortunately  for  the 
last  explanation,  it  has  appeared  that  Dennis'  own  election  was  not  at  all  at  stake,  having  beea  pre- 
viously decided,  and  that,  so  far  from  liaving  been  alarmed  or  having  considered  himself  in  very 
great  danger,  he  had  never  been  alarmed  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  he  told  Mr.  Noyes  "  that  it  was 
often  necessary  to  assume  a  bold  and  aggressive  attitude;  and,  as  illustration,  said  that  he  was 
once  going  to  Noonansville  to  hold  a  meeting,  and  was  varned  by,  perhaps,  two  or  three  citizens 
not  to  speak,  that  it  might  lead  to  a  disturbance  that  might  endangtr  his  life;  that  he  went  on  to 
the  meeting  and  spoke,  and  stated  the  warning,  and  asked  the  audience  if  anything  happened  to 
him  if  they  would  retaliate  and  avenge  him,  wliich  they  expressed  their  willingness  to  do.  He  was 
not  intimidated,  and  never  gave  Noyes  the  impression  that  he  was;  that,  after  learning  of  Noyes* 
testimony,  bespoke  to  Noyes  and  told  him  it  was  wholly  imaginary,  and  that  he  wi^hed  him  to 
correct  it;  that  he  promised  to  do  so,  but  left  for  Europe  without  doing  so;  that  he  then  wrote  him 
and  received  in  reply  the  letter  to  be  found  at  page  a54  (Dennis,  853-855). 

Dennis  adds,  and  it  Is  curiously  illustrative  of  the  intimidation  cry,  that  the  first  time  he 
heard  of  his  being  intimidated  was  on  tome  social  occasion,  when  Noyes  wjis  telling  the  same 
story  he  testified  to  before  the  committee,  and  that  when  he  undertook  to  correct  him,  Noyes  dis- 

Sosed  of  him  with  the  reply :  "  Now,  Dennis,  do  not  interrupt  me,  this  is  my  story ;  "  of  all  of  which 
foyes  makes  no  contradiction  (Dennis,  854). 

Noyes  was  not  then  a  Federal  ofticer ;  he  has  since  received  his  appointment  as  minister  to  France. 
He  may  not  be  liable  to  be  impeached  for  any  action  before  he  became  minister,  nor  to  any  punish- 
ment by  Congress;  and  the  committee,  therefore,  submit  whether  the  action  of  state  canvassers  of 
Florida  was  influenced  by  his  conduct  and  action. 

GENERAL  BARLOW's  JUST  COURSE. 

Among  the  gentlemen  sent  by  the  Presidont  to  Florida  was  General  Francis  C.  Barlow.  His  dis- 
tinction as  a  lawyer,  a  soldier  and  a  public  man  caused  him  to  be  regarded  as  a  leader  there.  He 
argued  various  questions  for  the  Republicans,  but  when  finally  desirtd  to  sum  up  their  whole  case 
before  the  canvassing  board  declined,  because  unwilling  to  insist  upon  all  they  claimed.  He  was 
ready  to  sustain  everything  that  could  be  rightfully  urged  for  the  Republicans,  but  not  what  was 
ckarly  untrue,  unjust  and  unfair. 

After  the  proofs  were  closed  he  had  an  interview  with  Mr.  Cowgill,  one  of  the  canvassers,  in  which 
he  stated  the  necessity  for  applying  the  same  principle  to  both  |)arties,  insisting  that  Democratic 
polls  should  not  be  thrown  out  where,  on  like  facts  and  conditions.  Republican  polls  were  retain- 
ed, nor  Republican  polls  received  where,  under  like  circumstances,  Democratic  polls  were  rejected. 

As  the  reeult  of  the  application  of  these  principles  to  the  facts  before  the  board,  he  stated  to  Mr. 
Cowgill  he  did  not  see  how  the  vote  of  the  state  could  be  given  to  Hayes.  In  this  Cowgill  con- 
curred. Governor  Stearns  then  came  in,  and  to  him  General  Barlow  repeated  his  views  and  con- 
victions. Later  in  the  evening  he  made  a  like  statement  to  one  of  the  Democratic  counsel,  and  the 
following  day  he  communicated  these  views  to  others.  Mr.  Cowgill  having  again  called  upon  him 
and  exhibited  a  change  of  feelinp;  upon  the  subject,  he  then  wrote  him  a  letter  reiterating  his  desire 
to  see  the  same  rules  df  law  and  evidence  impartially  applied  to  both  sides. 

For  this  General  Barlow  was  severely  censured  before  the  committee  by  Mr.  Chandler,  who  had 
charge  in  Florida  of  the  Republican  case,  who  insisted  his  conduct  had  been  treacherous  and  dis- 
honorable. It  is  conceded  that  General  Barlow  commnnicated  no  fact  to  the  Democrats,  nor  ex- 
pressed his  conclusions  until  the  case  was  closed,  and  then  openly  and  frankly  to  his  own  party 
friends  first;  but  Mr.  Chandler  claims  that,<»tiinding  in  the  relation  he  did  to  the  Republican  party, 
he  ought  not  to  have  expressed  to  the  canvas&ers  or  to  the  public  his  conviction  as  to  the  result  of 
the  election  and  the  duty  of  the  board. 

General  Barlow  seems  to  have  really  thought  that  Florida  ought  not  to  have  been  counted  for 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       BOS' 

the  Republicans  unless  that  could  be  fairly  done.  Indeed  he  told  Mr.  Chandler  Mr.  Hayes  would 
not  accept  the  Presidency  unless  satisfied  he  was  fairly  elected.  This  Mr.  Chandler  denounces  afr 
"  a  shallow  and  sickly  pretense  "  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Hayes. 

It  aftbrds  the  committee  satisfaction  to  find  one  man  with  whom,  at  any  rate,  this  was  not  a- 
pretense;  and  who,  notwithstanding  he  regarded  the  election  of  Tilden  "  as  a  great  national  calam- 
ity," was  still  willing  to  face  the  coldness  of  his  friends  and  the  accusations  of  his  associates  in  the- 
discharge  of  what  seemed  to  him,  as  it  does  to  us,  a  paramount  duty;  and  who  did  really  go  to 
Florida  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  "a  fair  count""  That  his  was  the  single  instance  of  such  integ- 
rity and  independence  only  entitles  him  to  the  more  respect. 

LIST  OF  OFFICE-HOLDERS. 

In  conspiracies  everything  is  to  be  pre«umed  against  the  conspirators.  In  crimes  participation: 
in  the  fruit  of  the  crime  is  among  the  strongest  evidences  of  complicity  in  it. 

The  following  officers  of  the  government  were  in  Florida  during  the  Presidential  canvass,, draw; 
n g  their  regular  salaries,  looking  after  the  canvass: 
Thomas  J.  Brady,  Second  Assistant  Postmaster-General. 

E.  W.  Maxwell,  Assistant  in  Attorney-General's  Office. 
Peyton.  "  "  "  " 

II.  Clay  Hopkins,  Special  Agent  Post-Office  Department. 

Wm.  T.  Henderson,         "  "  " 

Z.  L.  Tidball, 

B.  H.  Camp,  "  "  " 

Alfred  Morton,  "  "  " 

The  following  were  visiting  statesmen  since  appointed  to  office: 

Edward  C.  Noyes,  Minister  to  France. 

John  A.  Kasson,  Mmister  to  Austria. 

Lew  Wallace,  Governor  of  New  Mexico, 

John  Little,  Attorney-General  of  Ohio. 

Gen.  Francis  C.  Barlow,  late  Republican  Attorney-General  of  Kew  York. 

Wm.  E.  Chandler,  Secretary  of  National  Republican  Committee,  were  also  among  the  principsRSr 
visiting  statesmen. 

General  Barlow  wrote  a  letter  stating  that  Tilden  was  elected. 

Mr.  Chandler  wrote  a  pamphlet  reflecting  on  Mr.  Hayes.  Neither  of  them  have  been  appointed: 
to  any  office. 

Tlie  following  persons  were  connected  with  the  count  in  Florida,  and  have  since  received  the  ^ 
following  appointments: 

M.  L.  Stearns,  governor.  Commissioner  of  Hot  Springs. 

John  Vamum,  adjutant-general,  Receiver  Land  Office. 

George  H.  DeLeon,  governor's  secretary.  Custom  House, 

Samuel  B.  McLin,  state  canvasser.  Justice  of  New  Mexico. 

F.  C.  Humphreys,  first  elector  at  large,  Collector  Pensacola. 

Charles H.  Pearce,  second  elector,  has  been  convicted  of  bribery  when  member  of  legislature- 
and  pardoned  by  Stearns  (Sen.,  Rep.,  611,  p.  14). 

J,  W.  Howell,  Baker  false  return.  Collector  Fernandina. 

L.  G.  Dennis,  Alachua,  manager.  Treasury  sinecure.  Dennis  became  dissatisfied  with  thi'r! ; 
subordinate  position;  was  removed,  and  then  published  an  affidavit  admitting  the  fraud. 

Richard  H.  Black,  false  returns  Alacha,  Custom-house. 

Thos.  H.  Vance,  false  returns  Alachua,  Sixth  Auditor's  Office. 

W.  K,  Cessna,  county  judge  Alachua,  Postmaster  Gainesville. 

Joseph  Bowes,  stuffed  boxes  L'^on  county.  Treasury. 

James  Bell,  changed  tickets  Jefferson  county,  timber  agent  (Bell  was  dropped  but  after  Den- 
nis' statement  was  reinstated). 

Moses  J.  Taylor,  clerk  Jefferson  county.  Land  Office. 

Manuel  Govan,  Rep.  manager  Monroe,  Consul  Spezzia. 

Phelps,  political  manager,  Sec.  to  McCormick  at  Paris. 

E.  W,  Maxwell,  detective,  lieutenant  regular  army. 

G.  D.  Mills,  telegrapher.  Interior  Department. 

William  J.  Purman,  member  of  Congress,  had  sister  in  Treasury  Department;  declared  he  con- 
sidered Tilden  elected,  and  his  sister  was  dismissed. 

Dennis  Eagan,  Ch.  Rep.  State  Com.,  timber  agent.  Eagan  came  to  Washington  to  testify;; 
then  stated  he  knew  nothing;  returned  home,  and  received  this  appointment. 


II. 

LOUISIANA. 

In  Louisiana  a  returning  board  existed,  having  by  statute  (but,  as  we  think,  contrary  to  the- 
state  and  Federal  Constitutions)  discretionary  power  in  certain  cases  over  the  returns.  They- 
usurped  a  kindred  power  in  cases  where  none  was  granted,  and  by  arbitrarily  and  fraudulently  re- 
jecting more  than  ten  thousand  Democratic  votes  duly  cast  and  returned,  gave  that  State  to  Hayes^ 

SUPERVISORS  OF  REGISTRATION, 

The  election  laws  of  Louisiana  provided  for  a  registration  of  all  the  eligible  voters  of  the  state_ 
Supervisors  for  this  registration,  and  the  r  clerk,  were  to  be  appointed  in  every  parish  (county)  by 
the  governor.  These  supervisors  were  to  conduct  and  continue  the  registtation  from  year  to  year. 
They  were  to  sit  for  thirty  days  preceding  the  election  in  order  to  hear  tht  persons  seeking  to  be 
registered,  and  to  register  or  reject  the  same.    From  their  judgment  there  was  no  appeal,    Thej 


306       ELKCTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

conld,  in  effect,  register  whom  they  pleased  and  refuse  whom  they  pleased;  and  the  citizens  re- 
jected, or  the  body  of  citizens  injured  by  improper  registration,  were  alike  without  remedy.  Pos- 
sibly some  action  at  law  might  have  been  taken  against  the  supervisors,  but  none  by  which  prac- 
tical relief  could  be  secured  before  the  election  (Act  1871,  155). 

The  law  further  provided  that  these  supervisort^  might  designate  the  number  of  polls  for  each 
parish  and  the  places  at  which  they  were  to  be  held;  and  that  the  voters  registered  might  cast  their 
ballots  at  any  poll  within  the  parish. 

The  law  also  provided  that  the  supervisors,  prior  to  the  election,  or  commissioners  of  elec- 
tion upon  election  day,  might  protest  against  the  freedom  and  fairness  with  which  the  regis- 
tration or  election  had  been  conducted;  and  the  protest,  if  accompanied  by  the  aftidarits  of 
three  citizens  in  support  of  the  same,  should  be  attached  to  the  returns,  and  forwarded  to  the  re- 
turning board  ;  and  that  a  duplicate  of  the  protest  should  be  filed  with  the  clerk  ol  the  par- 
ish (Act  1872,  98,  §3). 

POWER  OP  RETURNING  BOARD. 

This  returning  board,  thus  possessed  of  the  returns  and  of  any  protest  accompanying  the 
game,  were  then  to  hear  evidence  as  to  the  allegations  contained  in  the  protest  so  forwarded,  and 
decide  thereon;  and  the  law  authorized  them  in  case  they  decided  that  the  election  at  any  poll 
duly  protested  against  had  not  been  fair  and  free,  to  exclude  the  poll  entirely,  but  not  to  purge  it. 

Tlie  power  thus  given  to  the  returning  board  was  a  novelty.  In  no  other  state  in  the  Union 
has  such  a  power  ever  been  retained.  Mr.  Sherman  and  the  "  visiting  statesmen  "  have  de- 
clared that  "nothing  could  be  more  simple,  nothing  more  just  "  than  the  provisions  of  this  law 
(44th  Cong  ,  2d  sess.,  Ex.  Doc.  2,  p.  5). 

In  our  judgment,  nothing  could  be  more  unjust,  more  wicked,  or  more  fitted  to  disguise  and 
cover  up  fraud.  Leading  Republicans  of  Louisiana  have  spoken  of  this  law  as  the  greatest 
political  mvention  of  the  age  ;  and  in  the  sense  of  its  being  the  most  dangerous  and  the  most  atroci- 
ous, they  were  right. 

In  the  first  place,  the  registrars  had  almost  absolute  control  over  the  vote.  It  was  not  an  in- 
frequent thing  when  the  supervisors  were  permitted  to  be  candidates,  for  supervisors  of  registration 
to  coiae  just  before  the  election  into  localities  where  they  entire  strangers,  and  return  them- 
■elvesyst  the  close  of  the  polls,  elected  (Sheldon,  p.  1468). 

Under  the  provision  by  which  the  supervisor  was  to  fix  the  polling  places  for  the  parish,  he  could 
withhold  any  announcement  of  them  until  so  late  that  the  opposition  would  n-t  generally  learn  by 
the  election  day  where  the  polls  were  fixed,  while  his  own  party  friends,  forewarned  of  his  selec- 
tion, could  attend  at  the  polls  in  full  force  (Burke,  1002). 

Under  the  provision  by  which  the  voter  might  vote  at  any  poll  in  the  parish  (county),  it  was  easy 
to  have  the  lleoublicans  (especially  those  who  were  negroes)  vote— for  instance,  in  a  parish  of  ten 
polls— at  Nos. '1,3,  5,  7  ;  and  when  they  had  thus  concentrated  their  votes  at  these  polls  to  create 
sonae  pretended  or  real  disturbance  at  the  other  polls,  and  then  to  claim,  because  there  were  no 
Bepnblican  votes  polled  at  these  other  polls,  that  such  disturbances  had  prevented  a  free  election 
there,  and  therefore  to  exclude  such  polls,  wheieby  all  the  Republican  vote  concentrated  at  the 
eelfccted  polls  would  be  preserved,  while  the  vote  excluded  would  be  mainly  Democratic  votes. 
And  this  became  a  very  common  and  barefaced  performance  under  this  law  (Burke,  1002). 

Beyond  this,  the  control  given  to  the  supervisors  of  registration  enabled  them  falsely  to  swell 
the  registry  of  their  party,  so  that  whenever  tiie  vote  of  the  party  fell  short  of  this  registry,  it  could 
be  claimea  that  there  had  been  intimidation  to  drive  off  their  voters. 

It  is  always  difficult  t »  prevent  a  party  in  power  from  doing  or  permitting  some  wrongs  at  an 
election;  but  the  extraordinary  powers  given  to  the  election  and  returning  officers  in  Louisiana,  of 
coaise,  added  greatly  to  the  opportunity  for  such  wrongs. 

THE  COLOR-LINE  PRETENSE. 

The  Republicans  began  early  by  assuming  that  the  color-line  divided  the  politics  of  the  state, 
and  in  1870  it  substantially  did.  A  few  white  men  had  obtained  control  of  the  political  machinery, 
and  partly  through  sympathy  and  i)romises,  partly  by  organization,  and  partly  by  threats,  they  held 
the  negroes  in  a  complete  control.  But  gradually  their  mismanagement  of  the  state  created  such 
disappointment  and  distress  that  some  of  the  negroes— few  at  first,  and  gradually  more— upon 
local  questions  and  issues  in  the  beginning,  and  later  upon  state  questions  and  issues,  decided  to 
leave  the  Republican  party  and  vote  with  its  opponents.  The  Republicans,  on  the  other  hand,  for 
the  same  cause,  received  no  accession  from  the  whites.  So  marked  had  this  defection  of  the  col- 
ored people  become  that  at  the  election  of  1874  (after  Kellogg  was  seated  as  governor,  through  an 
order  of  Judge  Durell,  for  which  he  was  subsequently  presented  for  impeachment)  a  very  consid- 
erable portion  of  the  blacks  had  voted  with  the  whites,  and  in  the  examination  of  that  election  the 
committee  of  this  House,  in  the  Forty-third  Congress,  reported  that  the  state  had  undoubtedly  gone 
for  the  Conservatives,  because  the  number  of  white  and  black  voters  in  the  state  being  equal,  and 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  blacks  having,  for  the  reasons  mentioned,  voted  with  the  Democrats, 
and  none  of  the  whites  having  voted  with  the  Republicans,  it  was  unavoidable  that  the  Conserva- 
tive candidates  had  received  a  majority  of  the  votes  (43d  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  Rep.  261). 

As  illustrating  how  entirely  all  the  whites  of  the  state  had  then  become  united  by  "  carpet-bag" 
rule  against  those  who  had  administered  it,  that  committee  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  no  wit- 
ness had  "  succeeded  in  naming  in  any  parish  five  white  Republicans  who  supported  the  Kellogg 
government,  who  were  not  themselves  office-holders,  or  related  to  office-holders,  or  those  having 
official  employment  "  (Ibid.  Rep.  101). 

This  report  of  the  committee  of  the  Forty-third  Congress  was  fatal  to  the  control  of  the  state  by 
the  Republicans  under  the  conditions  existing,  and  thereupon  the  Republicans  adroitly  set  about 
a  new  census.  In  that  new  census  they  made  it  appear  that  there  were  twenty-five  thousand  more 
adult  colored  people  in  the  state  than  adult  whites  (Burke,  1000-2,  1017). 

THE  FALSE  CENSUS. 
That  this  was  a  fraudulent  return  of  the  number  of  colored  adults  cannot  be  doubted.  The  Fed- 
eral census  of  1870,  which  had  never  been  questioned  for  its  accuracy,  made  the  number  of  adults 
of  the  two  races  in  the  state  just  about  equal  ;  and  all  the  causes  which  should  have  varied  this  re- 
lation had  operated,  as  was  stated  by  the  committee  of  the  Forty-third  Congress^rather  for  the  in- 
crecse  cf  w'^iLcs  than  the  blacks  {iZd  Coii^i  ,  £d  £'--i.  .,  L.,'.  SG'.). 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION.       307 

Of  the  adult  blacks  in  the  state  24,m)  were  returned  from  the  parish  of  Orleans  alone.  How 
utterly  fraudulent  this  return  was  appears  from  the  census  itself,  which  returned  56,641  men,  wo- 
men and  children  as  the  entire  colored  population  of  that  city,  which,  on  the  usual  proportion  of 
Ave  persons  lo  each  voter,  should  have  given  11,629  as  the  colored  voters  in  that  parish.  Whereas, 
thi-<  census  returned  24,300 as  the  number  of  adult  males  in  that  parish  (Burke,  1001). 

No  such  proportion  as  that  pretended  by  this  census  ever  existed  in  Louisiana  or  any  other  of 
the  United  Slates— not  even  in  the  remote  Western  states,  where  the  collection  of  miners  leads  to 
a  large  excess  of  males  beyond  their  normal  proportion, 

THE  FRAUDULENT  REGISTRATION. 

Nevertheless,  the  registration  for  1876  was  made  up  by  the  registrars  on  that  basis.  The  Con- 
servatives pointed  out  and  made  proof  of  9,800  cases  of  double  or  otherwise  false  registration  in 
New  Orleans  alone.  But  no  correction  was  made  by  Kellogg's  officials  in  this  respect.  On  the  con- 
trary, some  five  thousand  v>  hites  were  excluded  improperly,  and  the  Republicans  went  into  the  next 
canvass  with  an  apparent  but  false  registration  of  over  twenty-two  thousand  more  colored  voters  in 
the  state  than  existed  (Gauthreaux,  1052,  1058).  ,    .     ,    ,  ^     ^ 

Kellogg  had  the  appointment  of  the  supervisors  of  registration  and  of  their  clerks  and  other 
election  olficers.  The  law  required  that  the  supervisors  should  reside  in  the  parishes  for  which 
they  were  appointed.  But  this  law  was  disregarded,  and  absolute  strangers  to  the  ijarish,  without 
character  or  responsibility— mere  political  creatures,  like  Anderson— were  appointed  as  supervisors 
of  some  of  the  most  important  parishes.  Some  twenty  of  the  supervisors  of  registration  held 
positions  in  the  custom  house,  post-office  or  police  force  of  New  Orleans  ;  several  of  them  were 
under  indictment  or  fugitives  from  justice.  In  some  cases  the  commissions  of  the  registrars  and 
their  clerks  were  issued  in  blank,  and  given  to  the  Republican  candidate  of  the  district  to  fill  in  his 
own  appointees.  .  , ,  ,         ,  ,     .   •,  ,         .. 

From  the  nature  of  the  office  men  of  the  best  character  should  have  been  selected  to  perform  its 
duties,  but  the  effort  seems  instead  to  have  been  to  select  the  most  pliant  and  despicable  political 
tools  for  the  place.  None  but  such  men  could  have  been  expected  to  carry  out  the  instructions  they 
received,  w^hich,  in  effect,  promised  recognition  and  preferment  as  the  reward  of  successful  fraud. 

ORGANIZED  REPUBLICAN  FRAUD. 

These  instructions  were  issued  to  all  the  supervisors  directly  by  the  Republican  party.  We  give 
a.  copy  of  one  of  them.    The  italics  are  ours  (Edgeworth,  1074-5)  : 

Headquarters  Rkpublican  Partt  of  Louisiana,  \ 

Rooms  Joint  Committee  on  Canvassing  and  Registration,  > 
Mechanics'  Institute,  New  Orleans,  September  25,  1S76.     ; 
To  Supervisor  of  Begistration,  Parish  of  Plaquemines  : 

Dear  Sir  :  It  is  well  known  to  this  committee, /ro?«,  examination  of  the  census  of  1875,  that  the 
Republican  vote  in  your  parish  is  3,000,  and  the  Republican  majority  is  2200. 

You  are  expected  to  register  and  vote  the  full  strength  of  the  Republican  party  in  your  parish. 
Your  recognition  by  the  next  state  administration  will  depend  upon  your  doing  your  full  duty 
in  the  premises,  and  you  will  not  be  held  to  have  done  your  full  duty  unless  the  Republican  regis- 
tration in  your  parish  reaches  3,000,  and  the  Republican  vote  is  at  least  3,000. 

All  local  candidates  and  committee^  are  directed  to  aid  you  to  the  utmost  in  obtaining  this 
result,  and  every  facility  is  and  will  be  afforded  you;  but  you  must  obtain  the  results  called  for 
herein  without  fail. 

Once  obtained,  your  recognition  will  be  ample  and  generous. 

"Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

D.  J.  M.  A.  JEWETT,  Secretary. 

By  "  the  Republican  vote  "  shown  by  "  the  census  "  was  meant  the  colored  vote,  and  the  direc- 
tion by  these  party  leaders  to  sworn  officials  "  to  register  and  to  vote  a  majority  according  to  the 
census,"  and  to  return  a  Republican  vote  equal  to  the  number  of  colored  adults  in  the  parish,  when 
it  was  well  known  a  large  portion  of  that  race  had  already  abandoned  the  party,  has,  so  far  as  we 
are  aware,  not  been  equaled  in  infamy  in  any  state  in  the  Union. 

THE  RESULT  OF  THE  ELECTION. 

But  so  it  was  that,  notwithstanding  all  these  preparations  and  frauds,  the  number  of  votes 
actually  cast  at  the  election  of  1876  was  160,964,  being  the  largest  vote  ever  cast  in  the  state,  and  ex- 
ceeding by  16,0J'l  the  number  of  votes  cast  at  any  previous  election;  and  exceeding  in  proportion  to 
the  population  the  entire  vote  of  the  Union.  And  the  returns,  as  made  and  forwarded  by  the  Re- 
publican election  officers  to  the  returning  board,  disclosed  a  majority  of  6405  for  the  Tilder 
electors,  and  were  unaccompanied  by  a  single  protest,  except  one  against  Republican  fraud  in  Con- 
cordia parish  (Burke,  1003). 

USURPATION  BY  THE  RETURNING  BOARD. 

The  returning  board  had,  therefore,  no  lawful  power  except  to  canvass,  compile,  and  promulgate 
the  votes  returned  to  it.  Bad  as  was  the  law  authorizing  the  returning  board,  it  had  not  contem- 
plated their  control  over  any  return  in  a  case  where  no  protest  accompanied  it. 

They  had  attempted  this  in  1874,  and  their  action  had  been  declared  by  a  committee  of  this 
House,  composed  of  Messrs.  Hoar,  Wheeler,  and  Frye,  to  be  unlawful.  "  Upon  this  statute  we  are 
all  clearly  of  opinion,"  said  these  gentlemen,  "  that  the  returning  board  haa  no  right  to  do  any- 
thing except  to  convass  and  compile  the  returns  which  were  lawfully  made  to  them  by  the  local 
officers,  except  in  cases  where  they  were  accompanied  by  the  certificate  of  the  supervisor  or  com- 
missioner provided  in  the  third  section.  In  such  cases  the  last  sentence  of  that  section  shows 
that  it  was  expected  that  they  would  ordinarily  exercise  the  grave  and  delicate  duty  of  investigat- 
ing charges  of  riot,  tumult,  bribery  or  corruption  on  a  hearing  of  the  parties  interested  in  the  office. 
If  v.ever  could  have  been  meant  that  this  board,  of  its  own  motion,  sitting  in  New  Orleans,  at  a 
disiance  from  the  place  of  voting,  and  without  notice,  could  decide  the  right  of  persons  claiming 
to  be  elected"  (43d  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  Rep.  261,  minority). 

\ 


308       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS   IN   THE    LATE   PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

But  it  was  a  necessity  of  the  political  situation  that  Louisiana  should  be  carried  for  the  Repub- 
licans. Had  the  vote  of  this  state  not  been  necessar}^  to  elect  a  Republican  President,  the  power 
that  was  assumed  to  count  it  for  Hayes  would  not  have  been  usurped.  But  it  was  known  that  the 
men  composing  the  board  were  capable  of  anything  that  was  to  their  interest,  and  that  when  a  plan 
was  devised  by  which  they  could  usurp  power  successfully  they  would  use  it. 

ITS   PARTISAN   COMPOSITION. 

It  was,  therefore,  from  the  first,  given  out  among  the  politicians  that  the  returns  were  of  no 
consequence,  and  that  the  returning  board  would  count  the  state  for  Hayes.  Accordingly,  when 
the  board  assembled,  they  began  by  refusing  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  their  number  by  a  Democrat, 
although  the  law  provided  that  the  board  should  consist  of  persons  from  all  political  parties,  and 
sat  throughout  a  partisan  board,  composed  of  Republicans  only,  a  non-compliance  with  the  law 
which  had  occurred  for  a  short  time  in  1874  and  was  condemned  by  the  committee  of  the  Forty- 
third  Congress  (Tribune  Pam.  12,  Pitkin  dispatch;  Burke,  1005;  Jewett,  1270;  43d  Cong.,  2d 
sess;    Rep.  101). 

In  utter  contempt  of  law  and  this  opinion,  the  board  refused  all  applications  to  put  a  Democrat 
into  the  board,  and  then  proceeded  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  returns  (Palmer,  1084-6). 

THE  INTIMIDATION    CHEAT. 

A  large  portion  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  come  to  believe  that  such  intimidation 
existed  in  Louisiana  as  prevented  a  fair  Republican  vote,  and  that  this  afforded  an  equitable  offset 
to  any  fraud  by  the  returning  board,  and  this  belief  is  the  basis  upon  which  Republican  rule  stands. 
It  has  been  reiterated  by  nearly  every  journal  and  assented  to  by  every  politician  in  the  land  who 
profited  by  that  rule.  There  were  circumstances  that  made  it  seem  plausible;  and  these  circum- 
stances, together  with  the  wish  to  believe  it,  have  convinced  a  large  part  of  the  Republican  party 
that  it  really  existed. 

This  belief  is  based  upon  the  assumption,  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Sherman  and  the  visiting 
statesmen,  in  their  report  to  the  President,  "  that  if  left  free  to  vote,  uninfluenced  by  violence  or 
intimidation,  the  blacks  would  be  almost  unanimously  Republican."  But  the  assumption  itself 
was  entirely  unwarranted  by  the  facts  (Ex.  Doc,  No.  2,  44th  Congress). 

NEGROES  DISSATISFIED  WITH  REPUBLICANS. 

Prior  to  1876  the  distress  in  the  state  had  induced  many  negroes  to  leave  the  Republican  party. 
This  had  been  recognized  by  the  committee  of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  and  was  so  patent  that 
the  Republican  members  of  the  legislature  whom  the  returning  board  had  counted  in,  were,  upon 
the  recommendation  of  the  gentlemen  of  that  committee,  unseated,  and  their  places  given  to  Con- 
servatives. The  same  dissatisfaction  among  ;the  cohired  population  continued.  Nothing  was 
more  inevitable  than  the  ignorant  men,  whose  votes  had  been  procured  by  the  promise  of  farms, 
of  mules,  and  of  general  prosperity,  when  they  found  that  year  after  year,  that  they  got  neither 
farms  nor  mules,  and  that  instead  of  general  prosperity  taxes  grew  heavier,  and  wages  smaller,  and 
I  lie  opportunities  for  employment  less,  should  be  dissaticfied  even  with  the  party  they  supposed 
had  secured  their  freedom  (43d  Cong.,  2d  sess..  Rep.  261;  Wheeler  Comp.  Report). 

Beyond  that  the  negroes  attached  great  importance  to  maintaining  schools,  and  in  the  negro 
parishes  the  school  moneys  had  gone  into  the  hands  of  irresponsible  and  abandoned  persons,  and 
had  been  stolen  outright,  or  squandered  without  good  result.  The  negroes  were,  therefore,  then  in 
a  condition  more  than  ever  favorable  to  the  acceptance  of  overtures  from  the  Democrats  (Wicklifle, 
La.,  548;  Powell,  La,,  550;  Leake,  555;  Morrison  Report). 

AND  PROPITIATED  BY  THE  DEMOCRATS. 

The  Democrats  accordingly  made  the  most  determined  efforts  to  propitiate  them.  They  em- 
ployed many  colored  preachers  and  leaders,  and  had  them  stumping  the  negro  parishes.  They  re- 
alized that  to  secure  these  parishes  was  to  carry  the  state.  They  therefore  adopted  the  most  con- 
ciliatory action  to  that  end.  Governor  Nicholls  himself  made  a  journey  into  these  parishes  to 
assure  the  negroes  of  the  fullest  protection  and  equality  under  the  law.  Indeed,  as  Mr.  Sypher 
admits,  the  wnite  Democrats,  in  their  promises  to  the  negroes  of  equality— in  theatres,  hotels, 
street-cars,  and  in  other  social  relations— outstripped  the  Republicans  (Powell,  5.50;  Leake,  554; 
Burke,  1004;  Roberts,  898;  Sypher,  816). 

In  trouble,  the  negroes  still  looked  to  their  old  masters  for  aid.  And  when  a  planter  got  up  a 
club  of  citizens  of  both  colors,  and  presided  at  its  meetings,  with  his  former  slaves  on  each  side  of 
liim  as  vice-presidents,  and  appealed  to  the  negroes  to  join  the  Democrats  against  the  state  and 
local  abuse,  on  the  ground  of  their  own  interest,  it  was  not  strange  that  they  sliould  do  so;  and  so 
we  find  them  crowding  to  Democratic  meetings  with  their  wives  and  children,  and  carrying  ban- 
ners in  the  Dem.  cratic  processions,  "  '  hallooing  '  louder  than  any  white  man  "  (Wicklitfe,  548). 

Where  the  leaders  of  the  colored  race  go  the  masses  generally  and  perhaps  thoughtlessly  fol- 
low. When,  therefore  th.  Democrats  had  secured  the  leading  negroes  it  was  to  be  expected  that, 
with  the  aid  of  barbecues  and  music,  of  promises  and  conciliation,  the  rest  should  be  induced  to 
follow  them. 

DEMOCRATS  COULD  GAIN  NOTHING  BY  INTIMIDATION. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Democrats  had  absolutely  nothing  to  gain  by  intimidation,  for  the  re- 
turning board  had  been  established  on  purpose  to  annul  votes  so  secured,  and  provide  for  votes  so 
prevented.  They  knew  by  experience  how  reckless  and  desperate  the  board  was.  They  knew, 
also,  that  this  recklessn.ss  and  desperation  had  been  the  subject  of  Congressional  rebuke,  so  that 
they  might  hope  for  relief  if  they  afforded  no  pretext  for  its  arbitrary  action. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  th  board  was  composed  of  the  same  whii  ;  members  in  1876  as  in 
1874,  and  that  the  committee  of  the  Forty-third  Congress  had  reported,  that  in  1874,  in  the  parish 
of  Rapids,  in  which  Wells,  the  president  of  the  board,  resided,  there  was  really  no  disturbance  nor 
any  dispute  about  the  result;  and  yet  that  upon  a  secret  affidavit  by  Wells,  as  to  occurrences  in 
the  parish  npon  the  dav  of  election,  when  he  was  not  there  at  all,  the  board  had  thrown  out  the 
whole  vote  of  the  parish,  and  thereby  seated  four  Republican  members  of  the  legislature,  who  had 
not  claimed  to  be  elected,  and  who  were  subsequently,  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Con- 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       309 

:gre88ional  committee,  unseated;  and  that  the  action  of  Wells  had  been  denounced  by  that  com- 
mittee (43d  Cong.,  2d  sess..  Rep.  101). 

The  Democrats,  therefore,  well  knew  that  it  was  intended  by  the  returning  board  to  count  them 
out  upon  the  slightest  evidence  of  intimidation,  and  their  effort  throughout  was  to  avoid  not  only 
any  provocation,  but  any  pretense  for  such  a  charge  (Burke,  1004). 

PRETEXTS  FOR  RETURNING  BOARD    U8UEPATI0N. 

It  was  necessary  that  the  returning  board  should  have  a  pretext  for  assuming  control  of  the 
votes  cast  in  cases  where  the  law  hacTnot  given  it;  and  this  pretext  was  to  be  found,  first,  in  pro- 
tests by  supervisors  of  registration  made  after  the  returns  had  been  received,  fraudulently  pre- 
tending a  condition  of  things  which  made  It  unsafe  to  make  protests  with  their  returns;  second, 
some  form  of  testimony  to  give  color  to  the  assertions  in  these  protests. 

The  first  step,  then,  necessary  to  secure  a  reversal  of  the  popular  will  by  the  returning  board,  was 
to  obtain  from  the  supervisors  a  declaration  that  some  unfairness  had  taken  place  in  the  parishes 
intended  to  be  disputed.  Without  this  the  board  would  have  had  nothing  to  act  upon;  while  the 
supervisory,  nncommitted  by  any  writing,  might  at  any  time  have  declared  the  real  truth. 

As  it  became  known  that  the  Presidential  election  would  depend  upon  Louisiana,  the  pressure 
■became  greater,  and  supervisors  who  had  witnessed  and  declared  to  a  perfectly  free,  full  and  peace- 
able registration  and  election,  were  constrained  by  party  persuasion  and  promises,  to  make  false 
and  fraudulent  protests;  and  they  were  encouraged  by  like  influences  "to  stand  firm"  to  their 
protests  after  they  had  been  made." 

THE  FALSE  PROTESTS — ANDERSON-WEBER, 

The  two  most  important  officials  for  this  purpose  were  James  E  Anderson,  the  supervisor  ot 
East  Feliciana,  and  Don  A.  Weber,  the  supervisor  of  West  Feliciana. 

Anderson  was  a  stranger,  an  adventurer  and  a  rascal.  His  education  had  been  that  of  a  sensa- 
tional newspaper  reporter;  his  position,  when  selected  as  supervisor,  that  of  one  of  Kellogg's 
creatures  in  the  Custom-house.  He  was  a  notorious  liar  and  va^ibond  before  appointed  to  be 
supervisor  of  a  county  as  large  as  the  state  of  Rhode  Island,  to  which  he  was  an  utter  stranger. 
Finding  that  the  Republicans  could  not  carry  the  parish,  he  got  up  a  story  that  his  life  was  in 
danger,  procured  hiriiself  be  slot  at,  and  fied.  An  examination  disclosed  the  story  to  be  a  humbug 
and  a  fraud.  The  people  of  the  parish  then  called  upon  Kellogg  to  provide  them  a  new  registrar. 
He  promised  that  Anderson  should  be  sent  back,  and  publicly  ordered  him  to  go  back,  and  furn- 
ished him  with  a  little  money  to  do  so,  but  caused  it  to  be  privately  suggested  to  him  that  no 
election  was  wanted  in  that  parish,  and  that  he  was  not  to  return.  Indeed,  he  had  him  threatened 
with  arrest  if  he  did  return.  The  Democrats,  conscious  they  had  secured  a  majority  of  the  voters 
in  the  parish,  and  anxious  to  have  an  election,  then  hired  Anderson  to  go  back,  and  secretly  ran 
him  out  of  the  reach  of  Kellogg's  police  (Anderson,  G-7;  Wedge,  La.,  128;  Lyons,  La.,  80-1; 
McVea,  La.,  85-9;  Patton,  La.,  278-9;  Burke,  1004). 

Anderson  arrived  in  the  parish  two  days  before  the  election,  having  been  gone  for  ten  days,  and 
by  his  absence  shut  out  from  registration  about  five  hundred  Democratic  votes  (Patton,  La.,  279; 
Lyons,  La.,  81;  McVea,  La.,  87). 

The  election  having  passed  off  without  complaint  he  signed  the  returns  of  the  election,  only  in- 
sisting upon  being  paid  the  amount  to  which  he  was  by  law  entitled  for  his  services  as  registrar, 
and  declared,  as  did  T.  C.  Jenks,  who  accompanied  him,  that  everything  in  the  parish  had  been 
perfectly  free  and  fair  in  all  respects  (Wedge,  La,,  130;  Jenks'  aff.,  La.,  89). 

Weber  was  a  native  Creole.  He  and  his  brother  Emile  had  for  years  been  the  managing  Re- 
publicans of  the  district.  They  and  their  families  were  the  only  white  Republicans  there.  They 
•worked  in  couples  and  controlled  all  the  offices  and  exorcised  all  the  power  there.  Don 
Weber,  when  the  election  was  over,  openly  declared  that  it  had  been  in  every  respect  fair  and  free, 
and  furnished  no  ground  for  protest,  and  he  signed  the  return  without  protest  (Weber,  590-4; 
Powell,  La.,  551;  Leake,  La.,  556). 

THEIR   CREDIBILITY. 

As  these  two  supervisors  subsequently  made  protests,  and  as  the  contest  in  the  state  largely 
turned  upon  these  two  parishes,  it  was  a  necessity  that  their  evidence  should  be  taken,  if  it  could 
be  had;  and  Don  Weber  having  died  in  the  meantime,  it  became  a  necessity  that  his  brother  and 

gartner  in  politics  should  be  examined  in  his  stead.    Both  Emile  Weber  and  Anderson  had  sworn 
efore  previous  committees;  both  had  sworn  to  stories  the  reverse  of  what  they  testified  to  be- 
fore us. 

Under  the  circumstances  the  evidence  of  neither  was  entitled  to  any  consideration,  except  such 
.as  resulted  from  its  corroboration  by  crediable  testimony  and  known  facts  and  circumstances;  and 
we  have  given  it  no  other. 

ANDERSON'S  STORY. 

The  story  which  Anderson  tells  is,  that  there  was  a  Republican  conspiracy  to  prevent  Republican 
votes  being  cast  in  the  Felicianas,  and  thereby  to  afford  a  pretext  for  rejecting  the  vote  of  those 
parishes,  in  which  there  was  a  large  bona  fide  Democratic  majority;  and  that  the  registration  and 
election  in  both  parishes  had  been  perfectly  fair  and  free;  that,  upon  arriving  at  New  Orleans,  he 
was  urged  to  protest  his  parish;  that  he  resisted  on  the  ground  that  there  was  no  foundation  for 
such  a  protest;  that,  under  pressure,  he  prepared  a  paper,  which  Judge  Campbell,  the  counsel  for 
the  Republican  party  directing  such  matters,  declared  to  be  worthless;  that  thereupon,  at  the 
request  of  Pitkin,  the  United  States  marshal,  Campbell  prepared  an  effective  protest  for  him  to 
sign;  that  Campbell  was  subsequently  sent  for  to  come  and  take  the  verification  of  this  protest; 
that  he  then  refused  to  verify  it,  but  that  he  then  signed  it  and  left  it  with  Pitkin,  with  the  impor- 
tant parts  of  it  not  filled  up;  that  he  subsequently  called  on  Pitkin  to  reclaim  it,  who  refused  to 
^ve  it  to  him;  that  thereupon  he  began  making  complaint,  and  the  Republican  leaders  used  their 
influence  to  keep  him  quiet;  and,  finally,  that  he  went  with  Weber,  who  had  also  made  a  false  pro- 
test, to  Moreau's  restaurant,  where  they  met  Sherman;  and  that  they  received  from  him  satisfactory 
assurances  of  reward  for  letting  their  protests  stand,  which  assurances  they  determined  the  follow- 
ing day  to  have  in  writing,  and  thereupon  sent  Mr.  Sherman  a  letter  to  that  effect,  to  which  he 
^returned  a  satisfactory  reply  (Anderson,  27;  Anderson,  2-12). 


810       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION* 

ITS  COmiOBORATION. 

As  matter  of  fact,  it  certainly  appears— 

That  Anderson  left  East  Feliciana  without  pretending:  that  any  ground  for  protest  against  th& 
election  existed,  and  that  none  did  exist;  that  he  arrived  at  New  Orleans  and  again  declared  that 
he  had  no  ground  for  protest;  that,  upon  Pitkin's  requesst,  he  prepared  a  statement  which,  both 
Pitkin  and  Campbell  tell  us,  was  rejected  as  worthk  ss;  ihat  Campbell  then  prepared,  as  they  both 
fell  us,  a  protest  proper  in  substance  and  form,  and  sent  it  to  Anderson;  that  Campbell 
did  then  call  at  Pitkin's  office,  having  been  sent  for  to  take  Anderson's  verification,  and  found 
Anderson  in  high  discussion,  declaring  that  the  matters  stated  in  that  protest  were  not  true, 
and  that  he  could  not  attest  it;  and  that  Campbell  then,  without  taking  his  affidavit  to  it,  with- 
drew; that  Anderson,  having  signed  it,  subsequently  left  it  with  Pitkin,  and  the  next  day  tried  to 
reclaim  it;  that  Pitkin,  having  forwarded  it  to  Packard,  instead  of  procuring  its  return,  saw  fit  to 
take  offense  at  Anderson's  manner,  and  turn  him  out  of  his  office;  that  shortly  after  Pitkin  told 
Campbell  of  Anderson's  attempt  to  get  b^ck  his  protest,  and  that  he  wanted  assurances  of  reward 
for  letting  it  stand  (Wedge,  La.,  140;  Burke,  1007;  Jewett,  1300;  Pitkin,  401;  Campbell,  434-6;  Pit- 
kin, 402;  Campbell,  444-5). 

That  Weber  left  home  declaring  there  were  no  grounds  for  any  protest,  and  that  the  election 
had  been  fair  and  free;  that  after  getting  to  New  Orleans  he  was  induced  to  make  a  protest;  that 
the  protest,  as  he  made  it,  was  wholly  insufficient,  and  was  subsequently  forged  by  alterations  and 
additions;  that  he  stated  he  had  been  induced  to  make  it  by  promises  of  reward  from  Republican 
leaders;  that  both  he  and  Anderson  did  go  together  to  Moreau's,  and  there  met  Sherman;  and  that 
within  a  few  days  after  Anderson  showed  a  sealed  letter,  which  he  said  contained  wliat  would 
take  care  of  him;  and  that  Weber  showed  his  friends  a  letter,  which,  in  reply  to  a  request  by  him 
and  Anderson  for  written  assurances  of  reward  for  letting  their  protest  stand,  gave  such  assurances 
in  the  name  of  Mr.  Sherman;  and  that  the  conspiracy  to  falsely  protest  and  count  out  the  parishes 
of  East  and  West  Feliciana  is  substantiated  by  credible  witnesses  and  undisputed  facts  and  circum- 
stances wholly  independent  of  the  evidence  of  either  Anderson  or  Weber's  brother  Emile  (Powell, 
La.,  5.51;  Leake,  La.,  5.55-6;  Revnolds,  La  ,  292;  Duncan,  La.,  316;  Wickliffe,  La.,  548-9;  Kennard, 
La.,  593;  Weber,  590;  Sherman,  765;  Anderson,  12;  Sypher,  753;  Burke,  1007;  Gauthreaux,  1060). 

PROTESTS  SECURED  AGAINST  OTHER  PARISHES. 

Other  supervisors  who  h.sd  witnessed  and  certified  to  free,  full  and  fair  elections  in  their  par- 
ishes, were  prevailed  upon  to  make  these  supplemental  charges  against  the  election.  One  of  these 
— Kelley,  of  Richland  parish—has  told  us  how  great  was  the  pressure  and  desperate  the  means  em- 
ployed to  procure  them.  Under  these  protests  votes  were  rejected  upon  various  pretexts;  but  the 
ne<rro  parishes — the  Felicianas,  Ouachita,  Baton  Rouge  and  Morehouse— were  those  in  which  the 
Democrats  had  made  the  greatest  gains,  and  from  which,  therefore,  the  most  Democratic  votes  were^ 
rejected  (Jewett,  1424-1427;  Kelley,  La.,  171-181). 

EX  PARTE  AFFIDAVITS. 

The  returning  board  having  thus  secured  the  necessary  false  and  fraudulent  protests,  pro- 
ceeded upon  the  examination  and  ex  ■parte  affidavits  which  they  permitted  to  be  broujjht  in,  to  hear 
allegations  in  respect  of  those  parishes  where  it  was  important  to  exclude  the  vote  in  order  to  re- 
verse the  will  of  the  people  and  count  the  state  for  Hayes  (Ret.  B'd.,  pro.  Gauthreux,  1059;  Burke^ 
1005-6;  Morey,  826-8). 

Ex  parte  statements  of  apprehension  from  intimidation  can  always  be  procured  in  every  com- 
munity. These  are  daily  occurrences— some  personal  quarrel,  some  drunken  brawl  in  the  street, 
some  row  in  a  bar-room,  some  social  party  blustering  in  their  cups,  some  fellow  swaggering  or 
joking  in  the  country  store— which  furnish  color  for  pretending  to  be  alarmed.  The  most  trifling 
assault,  the  commonest  personal  difficulty,  the  smallest  act  of  violence,  no  matter  what  their  origin, 
nor  how  absolutely  disconnected  with  politics,  can  thus  be  made  to  appear  as  the  result  of  political 
action.  Besides,  nothing  is  easier  than  to  get  up  disturbances,  to  promote  rows,  and  to  procure 
\\hite  men  to  purposely  threaten  negroes;  nothing  easier  than  to  pervert  the  effort  of  the  people 
to  protect  tlieir  own  property  and  defend  themselves  against  marauders  into  organized  movements, 
for  party  intimidation. 

Once  have  it  settled  that  the  election  of  a  President,  with  all  the  enormons  patronage  and 
power  connected  with  that  office,  depend  upon  ex  parte  affidavits  of  this  kind,  and  they  will  be 
forthcoming  in  any  community. 

REPUBLICAN  ADVANTAGES. 

In  this  contest  the  administration  party  had  every  advantage;  they  had  the  control  of  a  class  of 
ignorant  and  reckless  negroes;  they  had  numbers  of" deputy  marshals  to  send  into  the  parishes  for 
the  witnesses;  they  had  the  local  machinery  there  with  which  to  collect  them;  they  had  the  funds 
with  which  to  bring  them  personally  to  Ntw  Orleans;  they  had  the  visiting  statesmen  to  fortify 
them  with  their  assurances;  and  they  had,  besides,  the  advantage  of  making  the  first  statement. 

Of  course,  it  was  very  difficult  to  meet  these  charges  as  they  were  produced.  A  man  can  tell 
more  lies  in  an  hour  than  can  be  disproved  in  a  day.  The  Democrats  were  compelled  to  send  to 
the  parishes  to  ascertain  what  were  the  charges  referred  to,  and  to  find  persons  acquainted  with 
the  facts  to  furnish  the  proofs  to  contradict  these  charges.  In  many  cases  the  affidavits  were  pro- 
duced before  the  returning  board  at  so  late  a  day  that  "it  was  almost  impossible  to  show  in  due 
lime  the  groundlessness  of  the  charges  (Burke,  109.5-'). 

By  great  diligence  the  Democrats  did  succeed  in  fully  answering  them.  That  they  should  have 
been  able  to  so  completely  and  so  quickly  meet  the  false  charges  against  the  conduct  of  the  elec- 
tion, can  only  be  explained  on  the  theory  that  there  did  prevail  throughout  the  state  a  free,  full, 
fair  and  peaceable  election,  and  that  all  pretenses  to  the  contrary  were  unfounded  (McDonald,  Rep). 

THE  FELICIANA  CONSPIRACY. 

As  the  purpose  of  the  Democrats  was  to  propitiate  the  negro  vote,  their  attention  was  especially 
directed  to  the  parishes  which  had  the  greatest  excess  of  negro  population,  and  it  turned  out  after 
the  election  that  their  efforts  had  been  successful.    In  the  five  principal  negro  parishes,  instead  of: 


ELECTORAL  FRAUDS  IX  THE  LATE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION.   311 

the  Republicans  haviiif?  a  majority  of  3979,  as  had  been  the  case  in  1874,  the  Deiwocrats  lad  a 
majority  of  3504.  Tiiat  thi;?  was  likely  to  be  the  result  had  become  apparent  before  the  election, 
and  the  importance  of  excluding  the  votes  of  these  parishes  thus  became  evident  Tfais  was  es- 
pecially the  case  with  East  Feliciana,  where  the  efforts  at  propitiating  the  Republican  colot-ed  vote 
had  b  en  most  successful.  Kellogg  hoped  to  secure  this  result  there  by  having  no  election  held 
at  all.  That  would  have  enabled  the  Republicans  to  claim  that  East  Feliciana  was  a  Rep<afelica« 
parish  and  would  have  given  a  Republican  majority,  and  that  the  ruffianly  Democrats  had,  by 
driving  away  the  virtuous  Ander.«on,  prevented  that  result.  This  scheme  was  actually  carried  out 
in  Grant  parish,  where  the  board  excluded  the  returns  from  the  whole  parish  made  by  the 
other  election  officers  (539  Democratic  votes),  because  the  supervisor  absented  himself  during  the 
election.  In  East  Feliciana  it  was  only  defeated  by  the  determination  of  the  Democrats  to  have  an 
election,  and  by  their  hiring  Anderson  to  go  back  (Anderson,  6-7,  La.,  80-17,  85-9,  128,278-9; 
Bnrke,  1004). 

T'liswas  reported  to  Kellogg  and  required  a  change  of  programme  (Anderson  letter,  27). 

Accordingly,  it  was  suggested  by  sorpe  scoundrel  —  Audi  rson  claims  the  credit  of  it  —  titat  since 
rhey  were  in  such  a  great  minority  the  Republicans  should  withhold  their  votes  entirely,  atwl  tiien 
'jii'm  the  absence  of  Republic«n  votes  as  evidence  that  Republicans  had  not  been  permitted  to \-ote, 
:;id  as  thus  proving  the  extent  of  the  intimidation. 

Thereupon,  the  leaders  of  the  party  gave  out  privately  that  no  Republicans  need  vote;  that  **  there 
was  no  use  going  to  the  polls  at  all,"  and  "  not  to  come  out  to  the  polls;  "  that  "  it  was  all  a 
farce  to  vote; "  "  the  programme  was  to  have  no  ticket,  so  as  to  have  the  parish  thrown  out,""  and 
the  like.  This  direction  was  disseminated  everywhere  throughout  the  parish,  and  men  wei«  on 
hand  on  election  day  to  give  the  necessary  cue  to  the  Republican  negroes,  who  are  exceedingly 
adroit  at  appreciating  such  suggestions.  No  Republican  tickets  were  printed  or  dislributed,  and 
Republicans  stood  around  the  pools  resisting  the  solicitation  of  the  Democrats  to  vote  Repubncan 
tickets,  which  the  Democrats  wrote  out  for  and  offered  them  (Patton,  La.,  1280;  McWilliams,  La., 
139;  Harrison,  La.,  146;  Wedge,  La.,  129;  DeGray,  La.,  129;  DeLee,  La.,  141;  Lanier,  La.,  143). 

This  is  beyond  peradventr.re.  It  has  been  testified  to  by  many  citizens  of  the  mo«t  respectable 
character  — colored  and  white  — and  no  one  of  the  persons  charged  with  the  thing  has  come  for- 
ward to  deny  it.  It  was  understood  that  in  pursuance  of  ihe  direction  from  "below"  <New 
Orleans),  no  Republican  should  cast  his  vote,  and  it  was  intended  by  thus  witholding  votes  that  the 
claim  of  intimidation  should  be  set  up  and  the  parish  excluded.  This  plan  was  carried  out  in 
East  Feliciana  perfectly. 

When  the  election  was  over  neither  the  United  States  supervisors  of  the  election  nor  the  militaiy 
officers  in  charge  of  the  troops  there,  nor  any  human  being  of  all  the  Republican  officials  in  those  two 
parishes,  made  any  pretense  whatever  that  the  election  had  not  been  perfectly  fair  and  free.  The 
telegrams  and  reports  to  the  Republican  official  organs  in  New  Or'eans  announced  the  same  fact 
day  after  day.  Anderson,  the  supervisor  of  East  Feliciana,  and  Weber,  the  supervisor  of  West 
Feliciana,  left  their  parishes  declaring  the  freedom  and  fairness  of  the  election,  and  that  there  was 
not  the  slighest  ground  for  protest;  and  neither  of  them  accompanied  the  returns  they  forwarded 
with  any  protest  whatever  (Tel.,  698;  Wedge,  La,,  130;  Jenks'  Aff.,  La.,  90;  Leaks,  La.,  S55: 
Powell,  La.,  550;  Kennard,  La.,  593). 

THIS    CONSPIRACY  CONFTRMED. 

The  conspiracy  thus  testified  to  and  uncontradicted  is  confirmed  By  every  known  fact  and 
circum^tance. 

By  the  census  of  1870  there  were  in  East  Feliciana  2810  adult  males,  of  whom  1986  were  colored 
and  834  white.  In  1874  the  total  vote  cast  was  2525,  of  which  1688  were  Republican  and  847  Demo- 
cratic, showing  that  a  portion  of  the  colored  people  then  voted  with  the  whites.  In  1876  the  vote 
was  1746  registered,  and  about  472  unregistered;  total,  2218  Democratic  and  none  Republican 
(Tel.,  698). 

By  the  census  of  1870  West  Feliciana  «ontained  2210  male  citizens,  of  which  1876  were  colored 
and  344  white.  In  1874  the  whole  number  of  votes  were  1859,  of  which  1358  were  Republican  and 
.501  Democratic,  showing  that  some  200  of  the  colored  voters  voted  the  Democratic  ticket  In  1876 
West  Feliciana  gave  1248  Democratic  and  778  Republican  votes,  being  a  total  of  2026  votes. 

So  that  tlie  votes  cast  in  West  Feliciana  in  1876  actually  exceeded  those  of  preceding  jesa, 
while  in  Eiet  Feliciana  the  Democratic  votes  alone  were  nearly  up  to  the  whole  vote  of  both  partaes 
in  1874,  and  had  not  the  Republican  vote  been  purposely  withheld,  the  agcregate  vote  ia  that  parisk 
would  also  have  exceeeded  that  of  any  previous  year. 

These  facts  of  themselves  show  that  the  Democrats  had  a  clear  majority  in  both  parishes,  and 
that  it  was  their  certain  interest  to  do  nothing  which  would  afford  color  for  excluding  the  vote  there. 
They  are  so  inconsistent  with  the  pretended  terrorism  among  the  colored  people  as  to  be  destructive 
of  any  theory  of  a  state  of  intimidation  in  those  parishes  at  that  election. 

Indeed,  the  total  absence  of  any  Republican  vote  in  this  great  parish  itself  indicated  by  its  very 
completeness  of  purpose  to  withhold  such  votes,  not  the  fear  of  casting  them. 

ALLEGED  INTIMIDATION  IMPOSSIBLE. 

The  history  of  the  state  has  shown  that  in  so  vast  a  territory,  garrisoned  by  Federal  troops, 
\^  ith  a  large  body  of  Republican  officials,  and  the  black  population  in  a  great  majority,  such  astate 
of  ti-rrorism  as  to  prevent  the  casting  of  one  Republican  vote,  even  those  of  the  Repnfelican 
officials  themselves,  was  an  impossibility.  There  never  has  been  another  instance  in  the  state  of  a 
parish  in  which  no  Republican  votes  were  cast.  And  yet,  so  far  from  East  Feliciana  being  one  of 
the  disturbed  parishes,  this  was  the  first  time  it  had  been  claimed  there  had  not  been  a  free  and 
fair  election  there.  Nor  was  it  even  then  claimed  that  the  election  had  not  been  entirely  peace- 
able, but  only  that  because  of  certain  former  disturbances,  what  Mr.  Parker  called  "a  state  of 
intimidation  "prevailed.  But  these  disturbances  had  taken  place  several  months  before,  and 
were  connectea  with  a  movement  under  Powers,  a  prominent  Republican,  to  suppress  cotton-8eed 
thefts,  and  were  not  political ;  and  experience  has  shown  such  disturbances  do  not  material  y  effect 
the  parly  vote  ;  still  less  argue  a  state  of  things  which  would  not  permit  the  depositing  of  even  a 
single  one  of  such  votes  (Parker,  733). 

AGAINST  THE   INTEREST   OF  DEMOCRATS. 
It  is  true  that  the  hostility  of  the  Democrats  to  Kellogg's  and  Packard's  rule  was  great    Tlie 


<il2       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

•state  has  been  oppressed  and  demoralized  by  that  rule  for  years.    So  much  had  the  people  suffered 
f;om  it  that  they  would  have  preferred  military  rule  to  its  continuance  (Palmer,  1090). 

But  their  conduct  must  be  judged  by  the  motives  which  usually  govern  men  nnder  such  circum- 
s-tances.  They  knew  the  whites  were  united  against  Kellogg.  They  knew  also  that  every  year  the 
accession  from  the  colored  people  had  been  increasing,  and  they  justly  expected  to  be  ioined  by 
enongh  of  Ihem  to  overcome  all  the  frauds  of  registration  and  of  election  officers,  provided,  but 
provided  always,  tbey  did  nothing  to  repel  the  colored  voters,  nor  to  afford  the  returning  board  a 
•pretense  for  rejecting  Democratic  polls.  That  after  having  persuaded  two-thirds  of  the  negroes  in 
the  parish  to  join  them  they  should  then  have  established  such  a  reign  of  terror  as  prevented  every 
single  Republican,  Avhite  and  black,  from  voting  is  to  assume  the  existence  of  conduct  as  impos- 
sible as  it  would  have  been  insane. 

AND  UNSUPPORTED   AND  DISPROVED. 

If  500  square  miles  of  territory  were  in  a  state  of  such  terrorism  the  fact  must  needs  have  been 
•as  patent  as  if  it  had  snowed  upon  election  day,  and  yet  of  all  the  persons  in  that  parish,  the  re- 
.'ttirRing  board  only  collected  twenty-two  to  state  any  instance  of  intimidation  connected  with  the 
'  election  of  1876.  Of  these,  the  foremost  witnesses  were  James  E.  Anderson  and  Thomas  C.  Jenks; 
both  subsequently  retracted  under  oath  all  they  then  said  and  confessed  the  conspiracy  which  ex- 
isted ;  and  no  one  would  receive  the  evidence  of  either  unsupported.  This  testimony  was  over- 
whelmingly contradicted  and  negatived  at  the  time  ;  1196  witnesses  appeared  to  contradict  the 
allegations  of  these  affidavits,  and  to  establish  that  the  election  in  East  Feliciana  had  been  perfectly 
peaceable,  free  and  fair  (44th  Cong.,  Ex.  Doc.  2,  17,  20  ;  Anderson,  8  ;  Jenks,  La.,  90). 

It  is  so  easy  to  suppress  truth,  to  distort  facts,  and  to  mislead  witnesses,  especially  when  igno- 
rant, or  stupid,  or  reckless,  that^a;  parte  testimony  is  rarely  entitled  to  much  weight.  It  was  a 
common  thing  for  these  East  Feliciana  affidavits  to  state  as  ground  for  excluding  the  parish,  that  no 
Republican  tickets  were  permitted  at  the  polls.  That  was  true,  but  it  was  the  Republicans  who 
would  not  permit  them.  And,  coming  as  these  returnmg  board  affidavits  did,  from  Republican 
•  camp-followers  and  negroes,  they  were  of  hardly  arfy  value  at  all ;  and,  in  view  of  the  controlling 
iacts  and  probabilities  and  circumstances  of  the' case,  never  deserved  consideration. 

RETURNING  BOARD  AFFIDAVITS. 

In  Louisiana  the  crowd  of  ignorant  and  thoughtless  negroes  summoned  from  their  labor  by 
United  States  marshals  and  brought  for  the  first  time  in  their  lives  to  a  great  city,  were  marched 
through  the  crowded  streets  past  cordons  of  police  and  platoons  of  troops  into  the  great  govern- 
ment building,  where  they  were  brought  face  to  face  w'th  an  army  of  clerks  and  stenographers  and 
-  officials,  and  all  the  machinery  of  a  great  state.  Ushered  at  last  into  some  inner  room,  and  there 
■  engaged  in  a  conversation,  in  which  they  supplied  some  of  the  answers,  and  the  persons  standing 
around  supplied  more,  they  might,  when  dismissed,  well  be  expected,  even  if  they  had  conscientious 
scruples  about  the  business,  to  make  their  marks  where  told.  Those  who  deal  with  persons  who 
'  -do  not  reatl  and  write,  know  how  readily  they  affix  their  marks  to  receipts  or  any  papers  connected 
with  business  when  told  to  do  so,  because  those  by  whom  they  are  told  know  so  much  better  than 
they  do  what  is  to  be  done.  It  is  cur  ous  and  instructive  to  hear  the  accounts  of  the  negroes  who 
aiade  affidavits  for  the  returning  board  of  the  process  by  which  their  evidence  was  manufactured 
(Nolan,  La.,  581-6;  Norphlis.s  La.,  495:  Green,  La..  512;  Amy  Mitchell,  La.,  474,480;  Thornton, 
La.,  527  ;  Lagadie,  La.,  5^30-2  ;  Armistead,  La.,  298 ;  Duncan,  La.,  308.  311,  315). 

They  were  brought  down  from  the  country  and  i)laced  before  a  clerk,  when  the  general  process 
would  be  something  like  this:  They  would  be  asked  if  they  knew  of  certain  disturbances  in  their 
parishes:  if  they  answered  they  did  not,  some  one  of  the  bystanders  would  say,  Why,  he  was  the 
man  who  was  killed  behind  the  corn  crib  at  such  a  plantation  by  such  a  person;  then  the  negro 
witness  would  answer,  yes,  I  heard  of  him,  but  never  heard  about  that;  then  another  one  of  the 
bystanders  would  give  the  details,  and  presently,  when  the  affidavit  is  finished,  we  have  the  wit- 
ness'' story,  stated  partly  upon  his  own  knowledge  and  partly  upon  information  and  belief,  of  a 
Urst-class  outrage  of  which  he  knew  nothing,  and  of  which  he  perhaps  never  had  heard  before,  and 
to  this  he  makes  his  mark,  is  sworn,  and  receives  his  fees,  and  returns  to  the  field  from  which 
.'he  was  broueht. 

Of  the  witnesses  in  Feliciana  whom  Mr.  Sherman  desired  to  have  called  fifteen  have  appeared 
before  us;  of  these,  thirteen  have  retracted  their  testimony  to  violence  as  given  to  the  returning 
board.  The  statements  of  the  other  two  witnesses,  Dula  and  Swayze,  were  made  under  suspicious 
V  circumstances,  even  if  they  had  not  been  in  conflict  with  all  the  known  and  established  facts. 

WORTHLESSNESS  OF  THIS  TESTIMONY. 

It  was  claimed  by  Dula  that  Weber,  after  he  had  testified  before  this  committee,  desired  to  be 
^supported  in  his  statements  by  the  negroes  of  his  vicinage,  whose  leader  he  had  been,  and  to  that 
-«id  WAS  engaged  in  persuading  and  bribing  them  to  take  back  their  testimony  before  the  returning 
"^^jboard. 

Dula' s -statement  was  that  he  had  been  paid  fifty  dollars  and  was  to  be  paid  more  for  testifying 
■as  Weber  desired.  He  was  a  man  of  notoriously  bad  character;  and  the  fact  that  Kellogg's  agent, 
Kennedy.,  had  just  before  gone  down  to  New  Orleans  to  arrange  with  Dula  and  Swayze,  and  the 
manner  in  which  his  testimony  wds  given,  satisfies  us  his  story  was  an  imposition  which  had  been 
:put  up  to  deceive  the  committee  (Kennedy,  1117,  1118). 

But  even  if  it  were  true  that  the  Feliciana  negroes  were  so  utterly  reckless  as  to  what  they  testi- 
fied, and  followed  the  Webers  for  favor  or  for  i)ay  upon  whicliever  side  they  swore,  it  only  estab- 
lishes how  utterly  worthless  their  testimony  originally  was,  and  upon  what  a  wretched  and  deceptive 
foundation  all  this  pretense  of  intimidation  was  based. 

OBJECT  OF  THE  INTIMIDATION  PRETENSE. 

And  yet  it  was  this  trick  in  East  Feliciana  which  virtually  settled  the  Presidential  contest.  It 
was  not  that  the  people  had  confidence  in  the  Louisiana  returning  board,  nor  that  they  doubted  the 
proved  rascality  of  Wells  and  Anderson,  but  it  was  because— ignorant  of  the  full  vote  which  had 
been  cast  in  the  state;  of  the  efforts  that  had  been  made  to  propitiate  the  negroes;  and  of  the 
^irauds  to  which  the  Kellogg  government  was  competent;  and  supposing  that  the  color-line  still 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IX    THE    LATE    TRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       313 

fciuctly  divided  parties— tliey  accepted  the  fact  that  not  a  single  Republican  vote  was  cast  in  East 
Feliciana  as  conclusive  evidence  of  a  terrorism  which  constituted  an  equitable  offset  to  all  the 
fjauds  of  canvassing  and  returning  boards,  and  justified  the  seating  of  Mr.  Hayes. 

As  in  East  P'eliciana,  so  in  the  other  negro  parishes  the  same  claim  of  intimidation  was  made, 
supported  by  tbe  same  class  of  witnesses,  and  in  the  same  exjyarte  and  dangerous  way;  and  though 
fully  disproved  and  in  direct  conflict  with  the  fairness  of  the  vote,  and  with  all  the  known  facts 
and  circumstances,  the  claim  of  intimidation  was  nevertheless  allowed,  and  so  much  of  the  vote 
of  these  parishes  as  was  necessary  rejected.  And  the  board  so  managed  it  as  to  reject  1010  votes 
in  West  Feliciana;  1736  in  East  Baton  Rouge;  1517  in  Ouachita— in  all  5706  votes;  while  re- 
jecting but  259  Republican  votes;  add  yet  49  witnesses  to  intimidation  in  West  Feliciana  were 
contradicted  by  527  witnesses;  51  m  Ouachita  by  727  witnesses;  and  63  in  East  Baton  Rouge  by 
457  witnesses;  and  26  in  East  Feliciana  by  1196  witnesses  (p.  1468;  see  evidence  reported  in 
Sherman  &  McDonald's  Report). 

The  same  deception  is,  as  we  believe,  now  being  assiduously  kept  un  to  control  the  next  election. 
The  administration  foments  disturbances,  then  misrepresents  them;  then  has  its  press  to  magnify 
them;  and  under  the  assumption  that  the  blacks,  if  let  alone,  would  all  vote  the  Republican  ticket, 
Is  preparing,  by  like  pretenses,  to  claim  and  control  the  next  election. 

OUTRAGEOUS  INJUSTICE   OP   RETURNING   BOARD. 

Throughout,  the  action  of  the  board  was  partisan,  arbitary,  and  flagrantly  unjust.  For  illustra- 
tion: In  Orleans  one  return  showed  297  or  299  Democratic  votes;  because  the  last  figure  was  so  made 
that  it  could  not  certainly  be  said  whether  it  was  meant  for  a  7  or  9  they  rejectee,  the  whole  poll 
(ftet.  B'd  Pro.  63). 

In  Vernon  they  changed  the  returns  by  adding  to  them  176  Republican  votes  and  subtracting 
from  the  Democrats  178  votes  (Danford,  750;  Ret.  B'd  Pro.  113). 

In  Iberia,  where  the  Republican  election  oftlcers  omitted  to  write  "  voted  "  upon  the  registration 
certificate  of  the  first  hundred  voters,  they  rejected  the  whole  poll— 322  Democratic  and  11  Repub- 
lican votes— although  there  was  r.o  pretense  the  vote  was  wrong  (Ex.  Doc.  2,  73-74;  Burke's  Stat., 
14;  Ex.  Doc.  2,  88). 

In  Concordia  and  Nachitoches  they  counted  1854  votes  not  appearing  on  the  returns,  and  which 
by  the  rule  applied  to  Democratic  parishes,  should  not  have  been  counted  (Burke's  St.,  29;  Burke, 
1003). 

In  De  Soto  they  accepted  protests  and  returns  which  had  evidently  been  inserted  in  the  packages 
after  they  were  mailed  (Ret.  Bd.  Pro.,  54;  Gauthreaux,  1059;  Jewitt,  1442). 

THEIR  GENERAL  MISCONDUCT. 

And  generally  they  were  guilty  of  every  arbitrary,  unjust,  and  outrageous  act  practicable  (Burke, 
1005-6;  Trumbull,  855,  867). 

After  sitting  for  twelve  days  they  succeeded  in  excluding  enough  of  the  votes  returned  to  give 
the  f-tate  to  the  Hayes  electors  and  to  Packard  as  governor.  In  the  progress  of  their  session  it 
turned  out  that,  by  reason  of  an  error  in  nrinting,  two  of  the  electors  on  the  Hayes  ticket  had  run 
some  fifteen  hundred  votes  behind  the  rest  of  the  electors,  so  that  it  became  a  necessity  that  fifteen 
hundred  more  votes  should  be  excluded,  in  order  to  count  in  those  two  electors,  than  would  other- 
wise have  been  necessary.  But  the  board  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  secured  the  desired  res^ult. 
(Palmer,  1087-8;  Gauthreaux,  1057.  1059;  Morey,  826-8;  Jcwitt,1452). 

The  returning  board  closed  their  sessions  at  two  o'clock  on  Saturday  afternoon,  December  2d, 
having  before  them  over  forty-five  hundred  pages  of  manuscript  testimony,  which  at  the  rapid  rate 
of  a  page  a  minute,  and  taking  ten  hours  a  day,  would  have  required  ivvo  weeks  to  read;  and  on 
December  5th  their  decision  was  announced.  But  before  they  met  Pitkin  telegraphed:  "  Louisiana 
is  safe;  our  Northern  friends  stand  firmly  by  us;  the  returning  board  will  hold  its  own."  Indeed, 
their  decision  was  never  in  doubt.  It  is  true  that  Wells  appears  to  have  been  for  sale,  but  his 
price  and  its  payment  seems  to  have  been  the  only  doubt  attending  the  result;  and  for  corrupt  in- 
fluence money  competes  jjoorly  with  office,  the  latter  being  the  much  more  safe,  successful,  and 
respectable  form  of  bribery  (Gauthreaux's  calculation,  1064;  Wharton,  1230;  Maddox,  1212). 

THE  CHECK  ON  RETURNING  BOARD  INIQUITY. 

The  power  to  control  the  result  of  the  election  in  Louisiana  rested  with  the  returning  board 
which  assumed  discretionary  revisory  power  over  the  returns. 

For  the  ordinary  abuse  of  discretionary  power  there  is  no  remedy.  But  those  who  are  intrusted 
with  discretion  are  prevented  from  very  flagrant  and  violent  abuse  of  it  by  the  influence  and  the  in- 
dignation of  the  people  whom  they  outrage. 

For  illustration,  take  the  case  of  a  Presidential  elector.  By  law  he  is  intrusted  with  absolute 
discretion  over  his  vote,  and  it  was  intended  that  he  ^hould  cast  it  exactly  for  whom  he  saw  fit. 
But,  under  our  system,  he  has  come  impliedly  and  most  positively  pledged  to  cast  his  vote  for  the 
candidate  of  the  party  by  which  he  is  elected.  At  the  late  election  if  an  elector  clearly  chosen  for 
Hayes  were  to  have  cast  his  vote  for  Tilden,  he  would  have  brought  upon  himself  an  outburst  of 
public  indignation  such  as  no  man  could  withstand.  This  was  exactlythe  situation  of  the  returning 
board.  Assuming  that  they  had  the  large  discretion  which  the  Republicans  claimed  for  them,  the 
Democrats  would  have  been  powerless  against  ordinary  abuses;  but  there  were  stretches  of  power 
so  flagrant  and  outrageous  that  no  man  would  have  dared  to  commit  them  without  some  potent  ex- 
ternal support. 

THIS  CHECK   REMOVED. 

,  It  was  at  this  point,  and  to  supply  this  need,  that  the  influence  of  the  Federal  administration 
came  in.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country  the  President  requested  leading  members 
of  his  party  personally  to  attend  the  countiu]^  of  votes  instates  upon  which  the  Presidential  elec- 
tion depended.  They  went  there,  charged  with  a  semi-oflicial  character.  They  had  rights,  as  Mr. 
Parker  thinks,  no  other  visitors  possessed.  They  were  there  (as  Mr.  Brady,  the  assistant  post- 
master-general, testifies)  "to  represent  the  President,  and  to  say  to  the  witnesses  that  the  Repub- 
lican party  and  the  authorities  at  Washington  would  stand  by  them.  In  short,  to  furnish  those 
who  did  the  swearing  and  the  counting  with  the  necessary  support— physical,  political,  and  moral— 


314       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IX   THE    LATE    PRESIDE]STIAL    ELECTION. 

to  "enable  them  to  make  a  fair  count;"  which,  considering  the  Democrats  had  a  majority  of  the 
votes  to  be  counted,  was  in  eflfect  the  support  necessary  to  enable  the  canvassers,  under  the  pretext 
of  a  fair  count,  to  count  in  the  Republicans  and  to  count  out  those  really  elected  (Parker,  741). 

No  one  at  all  familiar  w"th  Louisiana  will  believe  that  even  the  desperate  and,  abandoned  m^ 
who  control  the  returning  board  would  have  ventured  to  so  outrage  the  community  in  which  they 
lived  as  to  count  the  state  for  the  Republicans  but  for  the  presence  and  encouragement  of  these 
visitors.  That  "  moral  support,"  as  the  visitors  called  it,  "  and  the  tone  which  they  gave  to  the  pro- 
ceedings," and  the  protection  which  Federal  bayonets  afLorded,  were  the  real  cause  of  the  returning 
board's  action.  Indeed,  Packard  had  received  2366  more  votes  in  the  state  than  the  Hayes'  electors,, 
and  yet  the  moment  it  was  announced  that  the  Federal  government  was  about  to  withdraw  its 
troops,  the  government  he  had  established  faded  like  the  mist,  and  the  control  of  the  state  passed 
without  a  struggle  into  the  hands  of  the  Democrats. 

So  that  in  Louisiana,  as  in  Florida,  we  have  this  anomaly  :  The  wish  of  the  voters  was  recognized 
by  the  state  and  disregarded  by  the  Federal  government.  The  same  ballots  by  which  Democratic- 
governors  were  elected  were  used  to  count  out  a  Democratic  and  count  in  a  Republican  President. 

THE  VISITING   STATESMEN. 

The  visiting  statesmen  arrived  in  New  Orleans  about  the  15th  of  November  and  remained  until 
December  2d,  when  the  returning  board  went  into  secret  ses'  ion. 

They  declined  the  proposition  of  the  Democrats  for  a  canvass  of  the  votes  cast  and  returned. 
A  committee  of  them  attended  the  sittings  of  the  returning  board  daily,  and  by  their  favor  and 
countenance  assured  its  members  of  the  support  of  the  administration  and  of  the  Republican  party 
in  their  action  (44tli  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  2,  31-3). 

It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  thought  wise  to  inform  these  visitors,  except  generally,  of  what 
was  taking  place.  Mr.  3Iorey,  one  of  the  leading  counsel  for  the  Republicans,  hus  testified  that  the 
local  Republican  managers  early  satisfied  the  visitors  that  they  were  competent  to  attend  to  the  in- 
terest of  the  party  in  Louisiana  themselves,  and  that  thereafter  they  did  not  think  it  necessary  to 
consult  the  visitors  about  details.  Undoubtedly  many  of  these  gentlemen  were  shrewdly  left  in 
ignorance  of  what  was  going  on  (Morey,  851). 

Gentlemen  from  the  North,  unacquainted  with  Louisiana,  and,  like  Mr.  Parker,  stopping  at  the 
hotel  where  they  heard  only  the  assertions  of  the  local  Republican  politicians  and  the  ex  parte 
affidavits  manufactured  for  the  returning  board,  mi^ht  jjossibly  have  misunderstood  the  real  situa- 
tion. "  But  those  who  mingled  at  all  with  the  people  could  hardly  have  escaped  better  knowledge. 
For  instance,  Mr.  Sherman  has  insisted  that  Don  Weber  was  a  hero,  killed  for  doing  his  duty  in 
West  Feliciana;  but  General  Sheldon  admits  Weber  was  known  to  be  for  sale,  and  it  reached  even 
General  Garfield's  ears  that  Weber  was  not  to  be  trusted.  Those  who  read  Emile  Weber's  letter, 
written  upon  his  brother's  death— now  confessed  by  him  to  be  wholly  false— may  realize  the  hollow- 
ness  of  the  pretense  to  fire  the  Northern  heart,  which  contact  wiih  the  negroes  themselves  did  not 
always  dispel  (Parker,  732-3;  Sherman,  755;  Sheldon,  1285;  Garfield,  798;  Weber,  596-9). 

For  instance,  General  Garfield  f  aw  the  negroes  from  West  Feliciana  himself.  In  an  upper  room 
in  the  great  goveniment  building  in  New  Orleans,  guarded  by  police  and  attendants,  these  West 
Feliciana  negroes  who  followed  the  Webers  were  brought  down  and  u-^hered  into  the  general's  im- 
posing presence.  That  they  should  then  have  adhered  to  the  afiidavits  which  had  just  been  made 
for  them  isnot  surprising.  As  Amy  Mitchell  testifies:  "What  they  told  me  to  say  I  just  said  it, 
but  I  did  not  know  it.  I  didn't  say  because  I  knew  it.  but  I  said  because  they  told  me  ;  because  I 
was  scared."  But  of  the  whole  number  he  saw,  including  this  woman,  who  impressed  him  most, 
all  that  have  been  brought  before  the  committee  have,  without  hesitation,  recanted  what  they  told 
me  (Garfield,  799,  801 ;  Amy  Mitchell,  La.,  474). 

Others  of  the  visiting  statesmen  were  even  more  active  in  their  participation  in  the  action  of 
the  local  officials.  The  country  is  indebted  to  Gen.  Harry  White,  of  Pennsylvania,  for  the  sug- 
gestion which  brought  Mrs.  Eliza  Pinkston  from  the  interior  and  exploited  her  with  her  wounds 
exposed  on  a  sofa  bvfore  the  returning  board.  But  it  was  indeed  rarely  that  the  visitors  could  sug- 
gest anything  to  supplement  the  resources  of  the  local  managers  (Morey,  818,  822). 

THE  LOCAL  LEADERS 

The  Republican  party  in  Louisiana  contained  very  few  white  persons— just  enough  to  hold  the 
offices,  with  their  families  and  connections.  The  experience  of  the  Congressional  committee  of 
1875,  who  could  not  find  five  white  persons  who  were  not  opposed  to  the  Kellogg  government,  out- 
side of  office-holdors,  or  those  connected  with  them  or  with  the  government  in  some  way,  shows 
the  substantial  condition  of  things  there.  These  white  officials  received  very  large  sjilaries.  Louis- 
iana had  always  been  a  state  that  paid  its  public  officers  extravagantly.  They  were  fully  aware 
that  the  election  turned  on  Louisiana,  and  that  without  its  vote  tney  would  all  go  out  of  power. 
They  clung,  therefore,  desperately  to  the  chance  which  the  discretion  cf  the  returning  board 
afforded,  and  were  naturally  ready  to  do  anything  that  men  under  such  circumstances  could  do  to 
give  it  color  for  its  action;  and  they  were  very  able,  as  well  as  very  unscrupulous  and  desperate. 

NECESSITY  OP  ADMINISTRATION  SUPPORT. 

But,  desperate  and  unscrupulous  as  were  Kellogg  and  Packard  and  their  followers,  they  would 
never  have  succeeded  in  carrying  through  their  scheme  for  counting  out  the  majority,  and  counting 
in  the  minority,  without  the  help  of  the  national  administration  and  of  the  Republican  party;  to 
effect  that  result  the  support  of  both  was  a  necessity. 

When  later,  after  Hayes  was  declared  elected,  it  was  announced  that  tT  e  troops  would  be  with- 
drawn, the  whole  Republican  edifice  in  the  state  fell  down  in  a  night;  and  the  returning  board,  un- 
less they  had  been  intrenched  with  troops  and  suj  ported  by  the  admin'stration  and  the  visitinr 
statesmen,  would  never  have  dared  to  count  some  six  thousand  Tilden  majority  into  a  majority  of 
three  thousand  for  Hayes. 

THE  SEATING  OP  HAYES. 

The  alleged  arrangement  by  which  opposition  in  the  House  of  Representatives  to  counting  in  Mr. 
Hayes  was  placated  by  assurances  that  the  people  of  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana  should  be 
allowed  to  recover  the  right  to  direct  their  own  affairs,  forms  an  instructive  chapter  in  the  events 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IX   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.        315 

of  the  Presidential  election  which  we  will  not   discuss  (Burke,  601-31,  976-8:  Morey,  841 ;  Roberts, 
880) 

Of  course,  either  Packard,  with  twenty-three  hundred  more  votes  than  Haj'es,  was  elected,  or 
Hayes  was  not;  and  the  action  of  Hayes  and  his  friends,  both  by  their  negotiations  to  secure  him 
title  and  by  their  abandonment  of  Packard's  title,  manifest  their  convictions  that  neither  Hayes, 
nor  Packard  had  been  elected. 

MR.  Sherman's  offer  of  testimony. 

In  June  last  an  application  was  made  to  us  by  Mr.  Sherman  to  take  the  testimony  of  some 
ninety  witnesses  in  East  and  West  Feliciana  who  had  previously  testified  before  the  returnino: 
board  or  Senate  committee  of  the  Foity-fourth  Congress  to  murders,  whippings  and  violence,  and 
whose  tesiimony  had  there  been  contradicted.  It  is  not  clear  that  such  evidence  could  have  any 
bearing  upon  the  action  of  the  returning  board  or  the  conspiracy  in  these  parishes  to  prevent  votes 
being  cast.  To  call  witnesses  to  a  matter  as  to  which  they  did  not  te^-tify  before  that  board  could 
in  no  way  establish  the  good  faith  of  the  board  in  dealing  with  the  evidence  they  had  before  them 
(p.  1905). 

Nevertheless,  we  consented  to  receive  this  testimony,  partly  because  we  desired  to  give  Mr. 
Sherman  the  benefit  of  any  doubt  as  to  its  propriety,  and  partly  because  of  the  difference  betweenL 
the  laws  of  Louisiana  and  those  of  the  other  states  in  respect  of  the  canvass  of  votes  (p.  1102). 

In  Florida  the  law  made  no  provision  for  going  behind  the  ballots  to  ascertain  the  wishes  of  the 
people.  There  the  election  was  to  be  determined  by  the  votes  cast,  i  ot  by  those  the  people  wanted 
to,  but  did  not  cast.  While  in  Florida,  therefore,  it  seemed  to  us  improper  to  go  into  the  question 
o^the  intention  of  voters,  we  thought  that  in  view  of  the  provisions  of  the  law  of  Louisiana  for  con- 
sidering the  intention  of  the  voters,  there  might  be  some  ground  for  such  an  inquiry  there. 

THE   TESTIMONY  NOT  PRODUCED. 

Accordingly,  on  the  20th  of  July  we  notified  Mr.  Sherman's  counsel  that  we  would  receive  th  e 
tesiimony  proposed.  He  replied  that  owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  season  it  had  been  decided  to^ 
adopt  aline  of  investigation  omitting  intimidation.  The  sub-committee  left  New  Orleans  on  thfr 
2oth  of  July,  and  shortly  after  the  yellow  fever  became  epidemic.  In  December  Mr.  Sherman's 
counsel  claimed  that  it  Avas  the  presence  of  the  yellow  fever  which  had  prevented  their  taking  this 
testimony  in  the  previous  summer  (p.  1102,  Sub-Com.  Rep.  1468). 

It  will  be  seen  by  his  answer  at  the  time  that  that  was  not  the  ground  then  taken  for  refusing  to- 
produce  it;  nor  was  there  any  reason  why,  even  if  the  yellow  fever  was  then  expected,  that  the 
committee  could  not  have  withdrawn  to  the  parishes  and  there  safely  have  taken  the  testin  ony; 
and  the  claim  that  Mr.  Sherman  had  been  prevented  from  introducing  this  testimony  seemed  to  tl.e 
committee  unfounded.  Nevertheless,  we  again  consented  to  take  the  testimony.  Objection  was 
then  made  that  the  witnesses  could  not  safely  be  brought  to  New  Orleans,  and  we  then  consented 
to  go  to  the  parishes  to  take  it.  This  opportunity  to  take  the  testimony  was  also  declined,  on  the 
ground  that  the  witnesses  could  not  safely  testify  at  all  under  the  condition  of  things  growing  o  t 
of  the  last  election  in  Louisiana  (p  1102;  Sub-Com.  Rep.  14()8:  Ray,  1470). 

Inasmuch  as  they  were  being  called  at  the  time  to  testify  before  the  Senate  committee,  then  in 
Louisiana,  where  tliey  would  be  as  much  exposed  by  testifying  as  before  the  House  con^mittee, 
and  as  this  committee  had  already  called  a  considerable  number  of  the  very  witnesses  desired  by 
Mr.  Sherman,  and  as  at  the  last  election  there  was  no  Republican  ticket  and  the  witnesses  only 
had  c^oice  between  different  Democratic  candidates,  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  ground  there  was  for 
this  assertion,  which  appeared  to  us  to  be  part  of  the  pretense  which  proposed  to  call  witnesses  who 
were  really  not  desired. 

THE  SHERMAN  LETTER. 

Mr.  Sherman  was  the  chief  of  the  visiting  statesmen  in  Louisiana.  The  election  in  that  state* 
turned  mainly  upon  the  parishes  of  East  and  West  Feliciana  (Sherman,  763). 

The  supervisors  of  those  parishes  called  upon  him  one  evt  ning  at  Morean's  restaurant,  as  he  re- 
collects "  indistinctly."  They  had  a  conversation  with  him  and  left.  A  letter  ha  s  been  referred  to 
as  having  been  afterwards  written  by  him  to  them.  Mr.  Sherman  has  testified:  "  I  do  not  believe 
I  ever  wrote  that  letter.  At  the  same  time  there  are  things  in  this  letter  that  I  would  have  written 
to  these  or  any  other  men  who  were  engaged  in  the  performance  of  what  I  believed  to  be  their 
duty,  if  I  had  been  asked."  If  that  was  so,  his  position  in  regard  of  what  occurred  would  seem  to 
be  defined  by  the  letter,  whether  he  wrote  it  or  whether  he  did  not  (Sherman,  765;  Sherman,  17). 

Very  considerable  evidence  has  been  taken  as  to  the  existence  of  this  letter,  and  the  press  has 
been  largely  engaged  in  discussing  it.  It  is  entirely  certain  that  a  letter  of  the  kind  did  exist,  by 
whomsoever  higned. 

Weber  left  his  parish  declaring  that  the  election  had  been  fair;  that  there  was  no  ground  for 
protest,  and  returned  stating  that  he  had  made  a  protest;  that  he  was  constrained  to  do  it,  and 
that  he  had  received  assurances  of  reward  for  doing  so.  This  is  established  by  gentlemen  of  char- 
acier  and  credibility,  and  is  not  attempted  to  be  disputed.  Beyond  that,  at  a  time  corresponding 
with  the  date  of  this  letter,  he  called  upon  his  friend,  Mr.  Sypher,  long  one  of  the  Republican  Con- 
gressmen from  Louisiana,  and  showed  him  a  letter,  purporting  to  be  signed  by  Mr.  Sherman,  of  the 
character  of  the  letter  referred  to,  and  which  Mr.  Sypher  believed  to  be,  as  Weber  represented  it  to. 
be,  an  original  letter  from  Mr.  Sherman  (Weber,  590-4;  Powell,  La.,  551;  Leake,  La.,  550;  Sypher,. 
753). 

General  Sheldon  tells  us  both  Weber  and  Anderson  were  considered  as  for  sale;  and  that  An- 
derson was  demanding  promises  of  reward  for  permitting  his  i-rotest  to  stand,  we  learn  from  such, 
other  Republican  managers  as  Pitkin  and  Campbell.  It  is  equally  certain  that  Anderson  thoii;ght 
that  he  had  received  the  assurances  he  sought.  He  says  that  they  wrote  to  Sherman  a  letter  asking 
for  written  assurances  of  the  fulfillment  of  the  promises  they  had  had,  and  gave  it  to  Weber  to- 
take.  It  was  a  reply  to  this  letter,  by  whomever  sij'ned,  that  Weber  showed  to  Sypher;  for  this- 
reply  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  the  letter  that  Anderson  and  Weber  had  written,  and  establishes 
of  itself  that  there  must  have  been  a  letier  asking  for  a!^surance8  received  by  the  person  who  pre- 
pared the  reply  which  Weber  showed  Sypher.  It  is,  therefore,  certain  that  Weber  and  Anderson 
joined  in  a  letter  to  Sherman  demanding  assurances  for  permitting  his  protest  to  stand,  and  that 


316       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

they  received  a  reply  to  that  letter  purporting  to  be  signed  by  Sherman  (Sheldon,  1284;  Weber, 
593;  Anderson,  11;  Agnes  Jenks,  324;  Sypher,  758;  Weber,  593). 

Emile  L.  Weber  says  that  he  found  this  Sherman  letter  among  his  brother's  papers  and  de- 
stroyed it.  Mrs.  Jenks  says  that  Weber  gave  to  her,  to  take  to  Sherman,  his  and  Anderson's  letter 
demanding  written  assurances;  that  Weber  then  told  her  that  they  had  already  received  verbal  as- 
surances and  wished  written  ones;  that  t-he  thought  that  they  ought  not  to  demand  this,  but  be 
satisfied  with  tl  e  v^ord  of  a  Republican  of  Sherman's  standing;  and  that  in  her  zeal  for  the  Re- 
publican party  she  suppressed  Weber  and  Anderson's  letter,  and  herself  caused  a  reply  to  be  pre- 
pared and  signed  for  Sherman  by  a  local  politician,  whose  name  she  declined  to  give,  and  took 
this,  as  Sherman's  answer,  back  to  Weber  and  Anderson,  and  this  was  the  letter  oii  which  he  and 
Anderson  acted  (Weber,  593;  Agnes  Jenks,  322,  344,  378). 

It  is  certain,  from  Anderson's  action  as  well  as  from  Weber's,  that  they  regarded  this  letter  as 
an  original  signed  by  Sherman,  and  that  when  later  Anderson  found  himself  without  any  such  re- 
ward as  he  thought  he  was  entitled  to,  he  at  once  set  about  pursuit  of  it,  and  his  conduct  shows 
that  he  really  believed  that  it  not  only  existed  but  was  genuine. 

REPUBLICAN   BELIEF   IN  IT. 

Certain  circumstances  indicate  a  belief  upon  the  part  of  those  concerned  in  it  that  it  was 
genuine. 

It  was  rumored  among  the  leading  Republicans  in  Louisiana  that  such  a  letter  existed;  that 
Weber  had  been  killed  to  obtain  it,  and  a  story  then  set  on  foot  that  he  had  been  killed  by  the 
Democrats.  Kellogg  and  Packard,  Darrell  and  Stanley  Matthews,  all  acted  upon  the  assumption 
that  such  a  letter  existed,  and  Mrs.  Jenks  sought  it  diligently.  Senator  Matthews  was  cited  bef«re 
the  commiitee,  but  refused  to  appear.  We  cannot  say  that  on  the  whole  we  respect  him  the  less 
for  his  reticence. 

It  i«  evident  from  Mr.  Sherman's  first  examination,  that  he  apprehended  that  he  might  have 
written  the  letter  and  forgotten  it,  and  the  efforts  that  liave  been  made  to  mislead  the  public  and 
the  committee  about  it  have  strengthened  their  conviction  of  this  apprehension. 

EFFORTS  TO  MISLEAD   THE   COMMITTEE. 

On  the  4th  of  September  Mr.  Sherman  declared  to  the  press  that  he  believed  the  "  roundsmen  " 
■of  the  comiDittee  were  about  to  produce  a  forged  letter  as  his  and  publish  it  with  a  view  of  affect- 
ing the  October  elections.  As  the  committee  had  adjourned,  not  to  meet  until  after  the  October 
elections:  as  they  had  no  "roundsmen,"  nor  had  heard  of  such  a  letter,  this  naturally  excited  sus- 
picion. Various  letters  purporting  to  be  from  persons  who  claimed  to  have  formerly  been  in  Mr. 
Sherman's  employment,  but  who  could  not  be  traced,  were  then  sent  to  the  committee  offering  to 
produce  his  original  letter.  When  no  attention  was  paid  to  all  this,  Mrs.  Jenks  began,  just  before 
the  October  election,  dropping  in  the  streets  of  New  Orleans  a  packet  containing  what  was  intended 
to  pass  for  the  original  letter.  This  packet  having  been  returned  to  her  by  tnose  passing  at  the 
time,  she  finally  succeeded  in  leaving  it  unnoticed  in  a  carpet  shop  in  New  Orleans.  In  its  make- 
up, and  the  papers  inclosed,  it  had  all  the  evidence  of- being  her  property,  and  of  having  been 
casuall}' lost,  and  of  containing  the  original  Sherman  letter  that  she  had  so  much  sought  for 
<7yi6«M6,  Sept.  5,  18/8,  p.  1467;  Bickford,  1300;  p.  1127;  Raymond,  1121;  Lloyd,  1123;  Raymond, 
1118,  1125). 

This  was  not  a  joke;  the  pui-pose  was  to  have  the  committee  produce  this  letter  as  if  the  original 
letter,  and  when  they  had  committed  themselves  to  it  to  have  the  forgery  certainly  exposed  by  nav- 
ing  those  who  made  it  show  when  and  where  it  had  been  forged,  and  thus  lead  to  the  impression 
that  no  genuine  letter  had  ever  existed  (Maloney,  1126). 

This  forged  paper  was  not  the  letter  which  Weber  showed  to  Sypher.  That  letter  was  written 
upon  two  pages  of  note  paper,  this  forged  letter  upon  one  page  of  letter  paper.  That  was  written 
in  a  bad  hand,  difticult  to  decipher,  as  is  Mr.  Sherman's  writing  ;  this  was  written  in  a  plain  and 
round  hand,  obviously  not  intended  for  his,  but  to  which  an  imitation  of  his  signature  was 
attached.  It  was  to  serve  as  a  decoy;  and  it  is  diflicult  to  see  why  anyone  should  want  to  set  on 
foot  such  a  decoy  who  did  not  believe  such  an  original  letter  did  exist  or  had  existed  (Sypher,  755; 
Anderson,  13). 

In  view  of  her  relations  to  the  Treasury  Department,  in  which  her  brother  was  appointed  after 
she  testified  in  Washington,  and  by  which  her  husband  has  been  employed  since  her  testimony, 
it  is  submitted  that  this  attempt  to  impose  a  letter  upon  the  committee  was  not  without  purpose 
and  for  the  benefit  of  those  by  whom  she  subsists,  and  with  whom  she  sympathized,  and  whom 
she  has,  as  she  says,  before  attempted  to  serve  (T.  H.  Jenks,  583;  T.  C.  Anderson,  570;  Shellabar- 
^er,  786;  Hahn,  1130). 

By  whomsoever  signed  with  Mr.  Sherman's  name,  the  letter  which  Weber  received,  he  and  An- 
derson, after  the  interview  at  Moreau's,  accented  and  acted  upon  as  genuine,  and  the  only  impor- 
tance that  attaches  to  its  genuineness  is  whether  Mr.  Sherman  actually  did  give  in  writing  the 
Assurances  which  he  says  he  might  well  have  given,  but  was  careful  not  to  express. 

CONNIVANCE  AT  RETURNING  BOARD  FRAUD. 

How  far  the  controlling  visiting  statesmen  like  Mr.  Sherman  really  believed  there  was  any  jus- 
tification for  the  rejection  of  Democratic  votes  by  the  returning  board,  men  will  never  agree.  We 
are  apt  to  believe  in  the  right  of  what  we  earnestly  desire.  Men  who  thought  the  welfare  of  the 
country  depended  upon  the  continuation  in  power  of  the  Republican  party,  would  naturally  have 
been  disposed  to  consider  almost  anything  justified  to  retain  it  there.  To  us  it  seems  impossible 
that  the  flagrant  and  atrocious  conduct  of  the  returning  board  was  not  realized  above  all  by  the 
men  of  most  political  experience,  or  that  the  most  dangerous  and  outrageous  political  fraud  of  the 
age  was  not  assisted  and  advised  by  those  who  next  proceeded  to  take  posseseiou  of  its  best 
fruits. 


ELECTOR-IL   FRAUDS    IN^   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       31 T 

LIST  OF  PERSONS  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  CANVASS  OR  ELEC- 
TION  OR  NEGOTIATIONS  IN  LOUISIANA  IN  1876,  SUBSEQUENTLY 
APPOINTED  TO,  OR  RETAINED,  IN  OFFICE  : 

CONNECTED  WITH  THE  RETURNING  BOARD. 
Names.  Employment  1876.  Office. 

J.  Madison  Wells President  Returning  Board Surveyor  Port  N.  O. 

Thos.  C.  Anderson Member  Returning  Board Deputy  Col.  Port  N.  O. 

S.  M.  Kenner "  "  "       Deputy  Naval  officer. 

G.  Cassanavc "  "  "      Brother    of    U.    S.    Store- 

keeper, N.  O. 

Chas.  A.  Vernon Secretary  Returning  Board Insp'r  Custom  House. 

Chas.  S.  Abell "  "  "     '*  " 

York  A.  Woodward Clerk  of  Returning  Board Clerk  Custom  House. 

W.H.Green "  "  "     " 

P.  P.  Blanchard "  "  "     "  " 

G.  R.  Davis "  "  "    " 

Charles  Hill "  "  "     " 

Geo.  Grindley "  "  "     "  "  " 

John  Ray Counsel  of  Returning  Board Spec.  Agt.  Treas.  Dep. 

A.  C.  Wells Son  of  J.  Madison  Wells Spec.  Dep.  Surv'r  N.  O. 

T.  A.  Woolfley Affidavit  taker U.  S.  Commissioner. 

R.  M.  J.  Kenner Brother  Returning  Board  Kenner Clerk  Naval  Office. 

STATE  OFFICERS  AND  MANAGERS. 

Michael  Hahn State  Registrar Superintendent  Mint. 

James  P.  McArdle State  Registrar's  Clerk Custom  House. 

W.  P.  Kellogg Governor U.  S.  Senate. 

S.  B.  Packard Candidate  for  Governor Consul  to  Liverpool. 

Geo.  L.  Smith Candidate  for  Congress Collector  New  Orleans^ 

James  Lewis Police  Comm'r  New  Orleans Naval  Office. 

Jack  Wharton Adjutant-General  Louisiana U.  S.  Marshal. 

A.  S.  Badger General  of  State  Militia Postmaster  N.  O. 

D.  J.  M.  A.  Jewett Secretary  Republican  Com Insp'r  Custom  House. 

H.  J.  Campbell Chief  of  Affidavit  Factory U.  S.  Att'y.  Wyoming. 

H.  Conquest  Clarke Kellogs^'s  Secretary Clerk  Int.  Rev. 

N.  F.  Loan Chief  of  Police Clerk  Internal  Rev. 

W.  L.  McMiHan "  ''     , Pension  Agent,  N.  O. 

ELECTORS. 

William  P.  Kellogg Elector  at  Large U.  S.  Senator. 

J.  Henri  Burch "  "  State  Senator, 

Peter  Joseph "  " Clerk  Custom  House. 

Lionel  A.  Sheldon "  "  Mr.  Sherman's  counseL 

Morris  Marks "  "  Collector  Int.  Rev. 

A.  B.  Levisee .  '•  " ,  Spec.  Agt.  Treasury. 

O.H.Brewster "  "  Surveyor-General. 

SUPERVISORS  AND  PERSONS  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  ELECTION. 

James  P.  McArdle State  Registrar's  Clerk Custom  House. 

Michael  Hahn State  Registrar Supt.  of  Mint. 

M.  J.  Grady Supervisor  at  Ouachita Dept.  Col.  Int.  Rev. 

John  K.  Dinkgrave  Manager  at  Ouachita Legislature. 

H.  C.  Attwood "  "       U.S.  Marshal. 

W.  R.  Hardy District  Attorney Insp'r  Custom  House. 

Henry  Smith Sheriff  of  East  Feliciana Custom  House. 

Samuel  Chapman "  "  "         "  " 

James  E.  Anderson Supervisor  of  East  Feliciana Consul  Funchal 

A.  H.  Ferguson Supervisor  at  De  Soto ..Custom  House. 

M.  11.  Twitchell Supervisor  Claiborne Consul  Kingston. 

J.E.Scott "  Rapides Post  Office. 

B.  W.  Woodruff "  St.  Tammany "        " 

Victor  Gradias Rep.  Manager  Grant  Parish Tax  Collector  N.  O. 

A.  J.  Brien "  2d  ward  N.  O Insp'r  Custom  House. 

Patrick  Creagh "  3d  "  Chief  Laborer. 

R.  C.  Howard "  4th  "  ^ Clerk  Custom  House. 

J.C.Pinckler "  5th  " " 

W.J.Moore "  7th  "  "         " 

Thomas  Leon '•  8th  "  "         " 

H.C.Bartlett "  9th  "  " 

T.IT. Rowan "  10th  "  ...    " 

A.  W.  Kempton Comm'r  11th  **  Boatman  Custom  House, 

L.  Backus Manager  11th  "  Police            "           " 

Napoleon  Underwood Supervisor  12th  "  Inspector.      "           " 

P.  J.  Maloney "  14th  "  Cu.stom  House. 

W.  F.  Loan "  15th  "  Chief  of  Police. 


518       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IX   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

VISITING  STATESMEN. 

^ohn  Sherman Secretary  of  Treasury. 

John  M.  Harlan Justice  Sup.  Court. 

Stanley  Matthews Senator  from  Ohio. 

James  A.  Garfield Admin'n  Can.  Speaker. 

Eugene  Hale. ...     Offered  P.  M.  General. 

Edwin  W.  Stoughton Minister  to  Russia. 

Wm.  D.  Kelley Member  of  Congress. 

T  ?,•  4      P'^"^ Minister  to  Austria. 

J.  K.  Hawley Commissioner  to  Paris. 

John  Coburn Coram'r  Hot  Springs. 

COUNSEL  BEFORE  THE  ELECTORAL  COMMISSION. 

Wm.  M.  Evarts Secretary  of  State. 

Sam'l  Shellabarger _ Messrs.    Hayes   and   Sher- 
man's private  counsel. 


III. 

THE  FORGED  ELECTORAL  CERTIFICATES. 

The  electors  thus  declared  cho.sen,  except  Levisee  and  Brewster,  met  in  the  State  House,  in  the 
■city  of  New  Orleans,  at  noon  on  the  6th  day  of  December,  1876.  Both  Levisee  and  Brewster,  at 
the  time  of  the  election,  held  offices  under  the  Federal  government— Levisee  as  United  States 
commissioner,  and  Brewster  as  surveyor-general,  which,  it  was  feared,  rendered  them  ineligible  as 
electors.  They  did  not,  therefore,  attend  the  first  meeting.  The  other  members  thereupon  pro- 
<;eeded  to  choose  them  respectively  lo  fill  the  vacancies  occasioned  by  their  own  non-appearance, 
for  having  since  the  election  resigned  their  offices,  they  were  considered  then  eligible  as  electors. 
Levisee  and  Brewster  being  sent  for,  attended,  and  the  electors  then  proceeded  to  vote  for  Presi- 
dent and  Vice-President  by  ballot.  This  they  did,  as  Levisee  states— and  no  different  version  has 
been  offered  to  your  committee— by  each  elector  taking  a  slij)  of  paper  on  which  was  written, 
*'For  President,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes;  for  Vice-President,  William  A.  Wheeler;  folding  such 
slip,  indorsing  it  with  bis  name,  and  openly  depositing  the  paper  in  a  hat  (Levisee,  pp.  98  and 
751). 

THE  FIRST  SET  OF  CERTIFICATES. 

The  electors,  having  thus  disregarded  the  jjrovisions  of  the  Constitution,  which  require  them  to 
vote  for  President  and  Vice-President  by  distmct  ballots,  proceeded  to  sign,  in  triplicate,  a  certifi- 
cate of  the  votes  cast,  which  included  in  one  list  or  certificate  both  the  votes  for  President  and 
Vice-President ;  and  also  a  process  verbal  or  recital,  of  their  i)roeeedings,  including  an  authority  to 
Thomas  C.  Anderson  to  carry  to  Washington  one  of  these  certificates  (Levisee,  p.  93). 

Kellogg,  as  governor,  caused  to  be  delivered  to  these  electors,  as  required  by  law  (R.  S.,  sec. 
139),  three  certificates,  stating  that  they  were  duly  chosen  as  electors,  and  one  of  these  certificates 
by  the  governor  was  annexed  to  each  of  the  triplicate  certificates,  which  the  electors  t-igned  (pp.  266, 
«36). 

The  electoral  certificates  were  then  enveloped  and  sealed  up  by  H.  Conquest  Clarke,  Governor 
Kellogg's  secretary,  and  upon  each  of  these  envelopes  a  certificate  was  indorsed,  as  required  by 
law  (R.  S.,  sec.  132),  stating  that  it  contained  a  list  of  all  the  votes  for  President  and  Vice-Presi- 
dent; but  the  electors  omitted  to  sign  any  of  these  certificates  (Ferry,  133). 

Of  these  triplicate  papers,  one  was  maiktl  on  the  9th  of  December  to  the  president  of  the  Sen- 
ate, one  was  filed  by  Clarke  with  the  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court,  and  one  was 
handed  (by  him  or  Kellogg),  on  the  21st  of  December,  to  Anderson  to  take  to  Washington  (Clarke, 
p.  259). 

THESE  CERTIFICATES  REJECTED. 

Anderson  arrived  in  Washington  on  Christmas  eve,  the  24th  of  December.  On  Christmas  morn- 
ing he  waited  upon  Mr.  Ferry,  the  president  of  th"  Senate,  and  presented  to  him  the  package 
he  had  brought.  Mr.  Ferry  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  paper  did  not  have  the  indorse- 
ment which  the  statute  required,  and  Anderson  says  that  thereupon  he  returned  to  his  hotel  and 
opened  the  envelope  and  examined  the  paper  within,  in  the  hope  of  finding  the  indorsement  there; 
and  then,  although  accompanied  by  ladies,  without  the  rest  of  another  night,  returned  immedi- 
ately with  the  papers  to  New  Orleans  (Anderson,  539;  p.  540). 

Anderson  reached  New  Orleans  on  the  morning  of  Thursday,  the  28th  of  December,  and  took 
the  papers  to  Kellogg,  at  his  office  at  the  State  House,  and  informed  him  that  the  president  of  the 
Senate  had  said  that  the  returns  were  not  in  form,  and  that  a  new  one  must  be  prepared.  Kellogg 
thereupon  sent  for  Clarke,  his  secretary,  and  gave  him  directions  to  confer  with  Anderson  and 
prepare  such  new  certificates;  and  Clarke,  learning  from  Anderson  that  the  defect  was  that,  the 
electors  had  made  one  list  of  votes  cast  for  President  and  Vice-President  instead  of  two  distinct 
lists,  proceeded  to  rectify  it,  and  he  at  once  went  to  the  Rejjublican  printing  office  and  gave  there, 
in  person,  the  directions  for  the  changes  necessary  for  the  new  electoral  certificates  (p.  541;  Kel- 
logg, 674;  Clarke,  p.  258). 

THE  NEW  CERTIFICATES. 

The  following  are  copies  of  the  electoral  certificate  executed  on  the  6th  of  December  and  of  the 
electoral  certificate  prepared  by  Clarke's  direction  upon  the  28th  of  December  for  execution,  but 
antedated  as  if  of  the  6th  of  that  month: 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       319 


electors'    LIST    OF    DECEMBER    6. 


The  United  States  op  America 

State  of  Louisiana,  State  House 
New  Orleans,  December 


lousE,    y 

r  6,  1876.  ) 


We,  the  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  for  the  state  of  Louis 
lana,  do  hereby  certify  that  on  this  the  sixth  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thou- 
eand  eight  hundred  and  seventy-six,  we  proceeded  to  vote  by  ballot  for  President  of  the  United 
States  on  the  date  above;  that  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  of  the  state  of  Ohio,  received  eight  votes  for 
President  of  the  United  States,  being  all  the  votes  cast,  and  that  we  then  immediately  proceeded 
to  vote  by  ballot  for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  whereupon  William  A.  Wheeler,  of  the 
state  of  New  York,  received  eight  votes  for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  being  all  the 
votes  cast. 

In  testimony  whereof,  we,  said  electors,  have  hereunto  signed  our  names,  on  this  the  first 
Wednesday,  being  the  sixth  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-six, and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and  first. 

WILLIAM  P.   KELLOGG. 

J.  HENRI  BURCH. 

PETER  JOSEPH. 

LIONEL  A.  SHELDON. 

MORRIS  MARKS. 

AARON  B.  LEVISEE. 

ORLANDO  H.  BREWSTER. 

OSCAR  JOFFRION. 

Clarke's  electoral  list,  printed  December  28. 

Thk  United  States  of  America,  ) 

State  of  [Seal]  Louisiana,  State  House,  V 
New  Orleans,  December  6,  1876.  ) 
We,  the  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  for  the  state  of  Louisiana, 
^o  hereby  certify  that  on  this  day,  Wednesday,  the  sixth  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
■eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-six,  we  proceeded  to  vote  by  ballot  for  President  of  the  United 
States,  whereupon  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  of  the  state  of  Ohio,  received  eight  votes  for  President 
of  the  United  States,  being  all  the  votes  cast. 

In  testimony  whereof,  we,  said  electors,  have  hereunto  signed  our  names,  on  this  the  first 
Wednesday,  being  the  sixth  day  uf  December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-six, and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and  first. 

WM.  P.  KELLOGG. 
J.  HENRI  BURCH. 
PETER  JOSEPH. 
LIONEL  A.  SHELDON. 
MORRIS  MARKS. 
AARON B.  LEVISEE. 
ORLANDO  H.  BREWSTER. 
OSCAR  JOFFRION. 

The  United  States  or  America,  ) 

State  of  Louisiana,  State  House,  '- 
New  Orleans,  December  6, 18v6.  ) 
We,  the  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  for  the  state  of  Louis- 
iana, do  hereby  certify  that  on  this  day,  Wednesday,  the  sixth  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-six,  we  proceeded  to  vote  b^^  ballot  for  Vice-Presicient  of 
the  United  States,  whereupon  William  A.  Wheeler,  of  the  state  of  New  York,  received  eight  votes 
for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  being  all  the  votes  cast. 

In  testimony  whereof,  we,  said  electors,  have  hereunto  signed  our  names,  on  this,  the  first 
Wednesday,  being  the  sixth  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  eighteen  hundred  and  sev- 
enty-six, and  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  the  one  hundred  and  first. 

WILLIAM  P.  KELLOGG. 
J.  HENRI  BURCH. 
PETER JOSEPH. 
LIONEL  L.  SHELDON. 
MORRIS  MARKS. 
AARON B.  LEVISEE. 
ORLANDO  H.  BREWSTER. 
OSCAR  JOFFRION. 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  tlio  electoral  certificate  taken  back  by  Anderson  was  a  statement  of 
the  votes  cast  both  for  President  and  Vice-President,  certified  in  a  single  paper,  whereas  the  twelfth 
article  of  tlie  Constitution,  which  in  this  respect  changed  the  Constitution  from  the  original  pro- 
vision of  the  second  article,  required  that  the  electors  should  not  only  vote  in  distinct  ballots  for 
President  and  Vice-President,  but  that  they  should  make  ''distinct  lists  of  all  persons  voted  for  as 
President  and  for  all  persons  voted  for  as  Vice-President,"  which  distinct  lists  "they  were  to  sign 
and  certify,"  so  that  the  electoral  certificates  made  on  the  6th  of  December  were  open  to  objection 
as  failing  to  comply  with  this  precise  and  positive  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

This  defect  was  avoided  in  tho  new  electoral  lists,  whicli  were  prepared  as  distinct.  That  Is, 
there  was  a  separate  certificate  to  be  signed  by  all  the  electors,  stating  the  votes  cast  for  President, 
and  another  distinct  certificate,  also  to  be  separately  signed  by  the  electors,  stating  the  votes  cast 
for  Vice-President;  and  both  these  distinct  certificates  by  the  electors  were  to  be  used  in  place  of 
the  original  single  certificate  which  reported  the  votes  cast  for  both  officers. 

Anderson  does  not  recollect  that  he  consulted  or  spoke  with  any  one  about  the  sufficiency  of  the 
electoral  certificate  he  took  to  Washington  before  he  broughr,  it  back  to  Kellogg,  but  supposes  he 
may  have  done  so.  He  certainly  did  not  notify  him  or  any  one  of  the  defect  by  telegraph.  But  not 
to  have  consulted  any  one  in  Washington  about  it  would  have  been  a  very  unlikely  course  to  take 


320       ELECTORAL   FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL   ELECTION. 

in  a  matter  of  such  importance,  and  upon  which,  as  Ferry  told  him,  the  Presidential  election  de- 
pended. And  as  Anderson  on  his  return  told  Clarke  that  "  friends  in  Washington  thought  that 
instead  of  the  names  for  President  and  Vice-President  being  on  one  sheet  they  should  be  on  two 
sheets,"  and  notified  Sheldon  what  the  real  defect  was:  he  doubtless  had  consulted  his  "  friends  " 
here  about  it  (Anderson,  540,  541;  Clarke,  258;  Kellogg,  673;  Sheldon,  1576). 

Clarke  further  states  that  the  form  of  the  electoral  certificate  made  on  the  6th  of  December  was 
only  adopted  after  much  consultation  and  advice  of  counsel.  That  in  a  matter  of  such  graviti'-  he 
should  at  once,  and  without  consulting  with  any  one,  have  proceeded  to  discard  that  form  and  ta 
adopt,  instead  of  one,  two  distinct  certificates,  shows  a?^o  that  this  conrse  must  have  been  advised 
by  friends  whom  Brewster  "  supposed  to  be  some  of  our  leading  men;"  friends,  indeed,  of  control- 
ling prominence  (Clarke,  260;  Brewster,  255\ 

As  the  law  (R.  S.,  140)  required  that  the  certificate  should  reach  Washington  by  the  first  Wednes- 
day of  January  (January  3,  1877),  it  was  imperative  that  the  new  certificates  should  leave  New  Or- 
leans not  later  than  the  afternoon  of  the  following  day,  Friday,  December  29  (Sheldon,  1275). 

SO  PRINTED  AS  TO  MISLEAD. 

Pressing  as  was  the  haste,  Clarke,  curiouslj'^  enough,  found  time  to  have  the  new  electoral  lists 
printed  upon  sheets  of  a  peculiar  size,  texture  and  appearance,  and  in  a  peculiar  type,  all  corres- 
jionding  in  appearance  exactly  with  the  certificates  of  their  appointment,  furnished  to  the  electors 
by  the  governor  on  the  6th  of  December,  and  to  be  dated  that  day,  so  that  when  annexed  to  the 
new  electoral  certificates,  one  looking  at  these  certificates  would  naturally  suppose  that  both  the 
electors'  and  the  attached  governor's  certificates  were  prepared  and  issued  at  the  same  time,  instead 
of  weeks  apart  (see  original  lists). 

The  deception  thus  intended  would  have  been  useless,  and  would  not  have  been  attempted,  un- 
less the  parlies  had  known  in  advance  that  they  could  possess  themselves  of  certificates  by  the 
governor,  dated  December  6th.  One  of  such  certificates  Clarke  obtained,  by  detaching  it  from  the 
electoral  certificates  of  December  6  Anderson  brought  back  from  Washington,  and  annexing  it  to 
one  of  the  electoral  certificates  prepared  in  triplicate  on  the  29th  of  December,  but  antedated  to  the 
6th.  For  the  other  two  parts  of  these  later  electoral  certificates,  he  snys  he  took  like  certificates  by 
the  governor,  which  had  been  left  over  since  the  6th  of  December  (Clarke,  268). 

His  story  is,  that  Kellogg,  finding  that  his  certificates  of  who  had  been  appointed  electors  had 
been  filled  out  in  a  handwriting  he  did  not  like,  ordered  another  set  to  be  made  out,  and  that  thus 
there  were  duplicate  governor's  certificates  of  the  6th  of  December  made,  from  which  Clarke,  after 
using  those  required  for  the  electoral  certificates  of  that  date,  had  enough  left  over  to  answer  for 
the  new  electoral  lists  of  the  29th.  Your  committee  have  been  unable  to  discover  any  such  infe- 
riority in  the  i)enmanship  in  the  governor's  certificates  which  Kellogg  rejected  as  to  require  a  new 
set  to  be  prepared;  nor  has  it  been  explained  why,  if  the  penmanship  was  so  objectionab'e,  Kellogg 
should  have  thought  it  necessary  to  be  at  the  trouble  not  only  of  signing  all  the  rejected  certificates, 
but  also  of  having  his  signature  attested  by  the  great  seal  of  the  state,  and  by  the  signature  of  the 
Secretary  of  State;  nor  why,  after  the  well-written  electoral  certificates  executed  on  the  6th  of  De- 
cember were  completed,  it  should  have  been  thought  necessary  to  preserve  those  rejected  and  un- 
used governor's  certificates  (Clarke,  265). 

But,  whether  the  governor's  certificates  for  the  new  electoral  lists  were  made  on  the  29th  of 
December,  and  falsely  dated  and  certified  by  the  Secretary  of  State  to  appear  as  if  issued  on  the  6th 
of  December,  or  whether  they  were  "curiously"  surplus  certificates  left  over  from  the  6th  of  De- 
cember, in  either  case  Clarke  was  able  to  provide  himself  with  certificates  by  the  governor,  dated 
December  6,  to  annex  to  the  new  electoral  lists,  so  as  to  can-y  out  the  deception  designed  (Clarke, 
261). 

SECRETLY  SIGNED. 

The  lists,  being  thus  prepared  for  signature,  were  taken  to  a  small  room  in  the  third  story  of  the 
State  House,  "  not  at  all  frequented,"  where  Clarke  had  them  in  charge,  instead  of  being  taken  to 
his  ordinary  office  adjoining  the  governor's  chamber  (Clarke,  259,  260). 

No  formal  meeting  cf  the  electors  was  had,  nor  was  any  notice  given  that  new  lists  were  being 
prepared,  but  the  whole  proceeding  was  kept  entirely  secret  among  the  parties  concerned  in  its  exe- 
cution and  their  advisers. 

On  the  following  morning,  Friday,  December  29,  Anderson  proceeded,  about  eleven  o'clock,  to 
this  upper  room,  where  he  found  Clarke  sitting  at  a  table,  and  spread  out  before  him  were  papers 
which  seemed  to  be  the  electoral  lists.  He  stated  to  Clarke  that  he  was  unable  to  again  make  the 
journey  to  Washington,  and  that  some  one  must  go  in  his  place,  and  that  it  had  been  arranged  that 
one  Charles  Hill,  tlien  an  examiner  in  the  auditor's  ofiice,  and  now  a  storekeeper  in  the  custom- 
house, should  be  the  messenger  for  that  purpose;  and  he  asked  Clarke  if  the  certificates  would  be 
ready  to  go  that  afternoon  by  the  train  to  the  north— which  train  left  New  Orleans  about  five  o'clock. 
Clarke  responded  that  they  would  be  ready.  Meantime,  word  had  been  sent  out  by  Clarke  to  the 
different  electors  to  come  to  the  state  building  (Anderson,  544,  545). 

Kellogg,  Brewster,  Sheldon,  Burch,  Joseph,  and,  perhaps,  Marks,  seem  to  have  been  at  the  State 
House  during  that  day. 

Kellogg  swears  he  signed  the  certificates  that  day,  but  saw  no  one  else  sign  them.  Brewster, 
that  he  signed  them,  but  saw  no  one  else  sign  them.  Marks,  that  he  signed  them,  and  saw  Sheldon 
sign  them;  and  saw  Biirch,  and,  he  thinks,  Joseph,  in  the  room  when  he  signed  (Kellogg,  675; 
Brewster,  2.53,255;  Marks,  La.,  423). 

Clarke  says  he  saw  Kellogg  sign  them,  and  that  Kellogg  signed  first,  and  saw  them  .signed  by 
Brewster  (Clarke,  262,  263,  271). 

Sheldon  says  he  saw  Anderson  on  the  morning  of  his  return;  was  told  of  the  defects  in  the  first 
certificate  and  the  necessity  for  a  new  set;  and  knew  of  the  importance  of  their  being  sent  forward 
at  once.  Knew  Joffrion  and  Levisee  to  be  out  of  town,  and  inquired  of  Kellogg  if  they  would  be 
there  in  time,  and  was  told  they  had  been  .sent  for.  Called  the  next  morning  on  Kellogg,  and  asked 
if  they  had  arrived,  and  was  told  by  him  they  had;  and  then  went  with  Kellogg  upstairs  to  the  pri- 
vate room;  there  saw  Kellogg  sign,  Burch  sign,  Marks  sign,  and  signed  himself,  but  met  no  other  of- 
the  electors  that  day  at  all  (Sheldon,  274). 

In  the  afternoon,  about  half -past  three,  Hill  says  Kellogg  went  with  him  from  his  chamber,  in 
the  executive  oftice,  upstairs  to  get  the  returns.  There  they  found  Clarke,  but  no  one  else  whom 
he  can  now  identify.    Kellogg  asked  if  Brewster  had  signed,  and  Clarke  answered  that  Brewster 


rJLECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       321 

had  not  come  j'et.  While  they  were  waiting  Brewster  came  in  and  signed  the  retnms,  and  was  the 
last  who  did  sign  them;  then  Clarke  folded  up  the  papers,  put  them  in  the  envelopes,  sealed  them, 
and  Kellogg  took  them  down  stairs  to  his  office,  accompanied  by  Hill,  and  there  wrote  something 
on  them  (probably  his  signature  to  the  indorsement),  and  handed  to  Hill  to  take  to  Washington 
one  of  the  triplicate  parts,  and  gave  him  a  letter  directed  in  Anderson's  writing,  to  Ferry  (Hill,  La., 
50,  52;  Hill,  La.,  50,  53). 

Anderson  states  that,  toward  four  o'clock  of  that  day,  he  went  up  to  this  upper  room  and  met 
Brewster  coming  out.  Brewster  stated  that  he  had  just  signed  the  returns.  Anderson  entered  and 
found  Clarke  there,  and  he  thinks  Hill,  although  as  to  that  he  is  not  positive.  Anderson  sat  down 
at  a  desk  in  the  room  and  wroie  a  letter  to  Ferry  introducing  Hill,  and  inclosed  with  it  his  authority 
as  messenger,  and  handed  it  to  Hill,  and  left  the  room  (Anderson,  545). 

Hill  departed  for  Washinuton  with  his  triplicate  of  the  electoral  certificates  that  afternoon. 
Clarke  sent  another  triplicate  by  registered  mail  by  the  same  train,  and  on  the  following  day  Clarke 
took  the  third  set  to  the  district  .ludge  and  filed  them  there.  These  certificates  purported  to  be 
signed  by  all  the  electors  (Hill,  La.,  50;  Clarke,  259). 

TWO  electors'   SIGNATURES  FORGED. 

Levisee  has  testified  that  on  the  28th  and  29th  of  December  he  was  himself  many  hundred  miles 
from  New  Orleans,  at  Shreveport.  He  could  not,  therefore,  be  procured  for  the  purpose  of  signing 
the  new  electoral  lists,  and  did  not  sis^^n  them;  and  that  the  signature  of  his  name  appended  to  them 
is  not  his,  but  a  tolerably  well-imitated  forgery  (Levisee,  92, 96). 

On  the  9th  day  of  June  last  one  Thomas  S.  Kelly,  who  had  formerly  been  a  door  keeper  employed 
by  Kellogg  in  his  office,  and  who  had  general  charge  of  it  for  four  years  under  Clarke,  and  who  had 
been  reported  as  dead,  wrote  to  the  chairman  stating  that  he  was  then  living  at  Lake  Piovidence, 
Louisiana;  that  he  saw  Jellrion's  and  Levisee's  names  forged  to  the  electoral  certificates,  and,  if 
protected  from  being  murdered,  he  would  so  testify  (Kelly,  La.,  507). 

Kelly  was  accordnigly  summoned  before  the  sub-committee  in  New  Orleans,  but,  on  the  day  on 
which  the  subptena  reached  him,  one  James  D.  Kennedy,  an  employee  of  the  sergeant-at-arms  of  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  where  he  had  been  appointed  on  the  recommendation  of  Senator 
Kellogg,  and  who  had  obtained  from  the  sergeant-^t-arms,  upon  Kellogg's  request,  leave  of 
absence,  arrived  at  Lake  Providence  and  took  Kelly  with  him  and  carried  him  off  to  Cincinnati  and 
thence,  so  that  at  the  time  your  committee  were  not  aule  to  find  him  (Kelly,  La.,  569,  571;  Kennedy, 
1115;  Kellogg,  681,682). 

After  Kelly's  litter  had  been  proved,  and  his  journey  with  Kennedy  had  been  traced  to  Wash- 
ington, and  the  facts  published,  he  and  Kennedy  notified  the  committee  they  were  ready  to  be 
called.  They  were  not  called  at  the  time,  but  some  months  later,  during  all  of  which  time,  although 
poor  as  a  "  church  mouse,*'  having  been  brought  to  Washington  by  the  money  which  Kennedy  fur- 
nished him,  with  no  baggage  but  a  satchel,  Kelly  continued  living  at  Washington,  judging  from  hig 
appearance,  in  luxury,  doing  nothing  he  would  state  (Kennedy,  1116,  1117). 

He  then  reafliirmed  the  story  which  he  had  told  in  his  letter,  and  declared  that  he  knew  that  both 
Levisee's  and  Joffrion's  signatures  were  forged,  because  neither  of  them  was  in  New  Orleans  on  that 
day,  and  from  the  further  fact  that  he  saw  Joffrion's  signature  forged.  He  says  that  the  forgery 
was  executed  by  one  D.  P.  Blanchard,  then  the  executive  clerk  in  Governor  Kellogg's  oftice,  and 
chairman  of  the  Executive  Republican  Committee.  As  Blanchard  died  after  Kelly's  letter  to  the 
chairman,  and  as  Kelly  wrote  the  letter  because  of  his  dissatisfaction  at  the  conduct  of  Hayes  and 
his  administration,  and  as  he  had  been  for  months  cared  for  by  the  friends  to  whom  Kennedy  had 
brought  him,  your  committee  strongly  suspect  that  this  story  was  false,  and  was  told  because 
Blanchard  was  dead,  and  in  order  to  divert  attention  from  the  persons  who  really  committed  the 
forgery  (T.  S.  Kelly,  1135,  1147;  T.  S.  Kelly,  1147,  1148;  Jewett,  1440,  1448). 

NECESSITY  FOR  FORGERY, 

Since  it  was  known  when  the  second  set  of  electoral  certificates  was  prepared  that  the  Presiden- 
tial election  turned  upon  one  vote,  it  was  essential  that  the  certificates,  if  signed  at  all,  should  ap- 
pear to  be  signed  by  all  the  electors.  With  six  votes  they  would  have  been  no  more  useful  than 
with  one,  and  as  it  was  not  known  until  Anderson  returned  that  they  would  be  needed,  there  was 
little  time  to  get,  from  the  interior  of  a  state  in  which  travel  is  so  difficult  as  in  Louisiana,  the  per- 
sens  whose  presence  was  requisite.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  some  of  these  might  not  arrive 
in  time.  It  was  equally  necessary  that  the  certificates  should  leave  on  the  29th,  so  that  their  arrival 
could  not  be  waited  for.  Joffrion,  Levisee  and  Marks  all  resided  in  the  interior.  Maiks  says  he 
arrived  in  time,  although  there  is  much  confusion  about  his  story.  Joffrion  and  Levisee  did.  not. 
It  became,  therefore,  a  necessity  that  if  the  new  electoral  certificates  were  to  be  of  any  use  the 
names  of  the  absentees  should  be  forged  to  them.  The  resources  of  Kellogg's  administration 
were  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  they  were  forged  (Marks,  La.,  418, 420-6;  Whitaker,  La.,  573;  Doug- 
lass, La.,  574). 

As  these  papers  consisted  of  distinct  lists  of  the  votes  for  President  and  of  the  votes  for  Vice- 
President  separately  certified,  the  signature  of  an  elector  was  required  to  the  set  of  papers  nme 
times— once  to  the  list  of  votes  for  President,  once  to  the  list  of  votes  for  'Vice-President,  and  once 
for  the  indorsement  upon  the  envelope  reciting  what  the  papers  within  were;  and  as  the  papers 
were  prepared  in  triplicate  these  three  si^atures  had  to  be  three  times  repeated,  thus  making  nine 
signatures  for  each  elector,  to  say  nothing  of  tlie  signatures  that  may  have  been  required  ix)  a 
new  authority  to  a  messenger  to  carry  the  electoral  list  to  Washington  if  a  new  authority  was  exe- 
cuted. 

And  so  it  was  that  these  papers  thus  prepared  in  the  State  House  in  New  Orleans,  under  the 
direction  of  Kellogg  and  his  secretary,  were  furnished  in  the  afternoon  of  the  29th  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1876,  with  from  eighteen  to  twenty-seven  forged  signatures. 

DELIVERY  OF    FORGED    CERTIFICATES. 

Two  of  the  forged  electoral  certificates  reached  Washington  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  January, 
1877,  one  by  mail,  the  other  by  Hill  as  messenger.  Upon  his  arrival  Hill  waited  upon  Mr.  Zacha- 
riah  Chandler,  chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Committee,  to  whom  he  brought  a  letter  from 
Kellogg.  He  informed  Chandler  he  had  brought  the  returns,  and  was  then  directed  to  immediately 
deliver  them  to  Mr.  Ferry.    He  reached  Mr.  Ferry's  office  at  the  Capitol  about  four  o'clock.    Hill 

21 


322       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IX    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION, 

informed  Mr.  Ferry  what  he  brought.  Mr.  Ferry  went  out  and  called  in  Mr.  John  Sherman,  and 
then,  in  Mr.  Sht-rman's  presence,  Hill  delivered  his  triplicate  of  the  forged  certificate  to  Ferry. 
Hill  then  went  with  Mr.  Sherman  to  his  committee-room,  where  Sherman  wrote  a  letter  to  Kellogg, 
which  he  delivered,  sealed,  to  Hill  to  take  back.  Hill  then  waited  upon  Mr.  Frye  and  Mr.  Hale,  to 
"Whom  he  brought  letters  from  Mr.  Packard,  and  told  them  he  had  brought  the  returns,  and  then 
Mr.  Frye  told  him  to  "  hold  the  fort,"  and  Mr.  Hale  "  to  stand  firm  "  (Ferry,  140:  Hill,  La.,  53; 
Hill,  La.,  567). 

ATTEMPT  TO  SUPPRESS    GENUINE    CERTIFICATES, 

The  first  intention  of  the  parties  was  to  suppress  the  genuine  certificates  of  the  6th  of  Decern. 
her,  and  rely  entirely  upon  the  forged  ones,  which  were  regular  in  form.  Clarke  accordingly  sup- 
pressed and  retained  the  certificate  which  Anderson  had  taken  to  Washington,  and  an  application 
was  made  to  the  district  judge  to  withdraw  from  the  files  the  triplicate  of  the  genuine  set  which  ' 
had  been  filed  in  his  office,  but  this  the  district  judge  refused  to  permit,  and  the  purpose  in  this  re- 
spect was  thereby  defeated.  Not  only  did  neither  the  press  nor  any  of  the  Democratic  leaders  learn 
that  a  second  meeting  of  the  Electoral  College  was  to  beheld,  or  that  the  electoral  certificate  intrust- 
ed to  Anderson  had  been  returned  to  New  Orleans,  or  that  new  ones  were  made,  but  the  matter  was, 
as  Brewster  styles  it,  "kept  rather  private;"  so  private  that,  although  he  was  repeatedly  sent  for 
during  the  29th  to  come  to  the  governor's  office,  it  was  not  even  hinted  to  him  why  his  presence 
was  needed  until  he  learned  the  reason  from  Clarke  there.  And  the  president  of  the  Senate,  Mr. 
Ferry,  appears  to  have  as  carefully  withheld  from  the  Democrats  in  Washington,  and  indeed  from 
everybody  but  two  of  the  Republican  managers,  any  knowledge  that  another  set  of  certificates  had 
been  received  from  Louisiana  (Clarke,  266;  Devonshire,  La.,  61;  Brewster,  252;  Ferry,  147;  Tuck- 
er; IJunton). 

THE  BURLESQUE  CERTIFICATE  AND  ITS   OBJECT. 

When  the  two  houses  met  in  joint  convention  on  the  12th  of  February,  1876,  and  the  state  of 
Louisiana  was  reached,  the  president  of  the  Senate  produced  first  the  genuine  Kellogg  certificate, 
which  had  come  to  him  by  mail;  next  the  McEnery  certificate,which  had  come  to  him  in  duplicate, 
one  copy  by  mail  and  the  other  by  messenger;  and  next  the  forged  Kellogg  certificate,  of  which 
two  copies,  one  by  mail  and  the  other  by  Hill  as  messenger,  had  reached  him;  and  finally  a  certifi- 
cate signed  by  John  Smith,  declaring  that  the  vote  of  Louisiana  had  been  cast  for  Peter  Cooper. 
This  bogus  certificate  the  convention  directed  to  be  suppressed  from  its  records,  and  no  reference 
to  it  appears  there.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  why,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  govern- 
ment, a  false,  an  avowedly  false  certificate  should  have  been  sent  in,  in  a  case  of  all  others  so  seri- 
ous, and  regarded  so  extremely  unfit  for  pleasantry,  unless  it  was  to  draw  attention  from  the 
forged  Kellogg  certificates,  and  to  create  a  diversion  which  might  withdraw  from  those  certificates 
the  scrutiny  of  the  convention,  and  to  create  a  certificate  to  which  any  rumors  of  a  forgery  in 
the  electoral  certificates  from  that  state  might  naturally  be  ascribed.  This  suspicion  is  strength- 
ened by  the  fact  that  this  certificate  cannot  now  be  found,  nor  is  any  account  given  of  what  be- 
came of  it,  after  it  was  returned  by  the  tellers.  It  appears  by  the  record  kept  of  such  certificates 
that  it  reached  the  president  of  the  Senate  on  the  9th  of  January,  1877,  six  days  after  the  delivery 
of  the  forged  Louisiana  certificates,  time  enough  after  that  certificate  was  received  to  have  tele- 
graphed to  Louisiana  to  have  this  burlesque  paper  prepared  (Electoral  Count,  205,  212:  Moses, 
1160-1;  Ingalls;  Allison). 

THE  FRAUD  ON  THE  ELECTORAL  COMMISSION, 

All  the  certificates,  except  that  ofiSmith,  were  sent  before  the  Electoral  Commission.  There 
they  were  not  read,  but  as  the  reading  was  about  to  begin,  a  motion  was  made  that  they  be  printed, 
and  the  secretary  of  the  commission  was  thereupon  directed  lo  have  them  printed.  It  had  been  the 
practice  of  the  secretary  to  send  the  original  certificates  to  the  public  printer  to  be  printed,  by 
whitm  the  certificates  and  printed  copies  were  returned  the  following  morning;  and  the  printed 
copies  were  then  distributed  by  the  secretary  or  his  deputy  to  the  commission  and  the  counsel. 
On  this  occasion,  however,  and  on  this  occasion  only,  the  certificates,  instead  of  being  sent  to  the 

fmblic  printer,  were  sent  to  a  private  printer,  Mr.  Pearson,  who,  instead  of  returning  them  the  fol- 
owing  morning  to  Mr.  McKenney,  the  secretary,  to  be  distributed,  distributed  them  directly  to  the 
commission  and  the  counsel  by  two  of  his  press  boys.  This  change  cf  the  printer  and  in  the  de- 
livery of  the  prints  of  the  certificates  neither  the  commission  nor  the  counsel  seem  to  have  been 
aware  of  (Electoral  Count,  218;  McKenney,  118,  121;  Pearson,  567,  5<i8). 

Inasmuch  as  no  notice  was  taken  by  the  many  counsel  before  the  commission,  nor  by  those  in 
conference  with  them,  nor  by  any  of  the  members  of  the  commission,  nor  by  any  of  the  two  hun- 
dred Democratic  members  of  the  House  and  Senate,  who.-e  attention  had  been  concentrated  upon 
Louisiana,  of  the  fact  that  the  first  electoral  certificate  from  that  state  was  so  defective,  the  pre- 
sumption would  seem  to  be  inevitable  that  the  prints  of  the  Louisiana- Kellogg  certificates,  which 
were  distributed,  must  have  been,  not  one  copy  each  of  the  original  defective  certificate,  and  of 
the  revised  certificate  with  forged  signatures,  but,  instead,  two  copies  of  the  latter  (Electoral  Count, 
212-16). 

Such  a  substitution  of  the  one  print  for  the  other  might  have  happened  by  accident.  But  the 
attendant  circumstances  indicate  that  this  change  in  the  distribution  of  the  prints  was  the  result, 
not  of  accident,  but  of  design. 

The  originals  of  the  Louisiana  certificates  had  been  marked  by  the  presiding  judge  with  his  in- 
itials, and  with  a  number  to  distinguish  them.  That  is,  the  first  certificate  of  the  Kellogg  electors 
was  marked  "  No.  1,  N.  C.;"  the  next,  or  Democratic  certificate,  was  marked  "  No.  2,  N.  C,"  and 
the  forged  certificate  was  marked  "  No.  3,  N.  C."  But  as  printed,  these  distinguishing  marks  were 
omitted,  and  the  prints  were  without  any  distinguishing  marks,  and  the  prints  of  the  two  Kellogg 
certificates  w^ere  made  exactly  alike  in  external  appearance,  and  their  first  pages  (which  contained 
the  certificate  of  the  governor  as  to  who  were  the  electors)  were  so  set  up  as  to  be  precisely  alike,  both 
in  matter  and  in  form,  so  that  they  might  easily  be  mistaken  one  for  the  other,  and  that  if  the  de- 
livery of  two  copies  of  the  forged  but  revised  certificate,  instead  of  one  copy  of  that  and  one  of  the 
prior  genuine  but  defective  certificate  should  be  discovered,  the  change  could  easily  be  accounted 
for  as  an  accident. 

Mr.  Murphy,  the  stenographer  of  the  Electoral  Commission,  tells  us  that  Ve  caused  the  printed 


ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION.       323 

copies  of  the  Louisiana  electoral  certificates  to  be  marked  '"l  Z'  "2"  and  "3,"  but  beyond  taking 
care  that  Nos.  "1"  and  ''3"  had  Kellogg  certificates  as  governor  attached,  he  gave  them  no 
examination,  so  that  he  might  as  readilj' Yiave  marked  two  prints  of  No.  "3"  as  prints  of  Nos.  "1" 
and  "3"  with  those  numbers  (Murphy  1141). 

Besides,  if  the  substitution  in  tlie  delivery  of  one  printed  copy  for  the  other  had  been  by  accident, 
some  one  of  the  commission,  at  least,  would  have  received  a  print  of  the  first  Kellogg  certificate, 
or  have  been  left  without  a  print  of  the  McEnery  certificates,  and  this  would  havd  led  to  remark. 

Beyond  this  it  is  to  be  observed  that  while  Kellogg  knew  of  the  forgery,  and  took  great  care  to 
prevent  the  fact  getting  out,  he  yet  let  the  Republican  managers  know  that  there  was  something 
wrong  about  the  second  set  of  certificates;  and  as  there  was  nothing  wrong  on  their  face  that  wrong 
must  nave  been  in  their  execution.  He  says  he  told  Morton  that  the  second  set  was  made  after  the 
law  day,  and  must  not  bo  depended  upon,  and  that  the  first  set  was  all  right,  and  to  stand  on  that. 
But  the  "  leading  friends  in  Washington,"  who  had  declared  on  the  25th  of  December  that  the  cer- 
tificates first  made  on  the  law  day  were  defective,  and  that  separate  ones  must  be  prepared,  knew, 
as  soon  as  they  saw  the  second  set,  that  they  were  antedated.  Kellogg's  statement  could  not, 
therefore,  have  been  meant  to  give  Morton  that  information.  But  in  whatever  form  given,  whether 
by  a  word,  a  shrug,  a  look,  or  an  infl<;ction  of  the  voice,  even  if  Kellogg  went  no  further,  it  would 
have  served  to  give  that  astute  manager  to  understand  that  while  the  new  certificates  were  impor- 
tant for  the  commission  to  consider,  it  would  never  do  to  let  them  stand  in  the  record,  nor  leave  it 
to  be  thereafter  discovered  that  the  Presidential  election  depended  upon  them  (Kellogg,  710-11). 

THE  FALSIFICATION  OF  THE  RECORD. 

Accordingly,  before  the  Electoral  Commission,  Mr.  Morton  moved  that  the  votes  in  certificate 
No.  1  (the  objections  to  which,  it  will  be  observed,  stated  nothing  as  against  the  form  of  that  certi- 
ficate, and  were  doubtless  drawn  to  apply  to  No.  3,  and  not  to  it),  be  counted,  and  limited  his  mo- 
tion to  certificate  No.  1.  And  when,  later,  the  record  of  the  proceedings  in  Congress  and  before 
the  Electoral  Commission  came  to  be  made  up,  this  formally  correct  but  forged  certificate  was,  in 
fact,  wholly  suppressed,  while  a  second  copy  of  the  genuine  but  defective  certificate  was  inserted  in 
its  place.  That  is,  the  record  declares  that  there  was  before  the  Congress,  and  by  it  referred  to  the 
commission,  and  there  considered,  the  Democratic  certificate  and  the  genuine  but  defective  cer- 
tificate of  the  Republican  electors,  and  no  others,  the  latter  in  duplicate,  once  by  the  name  of  No.  1, 
and  later  by  the  name  of  No.  3.  Whereas,  it  is  altogether  certain  that  this  was  not  the  fact,  and 
altogetoer  probable  that  the  prints  which  were  before  the  Electoral  Commission  were  a  print  of  the 
Democratic  certificate  and  two  prints  of  the  forged  Republican  certificate,  and  of  these  alone,  and 
that  nothing  whatever  was  considered  or  acted  upon  by  the  commission  or  Congress  but  these, 
and  that,  instead  of  it  being  the  fact,  as  these  records  state,  that  Congress  and  the  commission 
had  before  them  two  prints  of  the  genuine  but  defective,  and  no  other  Republican  certificate,  there 
Avas  before  them,  and  really  considered  by  them,  only  two  prints  of  ihe  regular  but  forged— and  of 
no  other  Republican — certificate,  and  that  neither  Congress  nor  the  commission  ever  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  or  did  consider  the  defects  of  the  genuine  certificate  at  all  (Electoral  Count,  420:  Electoral 
Count,  205-7,208-11;  Pro.  Electoral  Com.,  292). 
* 

NOT  ACCIDENT,   BUT  DESIGN. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  explain  this  error  in  the  record,  on  the  ground  that  the  printed  copies 
of  the  certificates  had  become  accidentally  intermixed.  Mr.  McKenney  says  that  when  Mr.  Mur- 
phy, the  compiler  of  the  volume  known  as  "The  Electoral  Count,"  and  stenographer  of  the  com- 
mission, applied  to  him  for  copies  of  the  Louisiana  certificates,  he  took  from  each  of  the  three 
pockets  in  which  he  had  received  the  prints  of  these  Republican  certificates  from  the  printer  one 
print,  and  gave  them  to  Mr.  Murphy;  and  that  when,  the  following  year,  he  learned  that  a  mistake 
had  occurred,  he  went  to  these  pockets  and  found  that  the  certificates  had  become  intermixed, 
different  ones  having  gotten  into  the  same  pocket.  Such  a  mistake  might  have  happened  accident- 
ally once,  although  m  setting  up  the  type  from  such  copies  it  would  be  almost  unavoidable  that 
attention  should  then  have  been  called  to  it;  but,  unfortunately  for  the  theory  of  mistake,  there  were 
two  separate  reports  of  the  electoral  proceedings  printed:  one,  this  book  of  '*  The  Electoral  Count," 
and  the  other  the  "Supplement  to  the  Congressional  Record,"  which  was  first  prepared.  Mr. 
McKenney  made  up  the  matter  himself.  Mr.  Murphy  did  notice,  in  making  up  the  matter  for  the 
Electoral  Count,  that  the  two  Kellogg  certificates,  "  1"  and  "  3,"  were  identical,  and  he  took  this  as 
evidence  of  the  correctness  of  the  printer,  supposing  "  1 "  and  "3  "  to  be  duplicates  of  the  same 
certificate.  In  both  books  precisely  the  same  error  occurs,  and  in  both  the  revised  but  forged  Louis- 
iana Kellogg  certificate  is  suppressed  .  The  chances  against  this  having  occurred  once  by  accident 
would  be  six  to  one;  against  its  having  occurred  twice,  thirty-six  to  one;  quite  independent  of  the 
additional  improbability  arising  from  such  a  mistake  not  having  been  noticed  in  the  office  of  the 
public  printer  on  either  occasion,  and  having  been  discovered  only  after  the  forgery  was  known  and 
this  examination  was  instituted. 

Whether  the  genuine  electoral  certificate  from  Louisiana  was  so  fatally  defective  that  its  vote 
could  not  have  been  received,  or  not,  the  parties  in  interest  were  entitled  to  the  judgment  of  the 
commission  upon  this,  and  that  judgment  they  never  had.  Instead,  the  certificate  which  was  passed 
upon  of  the  votes  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler  from  Louisiana  was  a  certificate  made  after  the  law  day 
when  the  electors  were  functi  officiis,  and  therefore  of  no  validity.  But  were  this  otherwise,  it  was 
still  a  forged  certificate ;  whether  of  two  or  more  electors  is  immaterial.  As  to  two  electors,  at 
least,  there  never  was  before  the  commission  for  consideration  any  vote  from  Louisiana  at  all. 
So  that,  absolutely,  Mr.  Hayes  was  counted  into  office  at  most  upon  183  votes,  and  the  declaration 
of  his  election  is  the  result  of  this  imposition  upon  the  commission  and  Congress,  or,  at  h-ast,  upon 
those  members  who  were  not  informed  upon  the  subject  of  the  two  forged  votes  attached  to  a  list 
perfect  in  form. 

THE  FORGERY  KEPT  SECRET. 
So  entirely  secret  was  not  only  the  forgery  but  the  post  execution  of  the  second  set  of  electoral 
certificates  kept,  that  except  to  certain  Republicans  nothing  was  known  of  it  until  more  than  a  year 
after  the  session.  By  accident  the  forgery  of  Levisee's  name  became  known,  and  in  the  inquiry  which 
followed  we  have  only  been  able  to  learn  what  could  be  obtained  from  persons  connected  in  some 
way  with  the  forged  certificates  and  open  to  suspicion  of  participation  in  or  knowledge  of  that 
fraud. 


324       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN   THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

Of  these  persons  Kellogg  became  Senator  of  the  United  States,  Burch  remained  Senator  of 
Louisiana,  Brewster  surveyor-general,  and  Joseph  captain  of  police  ;  Conquest  Clarke  became 
first-class  clerk  in  the  Treasury  Department,  Hiil  storekeeper,  and  Anderson  collector.  And  after 
this  inquiry  \\  as  begun,  and  tlie  forgery  became  known,  of  the  remaining  persons  naturally  sus- 
pected of  some  connection  with  it,  Marks  was  made  collector  of  iuternal  revenue,  Levisee  special 
treasury  agent,  and  Sheldon  counsel  for  Mr.  Sherman.  It  is  also  signilicant  that  Howard, 
McKenner's  deputy,  was  appointed  to  a  place  in  the  Post-Office  Department  on  Senator  Morton's 
recommendation.  So  long  as  Kelly  kept  silence  no  provision  was  made  for  him,  but  so  soon  as  it 
was  known  that  his  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Hayes'  action  had  made  him  speak,  he  was  convoyed 
to  Was^hington  by  a  Senate  employee  and  cared  for  by  friends  unknown  to  the  committee  until  he 
could  testify  that  the  forgeries  were  committed  by  a  man  who  was  dead  (Kelly,  La.,  568). 

Levisee's  appointment  was  especially  significant.  Having,  like  Joflfrion,  been  absent,  he  neither 
joined  in  nor  knew  of  the  second  set  of  certificates  or  their  forgery,  and  so  had  no  claim  to  a  place. 
But  when,  after  the  forgery  became  known,  Kellogg  denied  that  he  had  informed  Levisee  of  the 
forgery  during  the  sitting  of  the  commission,  and  enjoined  him  not  to  speak  of  it,  and  Levisee  was 
sent  for  to  testify  as  to  that,  he  failed  to  appear  ;  and  it  turned  out  that  he  had  in  the  meantime 
been  appointed  special  agent  of  the  treasury  by  Kellogg's  procurement,  and  your  committee  have 
not  since  been  able  to  secure  his  attendance  (Kellogg,  711,  679-85  ;  P.  1468  ;  P.  785). 

KELLOGG  AND  CLARKE  PRIVY  TO  THE  FORGERIES. 

Of  course  these  signatures  did  not  forge  themselves  ;  nor  would  any  person  have  committed  so 
grave  a  crime,  except  under  some  strong  inducement,  There  was  nothing  in  the  position  either  of 
Kelly,  the  negro  doorkeeper,  or  of  Blanchard,  the  executive  clerk— the  subordinates  charged  with 
this  crime— to  induce  them  of  their  own  volition,  without  the  knowledge  or  request  of  Kellogg, 
to  stand  for  and  forge  the  names  of  the  absent  electors.  It  is,  besides,  physically  as  well  as  morally 
impossible  that  these  eighteen  forgeries  could  have  been  committed  without  coming  to  the  notice 
of  Kellogg,  wh  )  ordered  and  joined  in,  and  Clarke,  who  was  charged  with  the  execution  of  the 
papers.  Both  knew  Levisee  and  JofErion  were  absent  :  both  were  necessarily  anxious  about  their 
arrival,  and  neither  could  have  escaped  knowing  of  their  entrance  into  the  State  House,  then  gar- 
risoned. 

Kellogg's  guilty  participation  in  the  execution  of  this  paper,  upon  which,  as  he  testifies,  Ander- 
son told  nim  Ferry  said  the  presidential  election  depended,  is  manifested  throughout— by  his  send- 
ing for  the  electors  privately;  by  his  secret  conference  with  and  direction  to  them  as  they  arrived; 
by'hls  false  declaration  to  Sheldon,  that  Levisee  and  Joff"rion  had  come;  by  his  going  in  the  after- 
noon to  the  private  upper  room,  to  see  if  Brewster  had  arrived  ;  by  his  waiting  there  until  he  did 
arrive,  and  until  the  papers  were  enveloped  and  sealed;  and  by  his  then  taking  the  papers  from 
Clarke,  and  forwarding  them  by  Hill?    (Kellogg,  673.) 

Brewster  was  the  last  >\ho  signed  ;  the  forged  signatures  had  been  supplied  before  he  came.  It 
is  impossible  that  Clarke  might  have  stepped  out  of  the  room  to  allow  Kelly  or  Blanchard,  or  who- 
ever did  forge  them,  to  do  so;  but  it  was  impossible  that  he  could  subsequently  put  up,  or  that 
Kelly  could  see  him  put  up  the  papers  without  seeing  that  the  signatures  of  the  absent  mm  had 
been  supplied.  Equally  impossible  for  Kellogg  to  have  signed  his  name  at  the  last  moment  on  the 
sealed  envelopes  without  noticing  the  forged  signatures  of  the  absentees  just  below  the  place 
where  he  was  signing. 

The  icrnorance  orindifference  asserted  by  the  persons  charged  with  the  execution  ^of  the  ^e  pa- 
pers, and  who  were  bound  to  know,  and  must  have  known  about  these  forgeries,  confirmf  their 
guilt. 

We  are  without  a  reasonable  doubt  that  at  least  eighteen  signatures  to  the  second  set  of  electoral 
certificates  from  the  state  of  Louisiana  were  forged  on  the  afternoon  of  the  29th  of  Deceinber, 
1876,  in  the  State  House  at  New  Orleans,  and  that  William  Pitt  Kellogg,  first  Republican  elecfv^r  at 
large  and  governor  of  the  state,  and  now  a  Senator  of  the  United  States,  and  H.  Conquest  Clarke, 
his  private  secretary,  now  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury  Department,  were  privy  and  accessory  to  such 
forgeries. 

IV. 

DANGER  OF  RETURNING  BOARDS. 

When  the  Democrats  recovered  control  of  Louisiana  they  abolished  the  returning  board,  and  there 
no  longer  exists  in  the  United  States  any  tribunal  having  discretion  to  receive  or  reject  at  pleasure 
the  votes  cast.  No  such  body  ought  ever  again  to  be  permitted.  If  the  wisdom  of  the  fathers  and 
the  experience  of  free  government  have  settled  anything,  it  is  the  necessity  of  keeping  the  functions 
of  judging  and  of  administering  the  laws  separate.  No  tribunal  ought  to  be  clothed  with  such  a  dis- 
cretion ;  no  persons  ought  to  be  intrusted  with  absolute  powers  upon  the  exercise  of  which  the  suc- 
cess of  their  own  party  and  their  own  power  and  that  of  their  friends  depend.  Such  discretion 
cannot  fail  to  be  debased  and  abused,  and  the  abuses  will  be  greater  as  the  temptation  is  greater 
and  as  the  irresponsibility  of  the  oftlcials  increases.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  free  government  where 
the  people  are  not  permitted  to  choose,  or  where  their  choice  is  ignored  or  disregarded  by  the  cus- 
todians of  the  people's  power. 

AND  OF  FEDERAL   INTERFERENCE. 

Nor  can  the  danger  of  interfering  in  local  election  by  Federal  troops,  whether  to  protect  officials 
in  the  exercise  of  discretion  or  to  coerce  citizens  or  to  aid  voters,  be  overrated.  If  an  election  can- 
not bo  conducted  without  foreign  troops  to  protect  the  men  who  vote  and  the  men  who  count,  there 
should  be  no  election.  Military  used  to  protect  those  who  count  and  those  who  vote,  will  prove  to 
be  military  used  to  put  down  liberty  under  the  guise  of  protecting  it,  and  to  be  the  more  dangerous 
because  of  its  disguise. 

AND  FROM  FEDERAL  PATRONAGE. 

But  behind  all  these  dangers  remains  the  fundamental  danger  resulting  from  the  centralization 
of  all  appointments  to  office  in  the  President.    In  no  government  in  the  world  is  so  vast  a  patronage 


ELECTORAL    FKAUDS    IX    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTIOX.       325 

dependent  on  the  absolute  control  of  a  changing  Executive.  If  the  Executive  were  permanent ;  if 
the  patronage  were  distributed;  or  if  the  tenure  of  office  were  in  any  way  fixed  by  law,  the  evil 
■would  be  lessened.  But  now  at  the  end  of  each  four  years  the  entire  Federal  patronage— amounting 
to  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  offices— is  collected  in  one  lot,  and  the  people  divide  themselves 
into  two  parties,  struggling,  in  name  to  choose  a  President,  but  in  fact  to  control  this  enormous 
patronage,  which  the  President  when  elected  is  compelled  to  distribute  to  his  party,  because  he  was 
elected  to  so  distribute  it. 

The  temptation  to  fraud,  to  usurpation,  and  to  corruption  thus  created,  is  beyond  calculation.  A 
prize  so  great,  an  influence  so  powerful,  thus  centralized  and  put  up  for  contest  at  short  recurring 
periods  would  jeopard  the  peace  and  s  jfety  of  any  nation. 

The  election  of  a  President  would  never  lead  to  the  effort  and  struggle  and  bitterness  with  which 
it  is  now  attended,  nor  be  followed  by  any  question  as  to  who  was  really  the  choice  of  the  people, 
nor  be  the  subject  of  any  attempt  to  defeat  their  will,  but  for  the  offices  within  his  gift. 

No  nation  can  withstand  a  strife  among  its  own  people  so  general,  so  intense,  and  so  demoraliz- 
ing. No  contrivance  so  effectual  to  embarrass  government,  to  disturb  the  public  peace,  to  destroy 
political  honesty,  and  to  endanger  the  common  security"  was  ever  before  invented.  Its  existence  in 
this  nation  was  not  designed,  but  was  the  result  of  a  national  growth  and  centralization,  which  the 
fathers  could  not  foresee,  and  failed  therefore  to  provide  against.  Every  jirinciple  upon  which  they 
founded  government,  every  practice  which  they  inculcated,  demand  of  us  in  some  way  to  break  up 
this  system,  and  by  removing  the  evils  remove  also  the  dangers  with  which  it  threatens  us. 

RECAPITULATION. 

To  recapitulate  then  : 

First.  The  power  to  appoint  electors  of  President  and  Vice-President  for  the  state  of  Louisiana 
was  legally  and  constitutionally  vested  in  the  people  thereof. 

Second.  This  power  was  duly  executed  in  1876.  On  the  day,  in  the  manner,  and  at  the  places 
prescribed  by  law,  the  ballots  of  the  people  were  taken  and  counted  ;  showing  a  clear  majority  of 
seven  thousand  for  the  Tilden  electors  in  Louisiana. 

Third.  This  majority  Avas  wholly  made  up  of  voters,  legally  qualified  ;  their  right  to  vote  being 
subjected  to  the  scrutiny  of  hostile  registrars  and  commissioners,  appointed  by  their  enemies  for 
every  polling  place. 

Fourth.  The  election  was  free  and  peaceable.  There  is  no  proof  or  pretense  that  intimidation 
was  practiced  on  the  day  of  election. 

Fifth.  Nor  were  the  people  prevented  by  intimidation,  or  any  cau«e,  from  assembling  at  the 
polls.  All  allegations  to  the  contrary  are  effectually  disproved  by  the  undisputed  fact  that  the  vote 
was  larger  in  proportion  to  the  population  than  at  any  previous  election  ever  held  in  the  state- 
larger  than  in  most  of  the  other  states  where  elections  were  held  the  same  day,  and  where  every 
exertion  was  made  to  bring  out  the  last  man. 

Sixth.  The  Tilden  electors  were  thus  "  duly  appointed  "  by  the  people  who  alone  had  the  right 
and  power  to  appoint.  This  thing  was  not  done  in  a  corner  ;  it  was  seen  and  known  of  all  men. 
The  act  of  appointment  was  immediately  placed  on  the  public  records  of  the  several  parishes.  This 
fact  is  as  indisputable  as  any  other  in  history. 

Seventh.  The  legal,  just  and  constitutional  effect  of  this  appointment  upon  the  presidential 
election  cotdd  be  avoided  only  by  falsifying  the  act  of  the  people;  that  is  to  say,  by  altering  the 
election  returns  in  such  manner  as  to  make  them  appear  like  an  appointment  of  other  persons 
instead  of  those  who  in  truth  and  in  fact  were  appointed.  This  was  the  crime  hy  which  the  authority 
and  will  of  the  people  were  defeated  in  the  case  under  consideration.  A  crime— considering  the 
extent  of  the  corrupt  combination  required  to  carry  it  through,  the  vast  chain-work  of  frauds,  fiilse 
pretenses  and  perjuries  connecting  it  together,  and  the  magnitude  of  the  rights  prejudiced  by  it— 
of  the  highest  magnitude. 

Eighth.  The  agents  of  the  Republican  party  sent  into  the  state  to  get  its  electoral  vote  for  Mr. 
Hayes,  were  among  the  ablest  and  most  conspicuous  men  in  their  organization  ;  they  were  desig- 
nated for  this  service  by  the  then  President,  and  many  of  them  were  known  as  the  intimate  friends 
of  his  successor.  These  men,  notwithstanding  that  the  Tilden  electors  had  been  fairly,  peaceably 
and  legally  chosen  by  a  large  majority  of  the  people  at  a  full  poll,  encouraged,  by  their  presence, 
the  fraud,  falsehood  and  crime  by  which  the  vote  was  used  to  elect  Mr.  Hayes.  They  affected  to 
believe  that  the  returning  board  had  legal  and  constitutional  power  to  set  aside  the  appointment 
made  by  the  people,  and  make  another  appointment  themselves;  they  pronounced  the  warmest  en- 
comiums on  members  of  the  board  who  bore  characters  notoriously  bad;  and  they  distinctly  re- 
fused to  unite  with  the  Democrats  in  an  effort  to  have  an  honest  count  made  of  the  votes  actually 
cast  and  legally  returned  by  the  proper  officers  of  the  election. 

Ninth.  No  direct  evidence  has  revealed  what  bargain  was  made  in  words  or  in  writing  with  mem- 
bers of  ihe  so-called  returning  board  ;  but  we  cannot  doubt  that  they  did  their  corrupt  work  with 
the  understanding  that  they  should  not  only  be  protected  against  public  justice,  but  rewarded  for 
tiuir  villainy.  This  pledge  has  been  kept.  When  Wells  and  Anderson  were  indicted,  Federal 
cliicers  at  Washington  interfered  with  the  administration  of  state  law  at  New  Orleans  ;  and  those 
same  men  and  the  others  who  gave  their  active  assistance  to  the  perpetration  of  the  fraud  have 
been  quartered  on  the  public  treasury,  and  the  people  whom  they  have  defrauded  are  made  to  pay 
them  for  their  crimes. 

Tenth.  All  the  foregoing  propositions  of  fact  apply  nomine  mutato  to  Florida,  as  well  as  to  Loui- 
siana. 

The  majority  in  the  former  state  was  not  so  large  as  in  the  latter,  but  it  was  decisive  and  well  at- 
tested. The  appointment  made  by  the  people  was  frustrated  and  altered  in  a  like  way  under  the 
instiration  of  "  visiting  statesmen  "  of  the  same  class,  and  was  followed  by  similar  reward. 

The  fraud  was  aggravated  in  Florida  because  the  canvassing  board  had  no  power  under  their  stat- 
ute but  that  of  mere  clerks,  and  their  Supreme  Court  had  expressly  so  decided  ;  and  because  all  the 
departments  of  the  state— judicial,  legislative  and  executive— protested  against  their  action  as  not 
only  false,  but  a  mere  usurpation. 

The  necessary  effect  of  a  successful  and  prosperous  falsification  of  the  choice  of  the  people  for 
the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  country,  is  to  tempt  all  those  who  profit  by  the  wrong,  and  those  who 
suffer  by  it,  to  adopt  the  like  corrupt  methods  on  future  occasions. 


326       ELECTORAL    FRAUDS    IN    THE    LATE    PRESIDENTIAL    ELECTION. 

CONCLUSION. 

Finally  we  report : 

First.  That  due  effect  was  not  given  to  the  vote  of  electors  appointed  by  the  state  of  Florida  at 
the  presidential  election  of  1876,  by  reason  of  false  and  fraudulent  returns  for  the  said  electors  by 
the  canvassing  board  of  that  state,  whereby  the  choice  of  the  people  of  that  state  was  annulled  and 
reversed,  and  that  the  action  of  the  board  of  state  canvassers  in  making  the  returns  was  coun- 
tenanced and  encouraged  by,  among  others,  the  Hon.  Edward  F.  Noyes,  who  has  since  been  ap- 
pointed the  minister  for  this  country  to  France. 

Second.  That  due  effect  was  not  given  to  the  vote  of  the  electors  appointed  by  the  state  of 
Louisiana  at  the  presidential  election  of  1876,  by  reason  of  the  false  and  fraudulent  action  of  the 
returning  board  of  that  state,  whereby  the  choice  of  the  people  of  that  state  was  annulled  and  re- 
versed, and  tl.at  the  action  of  the  returning  board  was  countenanced  and  encouraged  by,  among 
others,  the  Hon.  John  Sherman,  who  has  since  been  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Third.  That  a  conspiracy  existed  in  the  state  of  Louisiana,  whereby  the  Republican  vote  in  all 
the  precincts  of  the  parish  of  East  Feliciana  and  in  some  of  the  precincts  of  West  Feliciana  at  tlie 
general  election  in  November,  1876,  was  purposely  withheld  from  the  polls  to  afford  a  pretext  for 
the  exclusion  by  the  returning  board  for  that  state  of  the  votes  cast  in  those  precincts  for  electors 
for  President  and  Vice-President. 

Fourth.  That  the  signatures  of  two  of  the  electors  to  the  second  Republican  certificate  of  the 
electoral  vote  of  the  state  of  Louisiana  returned  to  Congress  and  referred  to  the  Electoral  Com- 
mission were  forged;  and  that  William  Pitt  Kellogg,  then  governor  of  that  state,  and  now  a  Senator 
of  the  United  States,  and  H.  Conqust  Clarke,  his  private  secretary,  now  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury 
Department,  were  privy  to  such  forgery. 

Fifth.  That  Samuel  J.  Tiklen  and  Thomas  A.  Hendricks  were,  and  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  and 
William  A.  Wheeler  were  not,  the  real  choice  or  a  majority  of  the  electors  duly  appointed  by  the 
several  states  and  of  the  persons  who  exercised  and  were  entitled  to  the  right  of  suffrage  at  the  las 
general  election  in  the  United  States. 
All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 

CLARKSON  N.  POTTER. 
WILLIAM  R.  MORRISON. 
EPPA  HUNTON. 
WILLIAM  S.  STENGER. 
JOHN  A.  McMAHON. 
JOSEPH  C.  S.  BLACKBURN. 
WILLIAM  M.  SPRINGER. 


TREASURY    BOOK-KEEPING.  327 


TREASURE   BOOK-KEEPING. 


FORCED  BALANCES. — THE  PUBLIC  DEBT  DOCTORED. — DISBURSEMENTS  INCREASED. 
RECEIPTS  DECREASED. — ERASURES  AND  MUTILATIONS. — PENSION  ACCOUNT 
CROOKEDNESS. — THE  SECRETARY  VIOLATES  THE  LAW. — FICTITIOUS  WARRANTS 
DRAWN. — MILLIONS  UNACCOUNTED  FOR. 

Senator  Henry  G.  Davis  of  West  Virginia,  having  stated  several  times  in  tlie 
Senate  that  the  various  reports  from  the  Treasury  regarding  the  financial  condition 
of  the  government  did  not  agree,  a  committee  of  investigation  was  raised  by  the 
Republican  Senate,  and  continued  by  the  Democratic  Senate,  The  investigation 
fully  sustained  every  statement  that  had  been  made  by  the  Senator,  and  it  is  a 
matter  of  importance  that  as  to  the  facts  in  the  evidence  the  majority  and  minority 
reports  virtually  agree.  The  majority  report  submitted  by  Senator  Davis  makes 
clear  the  fact  of  great  discrepancies  in  the  figures  on  the  books  of  the  department. 

The  system  of 

FORCED  BALANCES 

was  to  increase  the  amounts  of  previous  years  in  the  reports  of  five  and  six  years 
subsequent,  and  thus,  by  the  mere  insertion  of  false  amounts,  make  the  books 
balance.     For  instance : 

In  the  report  of  1870  the  expenditures  for  pensions  are  stated  for 
the  year  1864-65  at $16,347,621  34 

In  the  report  of  1869  the  same  expenditures  in  the  same  year  are 
statedat ..     9,291,610  48 

Showing  an  increase  in  the  report  of  1870  over  the  figures  in  the  re- 
port of  1869  of _ 7,056,010  86 

The  annual  treasury  report  for  1870  gives  the  expenditure  for  pensions  for  that 
year  at  $28,340,302.17,  while  four  years  later  the  annual  report  states  the  expendi- 
tures for  1870  at  $28,402,241.20,  or  $62,039.03  more  than  the  amount  given  in  the 
report  for  the  year  in  which  the  expenditure  was  made.  In  this  manner  the 
treasury  books  and  reports  show  discrepancies  in  the  expenditures  of  nearly  all 
the  departments  of  the  government.  In  the  report  of  1869  the  War  Department 
is  charged  with  $599,298,600  for  the  year  1863.  Two  years  later,  or  in  the  report 
of  1871,  the  War  Department  is  charged  with  over  four  million  dollars  more  for 
the  year  1863  than  it  was  in  the  report  of  1869.  A  discrepancy  of  over  two  mil- 
lion dollars  occurs  in  two  statements  of  the  expenditures  of  the  Indian  Depart- 
ment for  1863.  A  difference  of  fifty-eight  millions  in  the  loan  and  treasury 
notes  for  1863  is  found  between  the  report  for  that  year  and  the  report  of  1870  for 
the  year  1863. 

In  every  instance  the  difference  is  in  the  shape  of  an  increase  in  after  years, 
which  increases  were  found  necessary  to  make  the  books  balance.  While  this  is 
the  fact  regarding  the  disbursements  of  money  the  rule  is  made  to  work  equally 


328  TKEASUKY    BOOK-KEEPING. 

well  in  the  receipts.  Disbursements  are  increased  and  receipts  decreased. 
All  these  facts  are  taken  from  the  official  reports  of  the  Treasury,  and  are  not  the 
result  of  any  computations  other  than  the  simple  comparisons  to  be  seen  at  a  glance 
in  these  reports.     This  is  the  manner  in  which 

THE   revenue   diminishes, 

as  time  gives  it  a  perspective  view. 

Report  for  1866  states  net  revenue  collected  for  1864. $264,626,771  60 

Report  for  1870  states  net  revenue  collected  for  1864 262,742,854  32 

Showing  a  decrease  of 1, 884,417  28 

In  1870  there  was  need  of  a  large  amount  to  make  a  balance,  and  the  annual 
report  for  that  year  displays  the  net  receipts  of  revenue  for  the  year  1865  to  have 
been  over  ten  millions  less  than  the  report  of  1803  gives  the  revenue  for  the  year 
1865.  This  vast  amount  is  totally  unaccounted  for  in  the  books  of  the  Treasurer, 
Register,  and  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  No  explanation  could  be  given 
by  the  witnesses  called,  and  not  a  marginal  note  could  be  found  in  the  books  to 
relieve  the  anxious  searcher  of  the  hole  through  ^vhich  the  ten  millions  disap- 
peared. The  letters  of  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions  of  July  25th,  1876,  for  the 
eleven  years  ending  with  1870  show  the  amounts  paid  during  those  years  for 

ARMY  AND  NAVY  PENSIONS 

to  have  been  $129,391,228.38.  The  Secretary's  finance  report  for  1870,  page  30, 
gives  the  expenditures  for  the  same  purpose  and  same  years  $143,540,493.44,  or 

THIRTEEN  MILLION  FIVE  HUNDRED  AND   FIFTY-FOUR   THOUSAND    FOUR  HUNDRED 

AND  NINETEEN  DOLLARS  AND  EIGHTY-NINE  CENTS  more  than  the  Commissioner  of 
Pensions  reports.  The  Treasurer  says  the  Commissioner  received  $13,554,419.89 
more  than  the  Commissioner  officially  says  he  received. 

There  are  millions  of  dollars  difference  between  the  Secretary,  Treasurer,  and 
Register  as  to  cash  in  the  treasury  at  the  end  of  fiscal  years.  It  is  a  fact  that  the 
statements  of  the  Secretary,  Register,  and  Treasurer  all  differ  widely  at  the  end  of 
fiscal  years  between  1860  and  1870  as  to  cash  in  the  treasury,  interest  paid, 
receipts  and  expenditures,  and  the  amount  of  the  public  debt.  No  explanation  is 
given  by  the  minority  report  or  the  treasury  officials. 

The  annual  reports  of 

THE   PUBLIC   DEBT 

from  1835  to  1869  are,  in  the  year  1871,  practically  thrown  aside.  In  1871  and 
subsequent  years  the  statements  of  the  public  debt  for  these  years  by  some  magical 
power  is  changed,  and  all  the  previous  reports  for  thirty-five  years  are  abandoned, 
or  at  least  sought  to  be  abandoned.  In  some  years,  according  to  the  new  order 
of  things,  there  is  an  increase  and  in  other  years  a  decrease  in  comparison  with 
the  reports  that  were  made  from  year  to  year  during  all  this  time.  The  reports  of 
1869  and  previous  years  show  aggregate  of  the  annual  statements  of  the  public 
debt  at  the  end  of  1869  to  be  $19,973,622,423.71.  But  under  the  new  dispensation 
of  1871,  the  report  for  the  same  years  brings  the  debt  up  to  $20,221,399,098.42,  or 

TWO  HUNDRED  AND  FORTY-SEVEN  MILLION,  SEVEN  HUNDRED  AND  SIXTY-SIX 
THOUSAND   SIX  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-FOUR  DOLLARS   AND    SEVENTY-ONE  CENTS 

more  than  it  had  been  reported.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  during  the  years  1867 
and  1868,  preceding  Grant's  election,  the  first  time  the  new  report  shows  a  decrease 
in  the  public  debt,  but  in  the  j-ears  1809  and  1870  the  debt  suddenly  increased 
$193,000,000.  The  examination  of  these  debt  statements  shows  how  regularly  they 
were 


TUKASUKY    UOOK-KEEIMNG. 


329 


MANIPULATED   ABOUT  ELECTION  TIMES. 

After  tlie  election  the  debt,  as  in  1869  and  1870,  is  forced  up  to  cover  the 
forcing  down  process  that  preceded  the  election.  But  there  is  no  such  covering 
up  process  to  account  for  the  marvelous  and  sudden  increase  of  over  two  hundred 
and  forty-seven  millions  in  the  year  1871.  A  new  table  of  expenditures  in  the 
report  of  1871  is  also  brought  into  service,  and  past  reports  discarded  • 

Increase  of  expenditures  in  report  of  1871  as  compared  with  report  of  1869. 


Year. 

Military 
service. 

Pension!?. 

Indians. 

Na^nl  fotab- 
libuUieat. 

Total 

1860 

$2,000,000  00 

1                             1 

]86-^ 

$104,546  10 

2,1)75,706  35 

91,678  17 

92.395  81 

48,664  76 

1863 

4,015,810  99 



$50,130  04 

1864 

$5,840  73 

7,056.010  86 

197  53 

18'>5 

49,657  95 

1866 

■ 

Total.... 

Increase: 

Military  serv 
Pensions  . . 

$6,015,810  99 
ice 

$7,061,949  12 

$2,412,991  19 

'        $99,787  99 



$6,015,810  99 
7.0Q1,949  12 
2,412,991  19 

99,787  99 

Indians 
Maval  establ 

Total. 


I $15,590,539  29 


ERASURES  AND   MUTILATIONS. 

To  make  the  new  statements  which  began  with  the  report  for  1871  consist  with 
books  of  former  years,  the  books  of  former  years  were  scratched  and  made  almost 
a  new  set. 

On  the  question  of  alteration,  changes,  and  erasures  of  the  Treasury  books, 
William  Woodville  testified  : 

Q,.  Did  you  find  upon  those  bo-^ks  alterations  or  errors  or  erasures  in  figures  ? 

A.  Yes,  sir;  I  found  alterations,  scratches,  canceled  warrants. 

Q.  To  what  extent? 

A.  In  the  Treasurer's  books  from  1860  to  1867,  inclusive,  the  alterations,  scratches  and  canceled 
warrants  amounted  to  about  twelve  hundred  in  round  numbers. 

Q,.  Twelve  hundred  different  alterations  ? 

A.  Alterations,  scratches,  and  canceled  warrants,  anything  like  a  change  from  the  original 
amount. 

Q.  Just  explain  generally  what  you  found  upon  the  books  in  regard  to  erasures  or  alterations  of 
fig'ures  ? 

A.  Amounts  scratched  and  new  figures  substituted. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  that  the  testimony  shows  on  the  Treasury  books 
between  1860  and  1867  in  round  numbers  twelve  hundred  alterations,  changes, 
erasures,  etc. ,  affecting  amounts  ranging  from  a  few  dollars  to  many  millions. 
Mr.  Saville,  former  chief  clerk  of  Treasury  Department,  answered  : 

Q.  Do  you  think  it  would  be  good  book-keeping  to  carry  erasures  into  the  ledger  ?  Of  onur.se  a 
ledger  is  made  up  from  the  day-books  and  journals,  and  do  you  think  it  would  be  good  book  keeping 
to  make  "lots  "  of  erasures  and  alterations^,  as  you  expressed  it,  iu  the  ledgers  ? 

A.  1  should  not  call  it  good  book-keeping.   I  would  not  employ  a  book-keeper  who  did  much  of  it^ 

On  the  same  point  let  us  read  from  Mr.  Gentry's  testimony,  page  174  : 

John  W.  Gentry  sworn  and  examined. 

By  the  Chairman :  Q.  Have  you  made  a  careful  examination  of  certain  ledgers  of  the  Register 
and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ? 

A.  I  have. 

Q.  You  selected  one  of  the  number  that  you  have  examined  as  an  example  of  all  that  you 
examined  ? 

A.  I  did  of  those  mentioned  in  this  statement. 

Q.  Is  the  statement  before  you  the  statement  you  wish  now  to  offer  as  being  a  correct  statement 
of  the  erasures  and  apparent  alterations  on  the  books  you  examined  ? 

A.  It  is. 

He  had  examined  nine  ledgers  ;  three  from  the  Register's  office  and  six  from  the 


330  TREASURY    BOOK-KEEPING. 

office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  In  all  he  found  2,527  erasures  and  appar- 
ent alterations,  and  these  changes  involved  amounts  ranging  up  to  twenty  million 
dollars.  These  books  are  the  great  ledgers  of  the  Treasury  Department,  The 
erasures  in  the  day  books  and  journals  were  so  numerous  that  they  were  not  com- 
puted. Major  Power,  the  chief  clerk,  testifies  that  no  scratcli  should  appear  on 
the  ledgers.  Mr.  Saville,  another  clerk  at  the  head  of  a  Bureau,  says  he  would  not 
etain  a  book-keeper  who  made  changes  on  the  ledgers.  Yet  there  are  thousands 
on  the  books,  and  no  one  can  tell  who  made  them  or  why. 
On  the  subject  of 

LEAVES  CUT   OUT 

of  the  books,  William  AVoodville  says  : 

Q.  Do'3'ou  know  of  an}'^  leaves  being  entirely  out  of  the  books,  that  appeared  to  have  been  cut  out? 
A.  Yes,  sir.    In  the  beginning  of  the  v^ar  some  of  the  Treasurer's  accounts  are  that  wav,  abaut 
1801  and  1862. 
Q,  In  how  many  instances  ? 
A.  Two— four  leaves  in  one  case,  and.  five  in  the  other.    I  can  produce  the  books  if  you  wish. 

This  shows  that  not  only  changes,  etc.,  in  amounts  have  been  made,  but  that 
entire  leaves  are  out  of  books  and  cannot  be  accounted  for — no  one  can  tell  what 
amounts  they  affected,  why  the  leaves  were  cut  out,  or  what  became  of  them — it 
has  not  been  explained. 

The  minority  report  admits  the  above  and  says  : 

Numerous  alterations  and  erasures  upon  the  books  of  the  Secretary,  Treasurer,  and  Registerwere 
discovered,  and  in  some  imstances  entire  leaves  were  found  to  be  cut  or  torn  from  some  of  the  books. 

Major  Power  testifies  that  to  examine  the  debt  statement  carefully  to  find  errors,. 

if  any,  for  a  year  during  the  late  war,  would  require  four  or  five  clerks  a  year.     On 

the  same  page  we  find  the  following  : 

Q.  Going  into  the  warrants  and  transactions  of  the  government  to  show  whether  or  not  there 
were  errors  in  the  accounts  ? 

A.  To  not  go  beyond  the  stated  accounts  as  stated  and  certified  by  the  Comptrollers,  it  would  not 
be  a  task  of  much  difficulty.    It  would  take  four  or  five  years. 

Q,  For  how  many  clerks  ? 

A.  With  a  corps  of  seven  or  eight  clerks. 

Thus  it  appears  that  this  experienced  officer  of  the  Treasury  Department  testi- 
fies that  it  would  take  seven  or  eight  clerks  four  or  five  years  to  examine  carefully 
the  accounts  of  the  government  between  1860  and  1870.  Notwithstanding  this  th^ 
testimony  is  that  a  new  and  inexperienced  clerk  examined  the  books  from  1833  to 
1870  in  four  or  five  months,  and  upon  that  examination  wholesale  changes  were 
made.  Mr.  Bayley,  a  clerk  in  Treasury  Department,  testified  that  he  was  a  new 
clerk,  and  the  first  work  he  did  in  the  department  was  to  make  up  statements. 

THE  SECRETARY  VIOLATES  THE  LAW. 

In  chapter  6,  section  313  of  the  Revised  Statutes  it  is  provided  that  the  Register 
of  the  Treasury  shall  be  the  official  book-keeper  of  the  Treasury  Department.  The 
testimony  taken  by  the  committee,  which  was  altogether  that  of  treasury  officials, 
was  all  to  the  effect  that  sixty  days  was  enough  time  to  close  and  correctly  state 
all  accounts,  yet  many  alterations  have  been  made  after  accounts  had  not  only  been 
closed,  but  had  years  before  been  reported  to  Congress.  lu  1871  the  books  of  the 
department  were  the  most  subjected  to  forced  entries  and  balances.  The  Register 
of  the  Treasury  was  the  official  book-keeper  yet  in  1871  the  public  debt  was 
increased  a  quarter  of  a  million  and  the  official  book-keeper  was  compelled  to  yield 
his  official  statement  of  the  debt.     Here  is  how  it  was  done  : 

Register  Scofleld,  on  page  5  of  the  testimony,  was  asked  the  following  questions, 
to  which  he  gave  the  answers  stated  : 

Q.    You  Hpeak  of  an  order  from  the  Secretary  to  the  then  Register,  who  I  believe  was  Mr,  Allison, 


TREASURY    BOOK-KEEPING.  331 

to  make  the  changes  you  have  referred  to  in  this  debt  statement.  Will  you  give  the  committee- 
that  order  ?    A.  Yes,  sir;  this  is  the  original  order,  and  I  will  hand  you  a  copy. 

Q.  Read  us  the  original.    A.  I  will. 

"  Treasury  Department,  November  24,  1871. 

"  Sir-  I  have  to  request  that  the  statement  of  the  public  debt  on  the  Ist  day  of  January  in  each 
of  the  years  from  1791  to  1842,  inclusive,  and  at  various  dates  in  subsequent  years,  to  July  1,  1870, 
as  printed  on  page  276  of  the  finance  report  for  1870,  may  be  omitted  from  your  tables  in  the  forth- 
coming reports,  or  else  that  it  be  corrected  to  conform  to  Table  H  on  page  25  of  the  same  report  for 
the  same  year. 

"  This  request  is  made  in  consequence  of  a  letter  from  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
now  in  London,  who  complains  that  these  different  tables  are  frequently  referred  to  in  England, 
and  the  discrepancies  between  them  constantly  and  unfavorably  commented  upon. 

"  The  table  found  on  page  25  is,  I  believe,  as  nearly  correct  as  the  examination  of  the  accounts  up 
to  the  present  time  will  enable  it  to  be  made,  though  I  am  under  the  impression  there  will  be  some 
changes  necessary  in  order  to  make  it  absolutely  reliable. 

"  Very  respectfully.  "J.  H.  SAVILLE,  Chief  Clerk. 

"  Hon.  John  Allison,  Register  of  the  Treasury." 

This  letter  is  indorsed  :  "Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  chief  clerk;  24,171.  Asks  statement  of  the 
public  debt  may  be  made  to  correspond  with  statement  made  in  Secretary's  office.  Memorandum.  • 
As  published  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30th,  1871,  the  statement  is  the  same  as  the  Secretary's. 

George  S.  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts,  was  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  who 
ordered  these  changes.  As  soon  as  Boutwell  came  into  the  office,  in  1869,  he  began 
his  peculiar  manipulations  of  the  accounts  of  the  government  finances. 

Major  Power  tells  us  that  the  Secretary  and  Register,  previous  to  1870,  agreed 

as  to  the  amount  of  the  public  debt  and  the  receipts  and  expenditures,  and  that 

they  substantially  agree  since  1871 ;   and  that  the  changes  and  alterations  took 

place  between  1869  and  1871 ;  and  that  there  were  none  before  and  have  been  none 

since.     He  was  asked  : 

Q,.  Do  I  understand  that  you  could  not  make  a  correct  debt  statem<^nt  commencing  with  1833  and 
coming  to  1870  by  issues  and  redemptions  ?    A.    I  could  do  it. 
Q.  Would  it  be  correct  ?    A.  It  would  be  correct. 

This  shows  that  the  present  chief  clerk  of  the  Treasury  Department  thinks  that 
a  correct  statement  of  the  public  debt  could  be  made  up  from  issues  and  redemp- 
tions. If  so,  why  in  1870  introduce  a  new  system  which  changed  and  increased 
the  public  debt  and  the  expenditures  ?  There  must  have  been  a  cause  for  it.  Let 
those  who  made  the  changes  explain. 

Before  1869  the 

PACIFIC   RAILROAD  INDEBTEDNESS 

was  a  part  of  the  regular  statements  of  the  public  debt.  After  that  it  was  dropped 
out. 

This  shows  two  important  facts  :  First,  up  to  and  including  1869  what  is 
known  as  the  Pacific  Railroad  debt,  amounting  to  about  $58,000,000,  was  in- 
cluded in  the  debt  statement  of  the  Secretary,  but  was  dropped  out  in  1869. 
Second,  if  it  had  been  included,  instead  of  the  Secretary's  statement  of  1870 
increasing  the  debt  $94,000,000,  the  increase  would  have  been  $151,000,000. 

Major  Power  testifying  regarding  the  issuance  of  bonds  says  : 

Q.  An  order  coines  from  the  treasurer's  office  to  the  loan  branch  of  the  secretary's  office  to 
issue  a  bond  for  $1,000  ;  the  loan  division  directs  a  two-thousand-dollar  bond  to  be  issued  instead 
of  one-thousand-dollar  bond,  which  the  treasurer  directed  to  be  ordered.  That  order  goes  to  the 
register^  I  understand  The  register  issues  a  two-thousand-dollar  bond,  and  it  comes  back  to  the 
same  office  that  ordered  it  for  the  seal ;  that  office  puts  the  seal  on  it  and  the  bond  then  goes  back 
to  the  rogister  for  delivery  ?  '^ 

A.  That  is  the  practice. 

Q.  Then  there  is  no  check  outside  of  that  particular  office  as  to  whether  or  not  the  bond  was  a 
one-thousand-dollar  or  a  two-thousand-dollar  bond  ? 

A.  I  believe  not. 

William  Fletcher,  chief  of  the  loan  division,  and  Treasurer  Gilfillan,  each  agrees 
with  Major  Power,  that  there  is  little  or  no  check  on  the  loan  division  in  issuing 
bonds. 

The  bonds  ought  to  be  sent  to  the  treasurer  to  see  if  the  money  received  agrees 
with  the  amount  named  in  the  bond.  The  minority  report  of  the  Senate  commit- 
tee says: 


332  TREASURY  BOOK- KEEPING. 

The  present  method  of  handling  securities  of  the  goverment,  including  notes, 
bonds,  and  stamps,  would  be  greatly  improved  by  having  all  securities  pass  through 
the  office  of  the  register. 

It  does  not  require  any  evidence  of  the  officials,  which  in  itself  is  conclusive  to 
show  every  citizen  that  no  one  really  knows  the  true  state  of  the  government's 
finances.  Forced  balances  have  been  made  amounting  according  to  the  official 
records  to  over  $300,000,000. 

THE  FICTITIOUS  WARRANTS 

for  these  amounts,  the  chief  of  the  warrant  division  testifies,  are  not  on  file.  Many 
of  them  were  no  doubt  merely  drawn  up  as  part  of  the  formula  by  which  balances 
were  forced,  but  why  should  they  disappear  from  the  archives  of  the  treasury? 
If  all  this  vast  sum  was  merely  figures  used  to  balance  the  books,  why  not  keep  the 
warrants?  If  all  was  not  for  this  purpose,  some  of  the  warrants  w^ould  be  interest- 
ing reading.  So  it  is  that  the  people  are  in  utter  darkness  as  to  the  financial  con- 
dition of  their  country,  and  will  continue  to  be  so  until  a  new  set  of  men  can  ex- 
amine the  books  and  learn  the  truth. 


-rnpt  the  treasury.    Here  it  is.     [Holding  it  up.]  "  "  "'""  "'''  ^'''"^  •-"  "**"*'- 

To  begin  with,  the  very  first  we  find  on  the  Hst  is  a  claim  from  tlie  loval  Rf«f a  nf  p«T,r,„^+-     ^  * 
$8  655,  first  introdnced  into  the  Republican  Forty-tWrd  CongTe  s  by  M^  Ke  loX  a  K  hH.Vrf  f 
and  next  on   he  list  is  a  claim  for  S5,000  from  the  state  of  New  Jersej^     The  nfk?  cZp?  ?rnJ 
Tennessee  ;  there  is  not  a  claimant  from  that  state  who  is  not  a  loyal  man     Then  therS  /^  «  n^S 
from  Pennsy  vania-the  state  from  which  our  Speaker  comes.    Then  comes  New  York-  •   pnH^'Jh'"' 

flfr'^  w"«1'h'^''?>,*'^^"*y1r;^^^^^"?''  ^";"  ^  ^'^"^^h,  and,  as  I  learn  fromSy  friend  from  Mat  and 
[Mr.  Walsh],  they  are  all  the  claims  of  oyal  men.  Then  comes  Virainin  Th^TfrJ^J  ^  Maryland 
lina,  which  i^s  a  little  claim,  but  North  Carolina  has  been  ve?3'modSr^^^  this  resne™  ^Th?n  O^n 
<:omes  for  one-fourth  of  a  steamboat.  Then  comes  Pennsylvania  for  «22  027  ^  S  fH.J ..^  P^^^ 
state  of  Kentucky,  with  a  long  array  of  these  claims  3thSw  I  fj^Vi  si -^^^^^  *'^®  ^^^^^ 
fffty-four  times  on  the  list,  and  that  claim  as  I  leam  from  my  f   e?d  nVT?  f)n  r^in^  i«V'  '^P^^*^'^ 

X1o^^LX.=dri^^^^^^^^^^ 

ance  in  that  district  and  every  man  I  know  on  D  brelfflist  was  ^Fln^oin, at^'^a  %  'f  ^^^  acquaint- 

m:^'°''SsXr%z'i'S'£i\fr^r^  ^'^^  *" "''  ^f^'"^''  «■«'  '"-^  <='«-»  ->»"■"  ^  $300,. 

..Jow,  I  say  that  ia  such  a  mistake  that  it  ought  not  to  have  gone  oat  from  this  hall.  All  the  claims 


lv,frrrin,..f  1  1  1?  V"^^"".^*'"^^^'"^'^'  I  Wish  to  State  that  in  the  Forty-third  Con^^ress  ther? 
rr-Gen^?aTcoLKa?vTJ:^?,?  ^?l^\'  ^^f"^'  '''  the  an,ount  of  $396391^3;  for  the  Q^I^rterS 
ino-Vhr  f^fo'i  !  *^'^^"       .^'^^  "^  Subsistence,  and  Comm  seioner  of  Claims,  SI  561  HI  76-  mak- 

lal  contr%''and''?heVrS-ri^^  $1,959,603^^39.    That.wa«  a  Congress  in  which  our  Rcpublicai  friend. 

here  wa^h,  tip  Fnrfv  f.^^^^^^  before  the  Committee  on  War  Claims  than 

in  the  Forty  f ourUi  Con^rP^    tS?"^'^'"  Y''f '  "?^  Democrats  had  control.     I  will  state  further  that 

Louart^rmX  amirfm  amounted  to  $188,015.30,  and 

reportedSt  Sl^l  fiS^^^T^^^^^^ 

thrForty  S  rnni;S«"!?-.o^i^';^  reported  favorably  by  the  Republican  committee  of 

fourth  C^rSreiovef-T«)0,S  ^°'°"''^  '"^"'"^"^  ^^  "^"  Democratic  committee  of  the  Forty- 

dedsion'S*';hTcnnIt«^fip^''''?l  Mr  Speaker  I  think  it  cannot  be  denied  that  every  law  or 
wMch  navnitnf  ^TL^f  'iV^-""'  T^  ^^  '''''"?  "*^  1''^'^^  Southern  claims  have  been  paid,  aifd  under 
preted  EJ^a  Rt  nnhbV^n  tT^.^'  '^^t  o^^'^I-ated  and  enacted  by  a  Republican  Congress  and  inter- 

o  tf e  Forfv  fm  rS   r^^^^^  ''*,^''''  "^  ^'^^  government  since  the  close  of  the  war  prior 

In  add.Wfn  nniL  ''"^'^P^^'  ^^Siflative  uud  executive,  having  been  held  by  the  Republican  party, 
party  wk>r  to  ?S-fi  hifl^f  l^ii""^ -'i  '"^l"^'  Payment  could  be  made,  we  find  that  the  Repuilicat. 
A nH  ^f  ?Li?i  ^' ?'  '^^  actually  paid  of  the  Southern  claims  more  than  $100,000,000. 
And  It  would  also  appear  that  the  Republican  party  believed  in  payin-^  all  these  claim*.  I 
a  leLrTt-his'iiSf:  ^'"""''^  '"  '^'  ^^"^'"  "'  *^^  United  States  b^  'the' late  Stor  Zrton, 
anotS  rulp'^^.'![f  fn  T^f  any  other  rnle  on  tliis  subject?  We  might  save  some  money  by  making 
eJSpfVfiLol-r^li^'^r^^.^/Y""''^^^  *^"^  pound-foolish  economy.    After  having 

Xl  D  irtv  rW?  'ST.\Ti  ^"  ^'"''^'  ^^'l  ^"''"^  ?.  *^^  Union,  and  after  all  our  labors  to  build  up  I 
Hooro?thpSpn„  p^^^^^^^^^^^  come  here  making  shipwreck  in  the  end  by  declaring  upon  tlie 

be  treated  as  nublS  onp'n.  "^^'  men  whose  hardships  and  sufferings  we  can  never  estimate,  shall 

nder  whirh  Jp  wn?^  and  that  we  will  not  pay  them  under  the  same  circumstances 

consent  to  it. '^  ^"^^  ^  ™*'"  ^''''  ^''*'  ^'''''"S  "'^  ^'^"^  property  in  the  North  ?    I  can  never 

The  bills  reported  from  the  Comraitttie  on  War  Claims  at  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-third  Cou- 


WAR   CLAIMS.  337 

wrees  amounted  to  the  sum  of  $5,912,790,  That  was  a  Republican  Congress.  The  same  committee 
of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  the  first  Democratic  Congress,  at  the  first  session,  reported  bills  favor- 
ably to  the  amount  of  $215,361.  The  present '  Congress  has  not  paid  to  exceed  $5,000  of  Southern 
claims  and  payment  in  these  cases  was  urged  y  the  Republican  side  of  the  House.  The  test  case 
of  the'present  Congress  was  the  bill  for  the  relief  of  William  and  Mary  College,  of  Virginia. 
The  ablest  speech  made  in  favor  of  its  payricntwas  by  a  Republican  from  Massachusetts,  and 
the  leading  speech  against  it  by  a  Democrat  from  Wisconsin,  and,  strange  to  say,  this  case,  which 
has  provoked  so  much  debate  at  this  session  of  Congress  and  which  has  acquired  such  newspaper 
notoriety,  was  passed  without  serious  opposition  by  the  Republican  House  of  the  Forty-second 
Congress. 

The  Southern  Chiims  Commission  was  established  by  a  Republican  Congress,  and  for  the  purpose 
of  allowing  and  providing  a  way  to  pay,  as  its  name  indicates,  Southern  claims. 

These  facts  soeak  for  themselves.  Let  the  people  who  must  pay  the  taxes  judge.  For  my- 
self, 1  care  not  which  party  advocates  the  payment  of  Southern  claims  ;  so  long  as  my  voice  or 
vote  can  prevent  their  payment  in  the  committee-room  or  in  the  House,  I  shall  continue  to 
oppose  them.  They  are  of  the  past,  and  they  should  be  permitted  to  remain  as  an  inheritance  and 
warning  to  evil-doers. 

Senator  Hill,  speaking  on  the  subject  of  war  claims,  said  :  But,  Mr.  President,  I  vote  against 
this  bill,  because,  in  my  judgment,  it  is  what  we  call  par  excellence,  a  war  claim,  and  I  am 
against  the   payment  of   all  war   claims,  *  *  *  unless  it  be  perhaps  some 

few  exceptions  in  favor  of  religious,  educational,  and  charitable  institutions;  and  there  are 
very  few  even  of  that  character  that  I  will  except.  I  vote  against  their  payment  upon  principle.  I 
have  considered  this  question  very  carefully,  and  for  a  long  time,  and  to-day  is  the  first  occasion  I 
have  expressed  publicly  my  views  upon  the  subject,  because  I  did  not  desire  to  express  them  until 
after  careful  consideration  of  the  question. 

Now,  why  do  I  vote  against  this  claim  ?  It  is,  as  I  have  said,  emphatically  a  war  claim  ;  that  is, 
it  is  a  claim  for  compensation  by  reason  of  losses  incurred  during  the  war  and  by  act  of  war.  My 
first  reason  for  not  voting  for  it  is  that  we  cannot  pay  all  of  this  kind  of  claims.  They  would  bank- 
rupt the  government.  It  is  impossible  that  the  government  should  be  expected  to  pay  all  these 
claims  and  claims  standing  on  as  good  footing  as  this  in  every  respect. 

I  think,  sir,  all  parties  ought  to  take  this  position.  It  is  a  little  painful  to  me  to  see  gentlemen 
of  one  party  seeking  to  make  political  capital  out  of  cases  of  this  kind,  and  the  other  side  protest- 
ing that  it  is  not  right.  Why  not  agree  to  take  some  common  position,  that  these  war  losses  cannot 
be  paid  ?  The  government  is  not  able  to  pay  them  ;  the  government  ought  not  to  pay  them,  in 
view  of  their  peculiar  character  and  the  circumstances  of  the  war,  and  the  sooner  the  people  are 
taught  that,  the  better,  and  let  these  constant  irritations  about  the  payment  of  war  losses  cease.  As 
I  said,  I  might  make  a  few  exceptions  in  favor  of  religious,  educational,  or  charitable  institutions, 
but  I  should  make  very  few  of  that  sort.  Where  the  property  destroyed  was  of  such  a  character  as 
to  be  of  great  public  importance  and  great  public  benefit,  not  only  to  one  section  of  the  country, 
but  to  all  sections  of  the  country,  I  should  think  it  would  be  legitimate  and  proper  as  a  public  bene- 
fit to  pay  that  kind  of  loss.  There  are,  I  think,  perhaps  a  few  cases  of  that  kind,  but  put  them 
altogether,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  extends,  they  would  not  exceed  half  a  million  of  dollars. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  the  humblest  man  in  the  Democratic  p.. rty.  That  party,  after  eighteen 
years  of  absence,  I  trust  and  believe,  is  about  to  return  full-fledged  to  power.  I  think  it  will  ha--- j 
possession  of  every  department  of  this  government.  It  certain!'-  will  have  it  if  we  convince  the 
people  North  and  South  that  we  deserve  to  have  it  ;  for  evidently  the  people  are  well  satisfied  that 
the  Republican  party  does  not  deserve  to  be  continued  in  power,  and  the  only  question  with  the 
people  is  whether  the  Democratic  party  does  deserve  to  be  intrusted  with  power.  If  I  had  control 
of  the  party,  as  I  have  not,  and  shall  never  have,  if  my  voice  were  worth  anything,  there  are  four 
things  I  would  have  the  Democratic  party  to  proclaim  to  the  worla  in  most  convincing  terms  and 
adhere  to  with  unflin  -hing  fidelity.     I  would  have  the  party  to  say  : 

1.  We  will  not  pay  v  r  losses,  loyal  or  disloyal,  unless  we  make  a  few  exceptions  of  religious, 
educational  and  charitab   '■  institutious,  and  very  few  of  these. 

2.  We  will  vote  no  moi\.  of  the  public  money  and  no  more  of  the  public  credit,  and  no  more  of 
the  public  lands  to  build  up  or  enrich  mammoth  monopolies  in  the  shape  of  railroad  corporations. 

3.  We  will  in  good  faith  pay  every  dollar  of  the  public  debt,  principal  and  interest,  in  good  money 
of  the  standard  value. 

4.  We  will  restore  the  Constitution  to  the  country  and  honesty  and  economy  to  its  administration, 
confining  the  general  government  to  its  limited,  delegated  sovereign  powers  to  promote  the  general 
welfare,  and  leaving  the  states  unmolested  in  the  exercise  of  their  reserved  sovereign  powers  to 
promote  the  local  welfare  of  the  people. 

Do  these  four  things,  and,  iu  my  judgment,  the  child  is  not  bom  who  will  witness  the  termi- 
nation of  Democratic  administration  in  this  country,  and  the  tongue  has  not  been  gifted  with 
language  that  can  express  the  prosperity  which  will  follow  to  all  our  people  in  every  section  of  our 
country. 


838  PRIVATE    CLAIMS    AGAINST   THE    GOVERNMENT. 


PRIVATE  CLAIMS  AGAINST  THE  GOVERNMENT. 


Mr.  Potter,  from  the  Committee  on  Reform  in  the  Civil  Service,  submitted 
the  following  report,  May  18,  1878  : 

By  the  theory  of  government  the  sovereign  was  regarded  as  the  source  of  all  power.  He  could 
not,  therefore  be  liable  to  his  subjects  ;  for  redress,  he  could  be  petitioned,  but  not  compelled  ; 
and,  as  he  could  do  no  wrong,  every  petitioner  might  expect  to  have  his  claim  justly  considered. 

Accordingly,  when  our  fathers  framed  this  government,  they  made  no  provision  for  suits 
against  it.  They  provided  in  the  fundamental  law  that  the  right  of  petition  should  never  be 
abridged,  and  declared  that  the  government  was  formed  to  maintain  justice  ;  but  they  left  those 
who  had  claims  upon  it  to  petition  it  for  redress.  From  the  beginning,  therefore.  Congress  pro- 
ceeded to  consider  the  private  claims  upon  the  government  addressed  to  it,  to  satisfy  itself  of  their 
merits,  and  dispose  of  them  in  its  absolute  discretion.  In  those  days,  with  few  members  and  little 
business,  an  intelligent  consideration  of  such  claims  was  not  impossible  ;  but  as  population 
and  wealth  and  industries  increased,  the  private  claims  addressed  to  Congress  rose  to  a  number 
and  importance  which  made  intelligent  consideration  of  them  by  Congress  impossible. 

From  the  nature  of  things  no  tribunal  can  be  less  fitted  to  examine  and  decide  upon  private 
claims  than  the  Congress.  The  organization  of  the  body  requires  that  the  consideration  of  such 
claims  must  be  first  had  in  committee.  The  pressure  of  business  is  now  so  great  that  the  claims 
before  the  committees  are  generally  allotted  for  examination  to  subcommittees  of  one,  or  two,  or 
three  members.  Claimants,  therefore,  naturally  begin  by  seeking  first  a  favorable  committee  to 
which  to  refer  their  claims,  and  next  for  a  favorable  selection  from  that  committee  to  consider 
them.  Evidence  is  then  offered  in  the  form  of  statements  or  of  ex  parte  affidavits.  There  is  no 
answer,  usually  no  personal  appearance  of  witnesses,  no  cross-examination,  no  opposing  testimony, 
no  inquiry  by  nor  appearance  on  the  part  of  the  government,  no  general  publicity,  no  check  against 
fraud,  and  no  prescribed  rules  and  regulations  for  the  investigation.  Many  of  the  claims  are  im- 
pressed with  a  sectional  or  party  character  especially  calculated  to  exclude  all  judicial  fairness  in 
their  consideration. 

The  evil  resulting  from  the  consideration  of  private  claims  by  Congress,  and  the  injustice  and 
delay  done  to  honest  claimants  were  early  observed. 

Sensible  of  how  illy  fitted  such  a  body  was  to  maintain  the  justice  for  which  the  government  was 
established,  and  moved  by  the  example  of  other  civilized  nations  that  had  established  judicial 
tribunals  to  determine  the  claims  of  their  subjects  upon  the  government,  Congress  in  1855 
established  a  court  to  take  the  evidence  in  respect  of  all  that  class  of  claims  that  arose  out  of 
contract,  or  were  based  upon  positive  law,  and  to  report  to  Congress  the  facts  found  and  its  recom- 
mendation as  to  the  disposition  to  be  made  of  the  cases  so  heard.  Subsequently,  in  1863,  the 
jurisdiction  of  this  court  of  claims  was  so  extended  as  to  authorize  it  to  give  judgment  in  the  cases 
heard  by  it. 

But  there  still  remain  large  classes  of  claimants  of  whose  claims  no  court  has  jurisdiction. 
Many  of  these  claims  are  addressed  to  the  legislative  discretion  of  Congress,  a  discretion  which 
cannot  be  relegated  to  any  court,  such  as  claims  falling  within  the  principles  but  not  the  terms  of 
existing  laws. 

How  numerous  these  cases  have  become  may  be  seen  from  the  fact  that  of  late  years  the  number 
of  private  bills  alone  belonging  to  the  exceptional  classes,  relief  for  which  rests  in  the  discretion 
of  Congress,  amount  in  a  session  of  Congress  to  about  2,500,  or  about  five  for  each  day  Congress 
is  in  session. 

From  the  nature  of  these  exceptional  claims,  their  final  determination  must  remain  with  the 
Congress  to  whose  discretion  they  are  addressed.  All  that  can  be  done  in  such  cases  is  therefore 
to  secure  a  judicial  ascertainment  of  the  facts  involved.  But  to  do  that  will  be  in  a  very  great 
degree  to  cure  existing  evils.  When  the  facts  are  fairly  and  judicially  ascertained,  and  an 
impartial  court  has  given  its  opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  each  claim,  we  may  expect  the  action  of 
Congress  to  be  as  speedy,  as  uniform,  and  as  reasonable  as  practicable. 

It  IS  intended  by  this  bill  to  provide  for  the  judicial  ascertainment  of  the  facts  involved  in  every 
private  claim  for  which  no  judicial  tribunal  has  been  afforded,  and  to  prohibit  the  consideration 
oy  Congress  of  any  jirivate  claim  until  the  facts  involved  in  it  have  been  so  determined.  That  is, 
to  substitute  a  court,  ascertaining  the  facts  by  judicial  methods,  and  reporting  the  same  to  Congress 
with  its  recommendation  in  each  case,  for  and  in  the  place  of,  the  committee  to  whom  the  examin- 
ation of  such  claims  is  now  referred.  All  the  court  could  judicially  ascertain  in  such  cases  would 
be  what  loss  the  claimant  had  sustained  by  the  war,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  loss  ;  and 
whether  he  was  loyal.  It  would  be  for  Congress  then  to  decide  if  any  case  of  that  class  should  be 
paid  at  all.  But  if  such  claims  are  to  he  paid  at  all,  such  a  determination  of  the  facts  about  them 
would  largely  reduce  the  present  chance  of  imposition,  deception  and  mistake  ;  would  expedite 
the  worthy  and  prevent  the  allowance  to  unworthy  claimants. 

The  following  bill— H.  R.  5214— is  the  substitute  for  the  original  bill,  reported 
by  the  committee. 


PRIVATE    CLAIMS    AGAINST   THE    GOVERNMENT.  339 

An  act  pioviding  for  the  judicial  ascertainment  of  claims  against  the  United  States. 
Be  it  enacted,  etc.,  that  any  person  who  may  have  a  claim  against  the  United  States  of  which 
the  Court  of  Claims  would  not  now  have  jurisdiction,  but  founded  upon  equity  and  justice,  and 
not  bound  by  any  statute  of  limitations  provided  by  any  law  of  the  Lnited  States,  may  file  his  bill 
in  the  Court  of  Claims  of  the  United  States,  setting  out  the  grounds  of  his  claim  and  the  relief 
desired  by  him  ;  and  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States  shall  appear  and  plead  thereto  a& 
provided  for  in  other  cases. 

Section  2.  Any  issue  of  fact  joined  upon  such  bill  may  be  tried  by  the  court  as  now  provided  for 
cases  of  which  it  has  jurisdiction. 

Section  3.  The  court  shall  find  the  facts  appearing  from  the  testimony  before  them  in  each  case, 
and  shall  report  their  findings  to  Congress,  with  their  opinion  as  to  the  determination  that  should 
be  made  of  such  claim. 

Section  4.  Congress  shall  not  consider  nor  allow  nor  authorize  the  payment  of  any  private  claim 
not  payable  under  existing  laws  until  the  same  has  been  heard  and  reported  to  Congress  by  said 
Court  of  Claims,  as  herein  provided. 

Section  5.  All  claims  against  the  United  States  provided  for  by  this  act  not  prosecuted  within  nix 
years  from  the  passage  of  this  act,  or  of  the  time  when  the  same  severally  accrued,  shall  b«'  barred. 
except  that  when  the  claimants  are  under  legal  disability  to  sue,  the  action  must  be  brought  within 
said  sis  years,  or  within  three  years  after  such  disability  shall  cease. 

Mr.  Potter  moved  that  the  rules  be  suspended  so  as  to  enable  him  to  report  from 
the  (.yommittee  on  Reform  in  the  civil  service,  as  a  substitute  for  the  bill  of  the 
House  (H.  R.  4377)  providing  for  a  judicial  ascertainment  of  claims  against  the 
United  States,  a  bill  of  the  same  title  (see  above  bill),  and  enable  the  House  to 
pass  the  same,  and  the  question  being  put,  viz. : 

Shall  the  rules  be  suspended  ?  It  was  decided  in  the  affirmative,  two-thirds 
voting  in  favor  thereof — yeas  168,  nays  75,  not  voting  48 — the  yeas  and  na3's 
being  desired  by  one-fifth  of  the  members  present.  Those  who  voted  in  the 
affirmative  are  Democrats  in  italics  • 

3fr.  J.  H.  Acklen  ;  D.  Wyatt  Aiken ;  J.  D.  C.  Atkins  ;  William  J.  Bacon  :  George  A.  Bagley  ; 

Henry  B.  Banning ;  Hiram  P.  Bell  ;  George  A.  Bickaell ;  lioratio  Bisbee,  Jr.  ;  Jos.  C.  8.  Black- 
hum  ;  Archibald  M.  Bliss  ;  James  H.  Blount  ;  Andrew  R.  Boone ;  Thomas  A.  Boyd  ;  Samuel  A. 

Bridges :  John  M.  Bright;  Curtis  H.  Brogden ;  George  C.  Cabell;  John  W.  Caldwell  •  Jacob  M. 

Campbell ;  Milton  A.  Candler ;  Lucien  B.  Caswell  :  J.  It.  Chalmers;  Alvah  A.  Clark ;  John  B. 

Clark  ;  John  B.  Clarke,  Jr.  ;  Rush  Clark  ;  Heister  Clymer  ;  Thomas  R.  Cobb  ;  Fhilip  Cook  ;  James 
W.  Covert ;  Jacob  D.  Cox  ;  Sam,uel  S.  Cox  ;  William  W.  Crapo  ;  Jordan  E.  Cravens  ;  Thomas  2\ 
Crittenden;  D.  B.  Culbertson  ;  H.  J.  B.  Cummings  ;  Augustus  W.  CuUer;  Robert  H.  M.  Davidson  ; 

Jose])h  J.  Davis ;  Benjamin  Dean  ;  George  G.  Dibrell ;  H.  L.  Dickey  ;  Mark  H.  Bunnell  ;  Milton  J. 

Durham  ;  Benjamin  T.  Eames  ;  John  R.  Eden  ;  Anthony  Eickhoff  ;  J.  B.  Elam  ;  Russell  Errett ; 

John  H.  Evins ;    Tfiomas  Ewing  ;  William  II.  Eelton  ;  Ebenezer  B.  Finley  ;   William  H.  Forney  ; 

Charles  Foster  ;  Benjamin  J.  Franklin  ;  Benoni  S.  Fuller  ;  James  A.  Garfield  ;  WilliamW.  Garth  ; 

Lucien  C.  Gause;  Randall  L.  Gibson  ;  D.  C.  Giddings  ;  John  Goode ;  Eugene  Hale  ;  Andrew  H. 

Hamilton  ;  Augustus  II.  Hardenbergh  ;  Henry  R.  Harris  ;  John  T.  Harris ;  Carter  H.  Harrison  ; 

E.  Kirke  Hart ;  Julian  Harfridge  ;  William  Hartzdl ;  Thomas  J.  Henderson  ;  Eli  J.  Henckle  ; 

Daniel  M.  Henry ;  Abram  8.  Hewitt ;  Goldsmith  W.  Hewett ;  Hilary  A.  Herbert ;  Charles  E.  Hooker ; 

J.  F.  House  ;  Eppa  Hunton  ;  H.  L.  Humphrey  ;  J.  N.  Hungerford  ;  Anthony  Ittner  ;  A.  B.  James  ; 

Frank  Jones  ;  J.  T.  Jones  ;  J.  S.  Jones  ;  Joseph  Jorgenson  ;  John  E.  Kenna  ;  William  Kimmel ; 

J.  Proctor  Knott ;  William  Lathrop  ;  Robert  F.  Leighton ;  S.  D.  Lindsay  ;  D.  N.  Lockwood  ;  J.  K. 

LuttreU;  W.  Pitt  Lynde  ;  L.  A.  Mackey  ;  Levi  Maish  ;  V.  H.  Manning  ;  8.  L.  Mayham  ;  A.  G. 

McCook  ;  J.  A.  McKenzie  ;  J.  A.  McMahon  ;  Roger  Q.  Mills  ;  James  Monroe  ;  C.  H.  Morgan  ;  W. 
R.  Morrison  ;  Leopold  Morse  ;  H  L.  Muldrow  ;  Nicholas  Midler  ;  Addison  Oliver  ;  Charles  O'Neill ; 
T.  M.  Patterson  ;  James  Phelps  ;  C.  N.  Potter ;  T.  C.  Pound  ;  A.  L.  Pridemore  ;  J.  H.  Randolph  ; 
David  Rea  ;  John  H.  Reagan ;  Thomas  B.  Reed ;  James  B.  Reilly  ;  A.  V.  Rice ;  II.  Y.  Riddle  ; 
W.  M.  Robins  ;  C.  B.  Roberts  ;  G.  D.  Robinson  ;  Miles  Ross  ;  Milton  8ayler  ;  A.  M.  Scales  ;  G. 
Schleicher  ;  L.  Sexton  ;  CM.  Shelley  ;  0.  R.  Singleton  ;  Robert  Smalls  ;  W.  E.  Smith  ;  M.  I.  South 
ard ;  W.  A.  J.  Sparks ;  W.  M.  Springer ;  W.  L.  Steele ;  W.  8.  Stenger ;  A.  II.  Stevens ;  H.  B. 
Straight ;  J.  M.  ThompBOu  ;  J.  W.  Throckmorton ;  R.  W.  Townshend ;  J.  R.  Tucker ;  TJwmm 
Turner  ;  Jacob  Turney ;  R.  B.  Vance ;  W.  D.  Veeder ;  A.  M.  Waddell ;  J.  T.  Wait ;  G.  C.  Walker ; 
Levi  Warner;  W.  C.  Whittliome ;  P.  D.  Wigginton  ;  A.  8.  Williams;  C.  G.  Williams;  James 
Williams  ;  Richard  Williams  ;  Albert  8.  Willis  ;  Benjamin  Wilson  ;  Casey  Young. 

Those  who  voted  in  the  negative  are  Mr.  William  A Idrich  ;  Mr.  William  H.  Beeken  ;  Mr.  H.  W. 
Blair  ;  John  H.  Baker  ;  N.  P.  Banks  ;  Gabriel  Bouck  ;  E.  S.  Bragg  ;  L.  Brentum  ;  M.  S.  Brewer  ; 
James  F.  Briggs  ;  T.  M.  Browne  ;  Solomon  Bundy  ;  T,  W.  Burdick  ;  B.  F.  Butler ;  W.  H.  Calkins  ; 
J.  G.  Cannon  :  William  Claflin  :  Nathan  Cole  :  O.  D.  Conger  ;  Lorenzo  Danf  ord  ;  Horace  Davis  ; 
N.  C.  Deering  ;  D.  C.  Dennison  ;  J.  W.  Dwight ;  C.  C.  Elsworth ;  J.  U.  Evans  ;  J.  L.  Evans  ;  C. 
Freeman  ;  W.  P.  Frey  ;  Mills  Gardner  ;  John  Hanna  ;  A.  C.  Harmer  :  D.  C.  Haskell ;  P.  C.  Hayes  ; 
G.  C.  Hazelton  ;  G.  W.  Hende  ;  J.  Hiscock  ;  J.  A.  Hubbell ;  M.  C.  Hunter  ;  E.  W.  Keightley  ;  W. 
D.  Kelley  ;  J.  H.  Ketcham ;  E.  G.  Lapham  •  G.  B.  Loring ;  B.  F.  Marsh  :  J.H  .  McGowan  ;  W. 
McKinley,  Jr.  ;  J.  I.  Mitchell ;  H  S.  Neal  ;  E.  Overton,  Jr.  ;  H.  F.  Paee  ;  G.  W.  Patterson  ;  T.  B. 
Peddie  :  W.  A.  Phillips  ;  H.  Mc.  Pollard  ;  L.  Powers  ;  W.  W.  Rice ;  Thomas  Ryan  ;  E.  S.  Samp- 
son ;  W.  F.  Sapp  ;  W.  S.  Shallenberger ;  C.  H.  Sinnickson  ;  A.  Herr  Smith ;  J.  U,  Starin  ;  J.  H. 
Stewart ;  J.  W.  Stone  :  J.  C.  Stone  ;  Amos  Townsend  ;  M.  L.  Townsend  ;  William  Ward  ;  Frank 
Welsh  ;  M.  D.  White  ;  Andrew  Williams  :  B.  A.  }Villis  ;  Thomas  Wren. 

Those  not  voting  are  Mr.  L.  W.  Ballou  ;  T.  M.  Bayne  :  G.  M.  Beebe  ;  C.  B.  Bennedict  ;  R.  P. 
Bland ;  A.  H.  Buckner .:  H.  C.  Burchard  :  R.  H.  Cain  ;  W.  P.  Caldwell  ;  J.  H.  Camp  ;  J.  G.  Car- 
lisle ;  I.  B.  Chittenden  ;  F.  D.  Collins  ;  B.  B.  Douglass  ;  E.  J.  Ellis  :  G.  L.  Fort ;  J.  M.  Glover  ; 
T.  M.  Gunter  ;  B.  W.  Harris  ;  R.  A.  Hatcher ;  C.  H.  Joyce ;  J.  W.  Keifer  ;  J.  W.  Killinger  ;  R.  M. 
Knapp  ;  G.  M.  Landers  ;  B.  F.  Martiu ;  L.  S.  Metcalf  ;  H.  D.  Money  ;  Amaea  Norcross ;  Hiram 


840 


PRIVATE    CLAIMS    AGAINST   THE    GOVERNMENT. 


Prince  ;  J.  H.  Pugh  ;  T.  J.  Quinn  ;  J.  H.  Rainey  ;  E.  W.  Robertson  ;  M.  S.  Robinson  ;  W  .F.  Slem- 
mons  ;  Thomas  Swann  ?  J.  M.  Thornburgh  ;  T.  F.  Tipton  ;  N.  H.  Van  Vorhes  ;  William  Walsh  ; 
L.  F,  Watson  ;  Harry  White  ;  J.  N.  Williams  ;  Edwin  Willits  ;  Fernando  Wood  ;  H.  B.  Wright  ; 
J.  J.  Yeates. 

So  the  rules  were  suspended  and  the  said  substitute  (H.  R.  5214)  was  passed. 
Ordered,  that  the  clerk  request  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate  in  the  said  bill, 

[House  Journal,  2d'Session,  45th  Congress,  1877-78,  pp.  1408-9.] 
WHAT  THE  REPUBLICAN  SENATE  DID. 

Sekatb,  Jan.  8, 1879.— Mr.  Conkling,  from  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  to  whom  were  re- 
ferred the  following  bills,  reported  them  severally,  without  amendment,  and  that  they  ought  not  to 
pass.  *  *  *********** 

H.  R.,  5214.    An  act  providing  for  the  judicial  ascertainment  of  claims  against  the  United  States. 

The  Senate  proceeded,  by  unanimous  consent,  to  consider  the  said  bills  (S.  B.  510,  S.  B.  1148, 
H.  R.  Bill  3972  and  H.  R.  Bill  5214),  as  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  no  amendment  being  made, 
they  were  reported  to  the  Senate. 

Ordered,  That  the  said  bills  be  postponed  indefinitely. 

[Senate  Journal,  3d  session,  45th  Congress,  187  -79,  pp.  93-94.] 

CLAIMS  ALLOWED  AS  PER  SECRETARY   OP  THE  TUEASURX's   LETTER. 

Dec.  31,   1874.    Secretary  Bristow,  43d  Congress,  2d  session,  Ex. 
Doc.  No.  107. 

Northern  states $9,720  21 

Loyal  Southern  states 51,009  18 

Southern  states .50,570  02 

$111,299  41 

Jan.  6,  1876.    Secretary  Bristow,  44th   Congress,  1st  session,  Ex. 
Doc.  No.  64. 

Northern  states $12,386  66 

Loyal  Southern  states 72,971  77 

Southern  states 73,189  67 

$158,548  10 

Jan.  24, 1877.  Secretary  Morrill,  44th  Congress,  2d  session,    Ex. 
Doc.  No.  35. 

Northern  states $1,758  62 

Loyal  Southern  statee 85,026  67 

Southern  states .         102,576  82 

$189,362  11 

Jan.  14, 1878.  Secretary  Sherman,  45th  Congress,  2d  session,    Ex. 
Doc.  No.  31. 

Northern  States $11,800  13 

Loyal  Southern  states 66,300  35 

Southern  states 53,305  87 

$131,406  35 

Jan.  11. 1879.  Secretary  Sherman,  45th  Consress,  3d  session. 

Northern  states $42,163  43 

Loyal  Southern  states 1)2,361  85 

Southern  states w 128,600  47 

$263,125  75 

Dec.  3, 1879.    Secretary  Sherman,  46th  Congress.  2d  session,  Ex. 

Doc.  No.  14. 

Northern  states $19,719  07 

Loyal  Southern  states 42,019  89 

Southern  states 52,324  89 

$114,063  00 

Claims  allowed  as  per  report.    Total 

Northern  States.  $867,794  72 

Dec.  31,  1874 $9,720  21 

Jan.    6,1876 12,386  66 

Jan.  24,  18/7 1,758  62 

Jan.  14,1878 11.800  13 

Jan.  11,  1879 42,163  43 

Dec.    3,  1879 19,719  07 

$97,548  12 

Loyal  Southern  States. 

Dec.31,1874 $51,009  18 

Jan.    6,  1876 72,971  77 

Jan.  24,  1877 85,02P  67 

Jan.  14,  1878 66,30u  SS 

Jan .  1 1 ,  1879. . .   92,361  85 

Dec.    3,1879 42,019  89 

409,oo9  71 


Dec.  31,  1874. 
Jan.  6,  1876. 
Jan.  24,  1877. 
Jan.  14,  1878. 
Jan.  11,  1879.. 
Dec.  3,  1879., 


Southern  States. 


$50,570  02 
73,189  67 

102,576  82 
53,305  87 

128,600  47 
52,-324  04 

$507,237  83 
360,566  89 

$867,794  7o 

rUIVATH:    CLA.IMS    AGAINST   THE    GOVERNMENT. 


341 


STATEMENT   OF  THE  AMOUNTS   EXPENDED  UNDER  THE  APPROPRIATIONS  FOR 
"  CLAIMS  FOR  QUARTERMASTER  AND  COMMISSARY  SUPPLIES."  ACT  JULY  4,  1864. 


States. 

1876. 

isrr. 

1878. 

1879. 

1880. 
To  April  15. 

Totals. 

New  York 

$1,730  00 

305  89 

25,484  70 

■V3,628'42 
396  25 

$1,738  00 
9.825  54 

irns  75 
8,972  M 

$1,371  33 

48,570  83 

381  12 

45,819  81 

$7,754  57 
37,208  91 

'26,517  74 

""43000 

32,515  16 

387  00 

130  00 

37,485  16 

125,024  17 

17,679  97 

20  00 

"$17i'62 

Maryland 

Vir^'iiiia.                

120,408  60 
381  12 

V\  est  Virginia 

North  Carolina 

4,121  90 

84,087  87 
396  25 

Georgia         

76  50 
100  00 

"10,233 '56 

1,095  00 

790  00 

44,862  75 

128,217  61 

16,481  43 

76  50 

100  00 

Texas     

6  66 

97  17 

200  00 

284  50 

46,228  18 

65,524  22 

8,900  84 

270  00 

1,359  88 

436  00 

Ohio 

250  00 

125  00 

630  00 

26,418  38 

37,629  12 

9,217  81 

3,505  65 

43,095  83 

Indiana 

1,807  00 

Illinois 

1,834  50 

Kentucky 

Tennessee 

Missouri 

697  55 

1,144  50 

218  25 

155,692  02 

357,539  62 

52,498  30 

290  00 

Kansas 

937  92 

5,803  45 
120  00 

Nebraska 

120  00 

Colorado 

875  00 

875  00 

California        

500  00 
50  00 
175  50 

500  00 

600  00 
7,208  97 

650  00 

District  of  Columbia. . 

4,085  80 

2,834  96 

14,305  23 

$95,349  95 

$173,100  02 

$301,772  76 

$279,998  18 

$2,231  92 

$852,452  83 

Register's  Office,  AprU  22,  1880.  G.  W.  SCOFIELD,  Register. 

PRIVATE   CLAIMS. 

Statement  of  private  claims,  passed  at  42d,  43d,  44th  and  45th  Congresses: 

42d  Congress,     1st  sess _ $56,105.64 

2d  sess 611,140.19 

3d  sess 766,128.10 


43d 


Total  42d  Congress 

Congress    1st    sess $614,123.31 

2d    sess 239,553.92 


Total  43d  Congress. 


Total  42d  and  43d  Congress. 


44th  Congress  1st  sess. $292,050.05 

2d  sess 234,489.95 


Total  44th  Congress 

45th  Congress  1st  sess $311,953.53 

2d    sess 349,438.01 

3d  sess 348,779.43 


Total  45th  Congress. 


$1,433,373.93 


$853,677.23 
$2,287,051.16 


$526,540.00 


$1,010,170.97 


Total  44th  and 45th  Congresses. $1,536,710. 97 

Reductions  44th  and  45th  Congresses  (Democratic  House)  in  amounts  appro- 
priated for  private  claims  under  amounts  appropriated  for  private  claims  by  the 
Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses  (Republican  in  both  branches), 
$750,340.19,  being  a  reduction  of  more  than  32  per  cent. 


342        THIBTiiEJSTH,    iOUIiTi:KNTH    AND   FIJb^TEENTH   AALENDMENTS. 


THE  THIRTEENTH,  FOURTEENTH  AND 
FIFTEENTH  AMENDMENTS. 


ARTICLE  Xin. 
Section  1. 
Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime 
whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United 
States,  or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction. 

Section  2. 
Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by  appropriate  legislation. 

ARTICLE    XIV. 
Section  1. 

All  persons  bom  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and  subject  to  the  juris- 
diction thereof,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  state  wherein  they  re- 
side. No  state  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privileges 
or  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  ;  nor  shall  any  state  deprive  any 
person  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to  any 
person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws. 

Section  2. 

Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the  several  states  according  to  their 
respective  numbers,  counting  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  each  state,  exclud- 
ing Indians  not  taxed.  But  when  the  right  to  vote  at  any  election  for  the  choice 
of  electors  for  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  representatives 
in  Congress,  the  executive  and  judicial  officers  of  a  state,  or  the  members  of  the 
legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male  members  of  such  state,  being 
twenty-one  years  of  age  and  citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  way  abridged, 
except  for  participation  in  rebellion  or  other  crime,  the  basis  of  representation 
therein  shall  be  reduced  in  the  proportion  which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens 
shall  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one  years  of  age  in  such 
state. 

Section  3. 

No  person  shall  be  a  Senator  or  Representative  in  Congress,  or  elector  of  Presi- 
dent and  Vice-President,  or  hold  any  office,  civil  or  military  under  the  United 
States,  or  under  any  state,  who,  having  previously  taken  an  oath,  as  a  member  of 
Congress,  or  as  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a  member  of  any  state  legis- 
lature, or  as  an  executive  or  judicial  officer  of  any  state,  to  support  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  shall  have  engaged  in  insurrection  or  rebellion  against 


THIRTEENTH,    FOURTEENTH    AND    FIFTEENTH    AMENDMENTS.        343 

the  same,  or  given  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemies  thereof.     But  Congress  may, 
by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  each  House,  remove  such  disability. 

Section  4. 

The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United  States,  authorized  by  law,  includ- 
ing debts  incurred  for  payment  of  pensions  and  bounties  for  services  in  suppress- 
ing insurrection  or  rebellion,  shall  not  be  questioned.  But  neither  the  United 
States  nor  any  state  shall  assume  or  pay  any  debt  or  obligation  incurred  in  aid  of 
insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim  for  the  loss  or 
emancipation  of  any  slave  ;  but  all  such  debts,  obligations  and  claims  shall  be 
held  illegal  and  void. 

Section  5. 

The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  by  appropriate  legislation  the  pro- 
visions of  this  article. 

ARTICLE  XV. 
»  Section  1. 

The  right  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or 
abridged  by  the  United  States  or  any  state  on  account  of  race,  color  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude. 

Section  2. 
The  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce  by  appropriate  legislation  the  pro- 
visions of  this  article. 


844  THE   DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 


THE  DEMOCRATS  AND  THE  SOLDIERS. 

LEGISLATION  THAT  SPEAKS  FOR  ITSELF. 


DEMOCRATIC  EFFORTS  FOR  THE   SOLDIER   THWARTED    BY  REPTTBLICANS. 

The  Republicans  in  Congress  have  always  been  loud  m  their  professions  of  love 
for  the  soldier.  Professions  are  one  thing.  Acts  are  quite  another.  An  examin- 
ation of  the  records  of  the  Democratic  and  Republican  parties  on  this  subject 
shows  that  while  the  latter  have  been  professing,  the  former  have  been  acting; 
while  the  latter  have  been  promising,  the  former  have  been  fulfilling.  The  Demo- 
crats have  not  only  passed  private  pension  bills  most  cheerfully,  but  have  enacted 
general  laws  whenever  the  mass  of  the  soldiers  were  to  be  benefited  thereby.  Bills 
for  the  equalization  of  bounties  and  for  arrearages  of  pensions  have  both  passed 
Democratic  houses,  only  to  be  defeated  outright  or  contemptuously  kicked  aside 
in  the  Republican  Senate. 

In  the  course  of  a  speech  on  this  subiect  in  1878,  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, Hon.  John  A.  McMahon,  of  Ohio,  truthfully  said : 

The  importance  of  these  votes  is  more  apparent  when  we  consider  that  the  Democratic  party 
came  liere  in  the  interest  of  retrenchment  and  reform.  Have  we  ever  cut  down  the  pension  bills? 
Have  we  ever  listened  to  the  oft  repeated  charge  that  the  pension  list  is  too  large;  that  fraudulent 
claims  are  on  it;  that  it  should  be  revised?  No,  we  prefer  to  err  on  the  side  of  the  soldier  and  his 
suffering  family.  We  have  cut  everywhere  else;  we  have  retrenched  in  every  direction  but  in  that. 
We  vole  for  no  increased  expenditure  except  for  the  Union  soldier. 

Below  are  a  few  of  the  measures  which  the  Democrats  have  originated  and 
passed  in  the  interest  of  the  soldier.  In  every  case,  where  the  measure  was  de- 
feated, the  Republican  party  was  responsible  for  the  defeat  as  the  record  shows. 
Votes  against  meritorious  bills  always  came  from  the  Republican  side.  If  they 
thought  they  could  not  defeat  a  bill  by  their  votes  they  buried  it  in  the  committee 
room. 

EQUALIZATION  OP  BOUNTIES. 

Frequently  since  the  close  of  the  war  attempts  have  been  made  to  equalize  the 
bounties  of  soldiers.  In  the  Forty-third  Congress  a  bill  passed  the  House.  It 
went  to  the  Senate,  which  was  at  the  time  overwhelmingly  Republican.  After 
remaining  in  committee  some  time  it  was  passed,  but  at  so  late  a  day  in  the  ses- 
sion that  it  was  somehow  lost  between  the  two  Houses.  It  never  received  the 
President's  signature. 

"When  the  Democrats  came  into  power  in  the  House  they  immediately  looked 
into  the  question.  Several  bills  for  equalization  were  introduced  and  referred  to 
tlic  Committee  on  Military  Affairs.  They  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  Gen.  Phil. 
Cook,  of  Georgia,  who  reported  a  bill  without  unnecessary  delay.  It  was  re- 
ported on  March  11th,  187C.  Although  frequently  pressed  by  Gen.  Cook,  its 
consideration  was  not  reached  until  June  20th.  Gen.  Banning,  of  Ohio,  the 
Chairman  of  tlie  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  made  a  speech,  in  the  course  of 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS.  345 

which  he  demonstrated  the  feeling  of  the  Domocrats  toward  the  soldiers.     Gen. 

Banning  said  : 

I  do  not  propose  to  make  a  speech  or  an  argument  on  this  bill.  This  House  has  frequently 
heretofore  declared  in  favor  of  this  measure.  It  has  been  promised  to  the  soldiers  since  1862,  but 
it  is  left  f  it  this  Congrsss  to  redeem  the  promises  of  gentlemen  on  the  other  side,  who  have 
been  making  them,  and  making  them,  and  making  them,  but  have  never  kept  them.  I  believe  that 
those  promises  will  be  redeemed  to-day,  and  it  will  be  done  by  this  Congress  that  gentlemen  have 
seen  fit  to  denominate  the  Confederate  Congress.  When  the  news  goes  abroad  that  this  Confederate 
Congress  has  rendered  unto  the  soldier  that  which  is  his,  but  which  the  Republican  party  failed  to 
give  him,  tuen  I  hope  the  cry  of  "  Confederate  Congress  "  will  be  buried  forever. 

The  bill  passed  the  "Confederate  Congress,"  as  it  was  called,  by  a  vote  of 

141  to  46  (see  Cong.  Record,  vol.  4,  part  4,  1st  sess.  4:ith  Cong.,  pp.  3939,  3940). 

The  affirmative  vote  was  as  follows  :  Messrs.  Adams,  Ainsworth,  Anderson,  Atkins,  Bagley, 
J.  H.  Bagley,  Jr.,  Baker  (Ind.),  Baker  (N.  Y.),  Ballou,  Banks,  Banning,  Blair,  Bland,  Brown  (Kan.), 
Burchard  (111.),  Burchard  (Wis.),  Burleigh,  Campbell,  Cannon,  Cason,  Caswell,  Cate,  Caulfield, 
Clarke  (Mo.),  Clymer,  Cochrane,  Cook,  Cutler,  Danford,  De  Bock,  Dennison,  Dibrell,  Dolling, 
Bunnell,  Dugand,  Eames,  Eden,  Finley,  Fort,  Foster,  Franklin,  Freeman,  Frost,  Frye,  Fuller, 
Glover,  Goodin,  Hamilton  (Ind.),  Haralson,  Hartzell,  Hatcher,  Hayward,  Hendee,  Henderson, 
Hewitt  (Ala.),  Hill,  Hoye,  Holman,  Hopkins,  Hoskins,  Hubbell,  Hurd,  Hunburt,  Hyman,  Jenks, 
Jones  (N.H.),  Joyce,  Kasson.  Kelly,  Ketcham,  Kimball,  Landers  (Ind.),  Landers  (Conn.),  Lawrence, 
Le  Moyne,  Levy,  Lynch,  Mackey  (Pa.),  Maish,  McCrary,  McDill,  McFarland,  McMahon, 
Metcalfe.  Miller,  Monroe,  Morgan,  Morrison,  Mutchler,  Oliver,  O'Neill,  Page,  Payne,  Phillips  (Mo.), 
Phillips  (Kan.),  Poppleton,  Potter,  Pratt,  Rainey,  Randall,  Rea,  John  Reilley,  Rice,  Rollins  (Pa.), 
Rollins  (X.  C),  Robmson,  Rusk,  Sampson,  Savage,  Sayler,  Sheakley,  Simonton,  Smulls,  Smith 
(Pa.),  Southard,  Springer,  Strait,  Stenger,  Stone,  Teese,  Townsend  (Pa.),  Tufts,  Turney,  Van  Vor- 
hees,  Vance  (N.  C),  Wait,  Waldron.  Walker  (N.  Y.),  Wallace  (S.  C),  Wallace  (Pa.),  Walsh,  White, 
WUiting,  Wike,  Willard,  WiUiams  (Wis.),  Wilson  (Ind.),  Williams  (Mich.),  Williams  (Min.),  Wood 
(Pa.),  and  Yeatee. 

Of  the  gentlemen  above  recorded,  74,  or  more  than  one-half,  were 
Democrats. 

Gen.  James  A.  Garfield  seems  to  have  dodged  this  vote.  He  is  recorded 
among  the  absentees,  and  no  pair  is  announced.  The  Record  shows,  however, 
that  he  was  present  during  the  day  for  he  participated  in  the  proceedings. 

the  republican  senate  postpones  THE  BILL. 

The  bill  thus  passed  through  the  House,  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate.  It  was 
reported  back  on  June  26th,  and  placed  on  the  calendar.  Attempts  were  repeat- 
edly made  to  get  the  bill  up,  but  without  success.  Whenever  the  motion  was 
made  to  consider  the  subject,  th£re  was  always  enough  votes  against  it  to  prevent 
action.  The  last  attempt  to  take  it  up  was  made  August  11th,  1876,  but  the 
motion  was  defeated,  as  usual  {see  Record,  Part  6,  44^^  Cong.,  1st  sess.,  p.  5434). 

That  was  the  last  heard  of  the  bill.  It  was  indefinitely  postponed,  which  was 
an  indirect  way  of  killing  it. 

That  which  the  Democratic  House  had  cheerfully  passed,  the  Republican 
Senate,  with  all  its  professed  love  for  the  soldier,  deliberately  killed. 

TIME  FOR  FILING  BOUNTY   CLAIMS    EXTENDED. 

The  time  for  filing  claims  for  additional  bounty  under  the  Act  of  July  28th, 
1866,  expired  by  limitation  on  the  30th  day  of  January,  1875.  In  February,  1876, 
a  bill  was  reported  from  a  committee  of  the  Democratic  House  to  extend  the  time 
until  the  1st  day  of  July,  1880.  The  bill  further  provided  that  all  claims 
for  such  bounty  filed  in  the  proper  department  after  the  30th  day  of  Janu- 
ary, 1875,  and  before  the  passage  of  this  act,  should  be  regarded  as  having  been 
filed  in  due  time,  and  should  be  consideT'ed  and  decided  without  refiling.  The 
bill  promptly  passed  the  House  (Record,  Part^,  4Ath  Cong.,  1st  sess.,  p.  1117). 

ARREARS  OP  PENSIONS. 

In  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  a  large  number  of  bills  for  arrears  of  pensions 
were  introduced  and  referred.  They  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  that  gallant 
soldier  from  Ohio,  General  A.  Y.  Rice.     Out  of  all  the  bills  referred  he  formu- 


346  THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 

lated  a  general  bill  and  reported  it  on  March  22d,  1876.     At  his  suggestion  the 
bill  was  made  a  special  order. 

HOW  GARFIELD  AND  OTHER  REPUBLICANS  FOUGHT  IT. 

On  August  1st  General  Rice  moved  to  go  into  committee  of  the  whole  for  tlie 
purpose  of  taking  up  the  bill.  The  Republicans  endeavored  to  defeat  the  motion 
by  indirection  and  by  a  resort  to  parliamentary  expedients.  Had  they  been  in 
favor  of  the  bill  they  could  have  helped  to  pass  it  by  simply  withholding  their 
objections.  Anything  can  be  done  in  the  House  by  unanimous  consent ;  but 
they  chose  to  adopt  a  different  course. 

Mr.  Sampson,  of  Iowa,  was  the  first  to  interpose  an  objection.     He  said: 

1  understand  the  motion  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  is,  that  the  House  now  resolve  itself  into 
committee  of  the  whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union  for  the  purpose  of  considering  a  special  bill. 

The  Speaker  ^ro  tern  (Mr.  Sayler):  That  is  so. 

Mr.  Sampson:  Can  that  be  done?  Must  not  all  bills  be  taken  up  in  their  order  when  the  House 
resolves  itself  into  committee  of  the  whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union? 

The  Speaker  joro^em:  The  parliamentary  motion  is  to  go  into  committee  of  the  whole  on  the 
state  of  the  Union.  That  motion  is  in  order  and  the  rules  may  be  suspended  for  that  purpose  by  a 
majority  vote.  The  Chair  is  informed  it  has  been  the  custom  to  go  into  committee  of  the  whole 
on  the  state  of  the  Union  for  a  certain  purpose,  and  to  antagonize  against  that  other  purposes,  and 
to  settle  the  question  prior  to  going  into  committee  of  the.whole. 

Mr.  Hoar:  That  motion  extends  only  to  appropriation  bills.  A  special  motion  to  go  into  com- 
mittee of  the  whole  on  an  appropriation  bill  is  in  order.  But,  sir,  all  other  bills  in  the  committee 
of  the  whole  must  be  taken  up  in  their  order  on  the  calendar  and  laid  aside  one  by  one. 

Mr.  Garfield:  If  we  go  into  the  committee  on  the  whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union,  we  must  take 
up  the  calendar  in  order  just  as  on  Fridav. 

Mr.  Hale:  That  has  been  the  invariable  rule. 

Mr.  Rice:  It  has  been  the  practice  so  far  as  I  have  observed  during  this  session  to  go  into  com- 
mittee of  the  whole  on  bills  specially  indicated.  I  wif<h  to  say  the  usage  has  been  during  this 
session,  at  least,  in  accordance  with  the  motion  I  have  made. 

It  will  be  observed  that,  while  General  Rice  wanted  to  go  into  committee  on 
the  bill  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  Union  soldier,  and  while  the  Democratic 
Speaker  pro  tern  wanted  to  assist  him  in  the  accomplishment  of  that  object, 
General  Garfield,  Mr.  Hoar  and  Mr.  Hale,  all  prominent  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party,  insisted  upon  a  strict  application  of  the  rule  as  against  the  soldiers'  interests. 

General  Rice  insisted  upon  his  motion  and  the  House  went  into  committee. 
The  rule  requiring  bills  to  be  taken  up  in  their  order  was  rigidly  insisted  upon, 
and  before  the  arrears  bill  could  be  reached  the  committee  was  found  without  a 
quorum  and  had  to  rise  {Record,  ml.  5,  part  6,  \st  seas.,  44th  Cong.,  pp.  5054  and 
5055). 

MORE  FACTIOUS   OPPOSITION. 

On  the  following  day,  August  2d,  General  Rice  tried  to  push  the  bill  forward 
again.  He  succeeded  in  getting  it  into  Committee  of  the  Whole,  but  the  entire 
time  was  again  occupied  in  discussing  the  order  of  business,  gentlemen  insist- 
ing that  the  bills  on  the  calendar  be  taken  up  in  their  order  (Ibid,  pp.  5084, 
5085). 

The  opposition  was  so  determined  that  the  bill  could  not  be  reached  again 
at  that  session  of  Congress.  It  might  have  been  passed  then  if  the  Republicans 
had  not  made  the  point  about  taking  it  out  of  its  order. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC  HOUSE  ACTS,    THE   REPUBLICAN   SENATE  REFUSES. 

On  March  3d,  1877,  at  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  the 
bill  was  passed  under  a  suspension  of  the  rules  by  the  Democratic  House.  The 
same  day  the  bill  went  to  the  Republican  Senate  and  there  it  slept  the  sleep  of 
death  in  the  Republican  household — lost  in  the  house  of  its  professed  friends. 

THE  BILL  OP  1878. 
On  June  19th,  1878,  the  Democratic  House  passed  another  Arrears  of  Pension 
Bill.     This  was  in  the  Forty-fifth  Congress.     It  passed  by  a  vote  of   1G4  to  61. 
The  bill  was  not  exactly  in  the  form  in  which  General  Rice  and  the  majority  of 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS.  347 

the  Pension  Committee  wanted  to  have  it.     Tlie  bill  of  the  committee  proposed 
to  repeal  section  4716  of  the  Revised  Statutes  which  was  as  follows: 

No  monej'  on  account  of  pensions  shall  be  paid  to  any  person,  or  to  the  widow,  children  or  heirs 
of  !iny  person,  who  in  any  manner  voluntarily  engaged  in,  or  aided  or  abetted  the  late  rebellion 
against  the  authority  of  the  United  States. 

The  purpose  of  this  repeal  was  to  restore  to  the  rolls  the  pensioners  of  the  war 
of  1812  and  other  wars,  whose  names  had  been  stricken  therefrom  for  disloyalty. 
Notwithstanding  the  refusal  of  the  Republicans  to  permit  this  clause  to  be  re- 
pealed, the  Southern  Democrats  did  not  on  that  account  withhold  their  votes  from 
the  arrears  bill.  They  gave  it  a  cordial  support  for  they  had  determined  to  do 
justice  to  the  Union  soldier,  although  the  Republicans  refused  to  act  in  an  equally 
just  spirit  toward  the  veterans  of  1812. 

When  the  bill  went  to  the  Senate  it  was  fought  for  some  time.  Action  was  not 
reached  upon  it  in  that  body  until  the  next  session  on  January  IGth,  1879.  It 
passed  on  the  18th  of  that  month  after  a  good  deal  of  opposition  and  after  several 
attempts  had  been  made  to  amend  it,  so  that  it  would  have  to  be  sent  back  to  the 
House. 

The  soldiers  are  indebted  for  the  arrears  bill  to  the  energy,  in  their  behalf,  of 
the  Democratic  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

THE  APPROPRIATION  UNDER  THE   BILL. 

The  bill  had  been  passed  only  a  few  days  whan  the  Appropriation  Committee 
of  the  Democratic  House  brought  in  and  passed  the  following  bill.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  they  were  not  only  prompt  to  raise  the  money  to  pay  the  pensions, 
but  they  included  clauses  construing  certain  clauses  of  the  arrears  act. 

An  Act  making  appropriations  for  the  payment  of  the  arrears  of  pensions  granted  by  act  of  Con- 
gress approved  January  25th,  ei;|hteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine,  and  for  other  purposes. 
Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in 
Congress  assembled,  that  there  be  and  hereby  is  appropriated  out  of  any  money  in  the  treasury  not 
otherwise  appropriated,  the  following  sums  namely:  F(."r  the  arrears  of  pensions  due  on  claims 
in  which  the  pensions  were  allowed  prior  to  Jauuary  25th,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine, 
twenty-five  million  dollars;  the  amounts  paid  out  respectively  for  army  and  navy  pensions  to  be 
accounted  for  separately  to  the  proper  accounting  officers  of  the  Treasury  Department.  For  pen- 
sions for  army  and  navy  Invalids,  widows,  minors  and  dependent  relatives  for  the  fiscal  year  end- 
ing June  thirtieth,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine,  one  million  eight  hundn  d  thousand  dollars 
in  addition  to  the  amounts  heretofore  appropriated  for  those  purposes,  the  amounts  paid  out  on  ac- 
count of  army  and  navy  pensions  respectively  to  be  accounted  for  separately  to  the  proper  ac- 
counting ofticers  of  the  Treasury  Department.  For  temporary  clerks  in  the  Pension  Office  and  for 
furniture,  rent  of  additional  rooms  and  other  contingencies  fifty-two  thousand  two  hundred  dollars 
in  addition  to  the  appropriations  which  have  be-  n  or  shall  be  made  under  other  acts  the  same  to  be 
available  until  June  thirtieth,  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty:  Provided,  That  no  more  than  three 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars  shall  be  used  for  furniture,  contingencies  and  rent. 

The  pension  agents  shall  receive  for  their  services  and  expenses  in  paying  the  arrears  upon  pen- 
sions allowed  previous  to  January  twenty-fifth  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine,  including  post- 
age on  the  vouchers  and  checks  sent  to  the  pensioner,  thirty  cents  for  each  payment;  and  the  sum 
of  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  is  hereby  appropriated  for 
the  payment  of  the  same. 

That  the  rate  at  which  the  arrears  of  invalid  pensions  shall  be  allowed  and  computed  in  the 
cases  which  have  been  or  shall  hereafter  bti  allowed  shall  be  graded  according  to  the  tic,.,  of  the 
pensioners  disability  from  time  to  time  and  the  provisions  of  the  pension  laws  in  force  over  the  pe- 
riod for  which  the  arrears  shall  be  computed. 

That  section  one  of  the  act  of  January  twenty-fifth,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine,  granting 
arrears  of  pensions  shall  be  construed  to  extend  to  and  include  pensions  ou  account  of  soldiers 
who  w<  re  enlisted  or  drafted  for  the  service  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  but  died  or  incurred  disa- 
bility from  a  cause  originating  after  the  cessation  of  hostilities;  and  before  being  mustered  out: 
Provided,  That  in  no  case  shall  arrears  of  pensions  be  allowed  and  paid  from  a  time  prior  to  the 
date  of  actual  disability. 

t'Ec.  2.  All  pensions  which  have  been,  or  which  may  hereafter  be,  granted  in  consequence  of 
death  occurring  from  a  cause  which  originated  in  the  service  since  the  fourth  day  of  March,  eigh- 
teen hundred  and  sixty-one,  or  in  const  quence  of  wounds  or  injuries  received  or  disease  contracted 
since  that  date  shall  commence  from  the  death  or  discharge  of  the  person  on  whose  account  the 
claim  has  been  or  is  hereafter  granted  if  the  disability  occurred  prior  to  discharge,  and  if  such  disa- 
bility occurred  after  the  discharge  then  from  the  date  of  actual  disability  or  from  the  termination 
of  the  right  of  party  having  prior  title  to  such  pension :  Provided,  The  application  for  such  pen- 
sion has  been  or  is  hereafter  filed  with  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions  prior  to  ihe  first  day  of  July 
eighteen  hundred  and  eighty,  otherwise  the  pension  shall  commence  from  the  date  of  filing  the  ap- 
phcation;  but  the  limitation  herein  prescribed  shall  not  apply  to  claims  by  or  in  behalf  of  insane 
I)ersons  and  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age. 

Sec.  3.  Section  forty-seven  hundred  and  nine  of  the  Revised  Statutes  is  hereby  repealed. 
Approved,  March  3,  1879. 


S4b  THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 

THE  REPUBLICAN  OUTRAGE   ON   THE   SOLDIERS   OF   1812. 

There  is  no  darker  blot  on  legislation  than  the  action  of  the  Republicans  in 
Congress  with  regard  to  the  soldiers  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  their  widows  and 
orphans.  Shortly  after  the  war  of  the  rebellion  broke  out,  the  Republicans 
struck  all  those  people  who  resided  in  the  South  from  the  pension  rolls.  It  was 
just  and  right  to  do  so  at  the  time,  because  the  United  States  could  not  send 
money  to  the  South  during  flagrant  war.  But  after  the  war  was  over,  and  when 
all  the  States  had  been  re-admitted  to  their  places  in  the  Union,  there  was  no  justi- 
.Ication  for  withholding  from  these  old  veterans  the  money  which  they  earned 
in  defence  of  the  flag  of  the  whole  country.  In  the  Forty-fourth  Congress, 
General  Hunter,  of  Virginia,  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Revolutionary 
Pensions  of  the  War  of  1812.  He  had  for  his  colleagues  on  the  committee  such 
men  as  James  Phelps  of  Connecticut,  Frank  Hurd  of  Ohio,  Martin  J.  Townsend 
of  New  York,  Samuel  A.  Dollins  of  New  Jersey  and  Thoman  J.  Henderson  of 
Illinois.  On  March  3d,  1876,  by  direction  of  his  committee,  he  reported  a  bill 
to  amend  the  laws  granting  pensions  to  the  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  war  of 
1812.  The  bill  proposed  to  restore  to  the  rolls  the  names  of  the  pensioners  who 
had  been  stricken  therefrom  for  disloyalty,  and  the  widows  and  dependent 
children  of  such  pensioners.  The  bill  also  provided  that  the  pensions  should 
commence  after  the  close  of  the  civil  war,  in  1865.  It  was  not  proposed  to  pay 
them  for  any  time  during  the  war,  when  they  were  supposed  to  have  sym- 
pathized with  the  South.  In  the  course  of  the  discussion  of  the  bill  attention 
was  called  to  the  fact  that  from  the  lapse  of  time  from  the  war  of  1813  until  the 
beginning  of , the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  that  these  old  men  could  not  have  pos- 
siblj^  participated  in  the  latter.  Nevertheless,  the  Republicans  opposed  the  bill. 
Congressman  Conger  of  Michigan  was  a  leading  spirit  in  opposition.  He  moved 
to  so  amend  the  bill  as  to  make  its  pensions  take  effect  at  the  date  of  its  passage, 
and  he  added  "that  is  time  enough  to  pension  men  who  have  been  disloyal. " 
Mr.  Reagan  and  other  gentlemen  again  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  from  the 
very  necessities  of  the  case,  these  veterans  of  1812  were  so  old  in  1861  that  they 
could  not  have  participated  actively  in  the  rebellion. 

Mr.  Conger  and  his  friends  did  not  succeed  in  striking  out  the  clause. 

FIGHTING  WIDOWS  AND   ORPHANS. 

There  was  another  section  of  the  bill  which  excited  the  ire  of  the  Republicans. 
It  was  not  proposed  to  give  arrears  of  pay  to  the  old  soldiers  who  had 
sympathized  with  their  children  and  grandchildren.  But  it  was  proposed  to 
give  arrears  to  the  widows  and  heirs  of  these  old  soldiers.  Then  the  Republicans 
came  to  the  front  again  to  fight  the  widows  and  orphans. 

To  the  credit  of  the  American  Congress  be  it  said,  the  motion  to  strike  out  the 
section  was  rejected  by  a  vote  of  92  yeas  to  102  nays. 

The  Democratic  House  had  no  idea  of  fighting  widows  and  orphans. 

Here  are  the  names  of  some  of  the  Republicans  who  voted  for  that  infamous 
proposition  : 

Baker,  of  Indiana  ;  Ballou,  of  Khode  Island  ;  Burchard,  of  Illinois,  now  Director  of  the  Mint  ; 
Cannon,  of  Illinois  :  Conger,  of  Michigan  ;  Dunnell,  of  Minnesota  ;  Fort,  of  Illinois  ;  Foster, 
of  Ohio,  now  Republican  Governor  of  that  State  and  one  of  Garfield's  right  hand  men  ;  Frye,  of 
Maine  ;  James  A.  Gakpield,  the  Republican  Candidate  fob  President  ;  Hoar,  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  Hurlburt,  of  Illinois  ;  Joyce,  of  Vermont ;  Kasson,  of  Iowa  ;  O'Neill,  of  Pennsylvania  ; 
Page,  of  California  ;  Rusk,  of  Wisconsin  ;  Wheeler,  of  New  Yor*v,  and  others  not  so  prominent 
in  Republican  circles. 

All  of  the  negative  votes,  with  three  exceptions,  were  Democrats. 

After  a  further  fight  upon  the  question  of  paying  arrearages,  the  bill  was 

passed  {Record,  vol.  4,  part  d,4ith  Cong.,  1st  sess.,  pp.  2167-70). 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AXD    THE    SOLDIERS.  849 

THE   REPUBLICAN  SENATE  KILLS  THE  BILL. 

The  bill  went  to  the  Republican  Senate.  It  was  referred  to  a  committee, 
reported  back  with  amendments,  the  report  was  ordered  printed,  and  that  was 
the  last  of  it.  The  Republican  Senate  did  not  care  to  pass  the  bill.  It  was  a 
matter  of  indifference  to  them  whether  the  old  soldiers  or  their  widows  were 
paid  or  not. 

THE  BILL  OP  1878. 

In  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  bills  to  restore  these  old  veterans  were  introduced 
in  both  Houses.  On  the  19th  of  February,  1878,  Mr.  Withers  called  the  bill  up  in 
the  Senate.  Senator  Edmunds  and  other  Republicans  opposed  the  restoration  of 
the  veterans  to  the  rolls.  Mr.  Maxey  made  a  speech  in  which  he  administered  a 
merited  rebuke,  and  showed  how  absolutely  indefensible  and  outrageous  was  the 
position  of  the  Republican  party  on  this  question.     He  said  : 

It  seems  to  me,  Mr.  President,  that  when  the  laws  of  this  country  under  the  operation  of  the 
Fourteenth  amendment  juntify,  and  wisely  so,  the  admission  to  this  body  and  to  the  highest  offices 
in  the  gift  of  the  people,  to  men  like  myself  who  openly,  actively  participated  in  the  late  rebellion, 
it  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  something  singular  that  these  few  old  men,  now  rapidly  passing  to  their 
graves,  should  be  deprived  of  the  poor  pittance  of  a  pension  of  eight  dollars  per  month  for  their 
services  63  years  ago,  in  a  war  with  Great  Britain,  simply  because,  forsooth,  their  sympathies  were 
with  their  children  and  grandchildren  who  participated  in  the  late  war,  for  these  old  people  were 
too  old  to  have  taken  an  active  part  in  it. 

A  broad  and  liberal  statesmanship  was  laid  down  by  the  late  President,  General  Grant,  in  the 
message  to  Congress  of  December  7th,  1874,  in  respect  to  the  soldiers  of  1812-15,  living  in  the 
South,  and  provided  for  by  the  bill  now  before  the  Senate. 

grant's  rebuke  to  the  republicans. 

In  that  message  General  Grant  said  :  "  The  act  of  Congress  providing  an  oath  which  pensioners 
must  subscribe  To,  before  drawing  their  pensions,  cuts  off  from  this  bounty  a  few  survivors  of  the 
war  of  1812  residhig  in  the  Southern  states.  I  recommend  the  restoration  of  this  bounty  to  all 
such.  The  number  of  persons  whose  names  would  thus  be  restored  to  the  list  of  pensioners  is  not 
'arge.  They  are  all  old  persons,  who  could  have  taken  no  part  in  the  rebellion,  and  the  services  for 
which  they  were  awarded  pensions  were  in  defense  of  the  whole  country." 

These,  continued  Mr.  Maxey,  were  the  utterances  of  the  President,  a  man  who  as  General-in- 
Chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States  brought  the  war  to  a  close.  If  such  a  man,  occupying  the 
exalted  position  that  he  did,  and  who  was  lifted  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States,  by  reason 
of  the  military  service  he  had  rendered  his  country;  if  this  man,  who  more  than  any  other  one  man, 
perhaps,  who  occupied  a  high  position,  had  confused  the  so-called  rebels  and  brought  the  war  to  a 
close  ;  if  such  a  man  could  utter  such  sentiments  ;  it  does  seem  to  me  that  the  broad  statesman- 
ship which  he  annunciated  in  the  passages  I  have  quoted,  ought  to  prevail  in  this  body,  and  to 
induce  us  to  secure  to  these  old  men  this  pittance,  for  the  remnant  of  their  days  {Record,  Vol.  7, 
Part  2,  45i!A  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  1161). 

LEADING  REPUBLICANS   OPPOSE   THE  BILL. 

The  bill  was  opposed  by  Senators  Edmunds,  Anthon}^  Morrill  and  others.  But 
Mr.  Maxey's  speech  and  the  quotation  from  General  Grant's  message  seemed  to 
have  had  some  effect,  for  the  motion  to  strike  out  the  clause  authorizing  the 
restoration  of  the  old  pensioners  to  the  rolls  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  50  to  7. 
The  seven  Senators  who  voted  to  strike  it  out  were  Anthony,  Cameron  of  Wis- 
consin, Edmunds,  McMillan,  Morrill,  Oglesby  and  Teller. 

The  bill  was  then  passed,  the  same  seven  Republican  Senators  voting  against 
it  (Ibid.,  p.  1169). 

THE  BILL  IN  THE   HOUSE. 

The  bill  was  taken  up  in  the  House  on  March  4th,  1878.  It  was  reached  in 
the  course  of  business  on  the  Speaker's  table.  Mr.  Stephens  moved  that  it  be 
put  upon  its  passage  just  as  it  came  from  the  Senate.  Mr.  Joyce  and  other  Re- 
publicans wanted  to  move  to  amend  so  as  to  exclude  all  who  had  participated  in 
the  rebellion.  The  motion  was  decided  not  in  order,  pending  Mr.  Stephens' 
demand  for  the  previous  question  on  the  passage  of  the  bill.  The  previous  ques- 
tion was  seconded  and  the  bill  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  218  to  20.  All  the  Demo- 
crats voted  in  the  affirmative.  The  twenty  Republicans  who  voted  against  these 
old  and  decrepit  men  were  Baker,  Hunter  and   Robinson,  of  Indiana ;  Brewer, 


350  THE    DEMOCRATS    AM)    THE    SOLDIERS. 

Keightley,  McGowan,  Stone  and  Willits,  of  Michigan;  Cox  and  Danford,  of 
Ohio;  Dennison  and  Joyce,  of  Vermont;  Dwight,    Hiingerford    and  James,  of  ' 
New  York;  Hayes  and  Tipton,  of  Illinois;  Hazleton  and  Humphrey,  of  Wiscon- 
sin, and  Killinger,  of  Pennsylvania  (Ibid.,]).  1465). 

DID  (JARPEELD   DODGE  ? 

General  Garfield  is  not  recorded,  nor  is  he  announced  as  paired.  He  seems  to 
have  DODGED  because  he  had  voted  just  previously  on  a  bill  for  a  custom-house 
at  Memphis,  and  was,  therefore,  present  (Ibid.,  x>'  1463). 

In  spite  of  Republican  opposition,  the  old  soldiers  of  1813  rejoice  to-day,  and 
they  have  the  gratification  of  knowing  that  they  are  pensioned  for  the  remainder 
of  their  days  by  a  unanimous  Democratic  vote. 

AN  EFFORT  TO  PROTECT   SOLDIERS  FROM  SHARPERS. 

On  January  25,  1876,  Mr.  Jenks,  a  Democratic  representative  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, reported  from  the  Committee  on  lavulid  Pensions  a  bill  supplementary  to 
the  several  acts  relating  to  pensions  and  bounty  lands.  Under  the  law  as  it  then 
existed,  land  warrants  were  regarded  as  personal  property.  Consequently,  they 
not  unfrequently  got  into  the  hands  of  sharpers,  who  sold  them,  and  thereby  the 
soldiers  were  swindled.  For  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  soldiers,  the  Pension 
committee  reported  a  bill  declaring  land  warrants  issued  to  soldiers  to  be  real 
instead  of  personal  property.  The  object  was  to  place  the  same  directly  under 
the  control  of  the  courts,  because  when  the  warrants  were  made  realty  the  ad- 
ministrator of  a  soldier's  estate  could  not  dispose  of  the  warrant  without  an 
order  from  the  Orphan's  Court.  The  law  was  framed  entirely  for  the  protection 
of  the  soldier  and  his  heirs.  The  bill  was  opposed  in  the  House,  but  it  finally 
passed  by  Democratic  votes  {Eeco7'd,  vol.  4,  part  1,  1st  sess. ,  4Ath  Cong.,]).  618). 

THE  REPUBLICAN   SENATE  DEFEATS  THE  BILL. 

The  bill  went  to  the  Senate,  where  it  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Invalid 
Pensions.  It  was  there  pigeon-holed,  and  that  was  the  last  of  it.  The  bill  was 
based  upon  petitions  that  had  come  from  a  large  number  of  soldiers. 

The  Democrats  in  the  House  did  all  in  their  power  to  meet  the  wishes  of  the 
petitioners. 

The  Republican  Senate  paid  no  attention  to  the  petitions. 

ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS  FOR  SOLDIERS — A  REPUBLICAN  WRONG  RIGHTED. 

The  Republicans  in  the  height  of  their  power  never  made  adequate  provision 
for  the  furnishing  of  artificial  limbs  to  soldiers,  sailors  and  others.  The  Demo 
orals  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  took  this  subject  up.  The  Committee  on  Invalid 
Pensions  was  presided  over  in  this  case  by  George  A.  Jenks  of  Pennsylvania.  It 
had  among  others  for  members  George  W.  Hewitt  of  Alabama  ;  Jesse  J.  Yates  of 
South  Carolina  and  Haywood  Y.  Riddle  of  Tennessee,  three  ex-Confederates. 
These  gentlemen  wanted  to  have  a  l)ill  passed  to  pension  the  veterans  of  the  Mex- 
ican war.  The  Republicans  voted  against  the  bill  at  every  chance.  But  that  did 
not  deter  these  gentlemen.  They  endeavored  to  do  all  that  was  just  for  the  Union 
soldier. 

The  Republicans  said  in  almost  so  many  words,  "  We  will  not  do  anything  for 
the  Mexican  veterans  who  gave  an  empire  to  the  Union,  because  the  majority  of 
them  live  in  the  South." 

The  Democrats,  and  Southern  Democrats  at  that,  said,  "  We  will  do  justice  to 
the  Union  soldier,  although  they  fought  us  in  four  years  of  war." 

And  they  did  equal  and  exact  justice. 


THK    UKilOCKATS    AND    TUK    SOLDIEKS.  351 

Under  Republican  rule,  the  maimed  and  wounded  soldiers  of  the  Union  army- 
had  been  compelled  to  purchase  their  artificial  limbs  and  other  appliances  at  such 
prices  as  the  dealers  chose  to  demand. 

The  Democrats,  including  the  "Confederate  Brigadiers,"  said,  that  is  not  right 
Hence,  they  reported  a  bill  in  June,  1876,  to  regulate  the  issue  of  artificial  limbs. 

The  first  section  of  the  bill  provided,  that  every  person  vrho  in  the  line  of  his 
duty  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States  shall  have  lost  a  limb, 
or  sustained  bodily  injuries,  depriving  him  of  the  use  of  any  of  his  limbs,  shall 
receive  once  every  five  years  an  artificial  limb  or  appliance,  under  such  regula- 
tions as  the  surgeon-general  of  the  army  may  prescribe  ;  and  the  period  of  five 
years  shall  be  held  to  commence  with  the  filing  of  the  application  after  the  17th 
day  of  January,  in  the  year  1870. 

The  last  clause  of  the  act  is  significant.  The  Democrats  did  not  only  what  the 
Republicans  should  have  done  long  before,  but  they  dated  the  law  back,  so  that 
the  soldiers  should  not  suffer  in  their  pockets,  in  consequence  of  the  indifference 
of  the  Republican  party  to  their  interests. 

But  the  Democrats  went  further.  They  believed  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  owed  a  debt  to  the  soldiers,  and  that  it  should  be  generous.  So  they 
provided  in  the  same  bill,  that  the  necessary  transportation  to  have  artificial  limbs 
fitted  shall  be  furnished  by  the  Quartermaster-General  of  the  Army,  and  an  ap- 
propiation  was  made  for  that  purpose. 

There  was  not  the  slightest  trouble  in  passing  the  bill  throught  the  Democratic 
House.  It  went  to  the  Senate.  The  Senate  was  Republican.  Senator  Ingalls,  of 
Kansas,  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Pensions.  The  very  essence 
of  the  bill  '.was  taken  out  by  an  amendment  offered  by  Mr.  Ingalls 
himself.  It  deprived  the  soldier  of  the  very  advantage  which  the  Democratic 
House  insisted  he  should  have.  It  was  fought  in  the  Senate  and  substantially 
destroyed.  The  Democratic  House  insisted  upon  its  law  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Union  soldier.  A  committee  of  conference  was  ordered  on  the  disagreeing  votes. 
The  Democratic  House  finally  made  the  Senate  yield,  and  the  law  of  August 
loth,  1876,  became  a  part  of  the  statutes  of  the  land  through  the  obstinacy  of 
the  Democratic  House  in  the  interest  of  the  Union  soldier  (see  Becord,  vol.  4, 
part  5.  \st  sess.  4Ath  Cong.,  p.  4182,  dc). 

A    CONTRAST. 

Contrast  the  above  liberal  act  with  the  following,  which  the  Republicans  passed 
when  they  had  majorities  in  both  Houses  : 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con- 
artss  assembled.  That  all  persone  who  are  now  entitled  to  pensions  under  existing  laws,  and  who 
nave  lost  either  an  arm  at  or  above  the  elbow,  or  a  leg  at  or  above  the  knee,  shall  be  rated  in  the 
second  class,  and  shall  receive  twenty- four  dollars  per  month :  Provided,  That  no  artificial  limbs, 
or  commutation  therefor,  shall  be  furnished  to  sucn  persons  as  shall  be  entitled  to  pensions  under 
this  act. 

Sec.  2.  That  this  act  shall  take  effect  from  and  after  the  fourth  day  of  June,  eighteen  hundred 
and  seventy-four.    Approved  June  18. 1874. 

TOTALLY    DISABLED     SOLDIERS     RELIEVED. 

On  May  34,  1878,  the  House  passed  a  bill  to  increase  the  pensions  of  certain 
pensioned  soldiers  and  sailors,  who  had  lost  either  both  their  hands  or  both  their 
feet,  or  the  sight  of  both  eyes,  in  the  service  of  the  country.  It  provided  that 
the  pensions  of  such  soldiers  and  sailors  should  be  increased  to  $72  per  month. 
The  pension  allowed  at  the  time  was  a  little  over  $30  only  {Record,  panrt  4,  45th 
Cong. ,  2d  sess. ,  p.  3758). 

The  bill  gave  them  the  pension  absolutely  without  conditions  or  reservation. 
It  went  to  the  Republican  Senate,  where  the  Committee  on  Pensions  proposed  to 


352  THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 

attach  conditions  to  it.     They  recommended  the  striking  out  of  all  after  the  enact- 
ing clause  and  to  insert  as  follows  : 

THE  SENATE  ATTEMPTS  TO   IMPOSE  CONDITIONS. 

That  all  persons  who,  by  wounds  received  or  diseases  incurred  while  in  the  military  or  naval 
service  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  line  of  duty,  have  lost  both  arms  or  both  feet,  or  the  eight 
of  both  eyes,  or  the  sight  of  one  eye,  the  sight  of  the  other  having  been  previously  lost;  or  who 
is  or  shall  hereafter  become  so  totally  or  permanently  helpless,  from  wounds  or  diseases  so  received, 
as  to  require  the  regular  personal  aid  or  attendance  of  another  person,  shall  be  entitled  to  a  pen- 
sion of  1^72  per  month,  which  shall  be  in  lieu  of  the  pensions  now  granted  to  such  persons. 

Here  was  a  condition  precedent  that  certain  persons  should  have  the  attendance 
'P  another  person  before  the  increase  should  be  available.  But  the  committee 
went  a  step  further  and  proposed  to  add  the  following  proviso  to  the  bill : 

Provided,  That  this  act  shall  not  apply  to  those  who  have  no  families  dependent  upon  them  for 
support;  nor  to  those  who  are  not,  in  the  judgement  of  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions,  in  a  necessi- 
tous condition;  nor  to  any  person  during  the  time  he  may  be  in  the  civil  service  and  employment 
of  the  government  of  the  United  States. 

Let  all  soldiers  note  the  difference  in  the  two  bills.  That  of  the  Democratic 
House  proposed  to  help  the  pensioner  in  a  plain,  straightforward,  direct  way. 
That  of  the  Republican  Senate  hampered  it  with  conditions;  left  much  to  the 
discretion  of  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions,  and  proposed  to  repeat  what  they 
had  done  immediately  after  the  war,  and  say  that  employment  in  the  civil  service 
should  be  a  bar  to  a  pension,  no  matter  how  much  suffering  the  soldier  might 
have  endured. 

The  proposed  Senate  amendment  was  rejected,  and  the  bill  was  passed  just  as 
it  came  from  the  House  {see  Record,  part  5,  45^A  Cong. ,  2d  sess. ,  p.  4588). 

STILL  FURTHER  RELIEF  GRANTED. 

Another  bill,  passed  on  May  24, 1878,  increased  the  pensions  of  all  soldiers  who 
had  suffered  amputation  of  their  leg  at  the  hip  joint  to  $37.50  per  month.  It 
went  through  the  House  the  same  day  it  was  reported (^corc^,  part  4t,  45th  Cong., 
2d  sess.,  p.  3758). 

There  were  very  few  of  this  class  on  the  roll.  Hence  the  passage  of  the  bill 
could  not  add  very  largely  to  the  pension  account.  But  the  Republican  Senate 
let  the  bill  lay  for  nearly  one  year,  and  only  took  it  up  and  passed  it  about  the 
time  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  was  expiring,  and  when  the  Republican  majority 
was  about  to  give  place  to  a  Democratic  majority.     It  passed  March  3d,  1879. 

RELIEF  BILLS  PASSED  BY  THE  HOUSE  AND  REJECTED  BY  THE  SENATE. 

On  May  23,  1878,  Mr.  Riddle,  of  Tennessee,  reported  a  bill  from  the  pension 
committee  to  increase  pensions  in  certain  other  cases.  It  amended  the  pension  act 
of  1874  so  as  to  extend  its  provisions  to  all  persons  who  had  lost  an  arm  below 
the  elbow,  or  so  near  the  elbow,  or  a  leg  below  the  knee,  or  so  near  the  knee,  as  to 
destroy  the  use  of  the  elbow  or  the  knee-joint,  and  rated  such  persons  in  the  sec- 
ond class  and  to  receive  a  pension  of  $24  per  month. 

The  bill  passed  the  Democratic  House  without  the  slightest  opposition  {see  Rec- 
ord, part  4,  45^7i  Cong.,  2d  sess. ,  p.  3731). 

The  bill  went  to  the  Republican  Senate,  and  that  body  demonstrated  its  regard 
for  the  soldiers'  interests  by  sending  it  to  the  Committee  on  Pensions,  where  it  was 
pigeon-holed  and  forgotten.     It  was  never  heard  of  more. 

In  looking  over  the  laws,  the  Democrats  found  that  the  Republicans  had  neg- 
lected a  class  of  pensioners  who  were  suffering  very  seriously.  They  were  the 
men  who  had  lost  one  hand  or  one  foot,  or  one  arm  or  one  leg.  The  Republicans 
said  $24  a  month  is  enough  for  this  class  of  pensioners.  The  Democrats,  in  the 
House,  said  it  is  not  enough  ;  these  men  shall  have  $36  a  month.  The  bill  passed 
the  House  {see  Record,  Ut  sess.  4Mh  Cong.,  vol.  4,  part  1,  p.  619). 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 


353 


It  went  to  the  Republican  Senate.  It  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Invalid 
Pensions  in  that  body,  and  it  was  never  heard  of  again. 

REPUBLICAN  AND  DEMOCRATIC    LAWS  CONTRASTED. 

The  obiect  of  the  Democrats  in  introducing  and  trying  to  pass  the  aim  bills 
was  to  remedy  glaring  defects  in  Republican  legislation. 

In  1872,  when  both  Houses  were  under  Republican  control  completely,  they 
passed  the  following  general  law: 
AN  ACT  increasing  the  rates  of  pension  to  certain  persons  therein  described. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Rtpvesentatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  That  the  act  entiiled  "  An  act  supplementary  to  the  several  acts  relatins;  to  pen- 
sions," approved  June  sixth,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-six,  be  so  amended  that  from  aud  after 
the  passage  of  this  act  all  persons  entitled  by  law  ro  a  less  pension  than  hereinafter  specified,  who, 
while  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States,  and  in  line  of  duty,,  shall  have  lost  the  sight 
of  both  eyes,  or  shall  have  lost  both  hands,  or  shall  have  lost  both  feet,  or  been  permanently  and  to- 
tally disabled  in  the  same,  or  otherwise  so  permanently  and  totally  disabled  as  to  render  them  utterly 
helpless,  or  so  nearly  so  as  to  require  the  constant  personal  aid  and  attendance  of  another  person, 
shall  be  entitled  to  a  pension  of  thirty-one  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents  per  month  ;  and  all  persons 
who.  under  like  circumstances,  shall  have  lost  one  hand  and  one  foot,  or  been  totally  and  perma- 
nently disabled  in  the  same,  or  otherwise  so  disabled  as  to  be  incapacitated  for  performing  any 
manual  labor,  but  not  so  much  as  to  require  constant  personal  aid  and  attendance,  shall  be  entitled 
to  a  pension  of  twenty-four  dollars  per  month  ;  and  all  persons  who,  under  like  circumstances, 
shall  have  lost  one  hand  or  one  foot,  or  been  totally  and  permanently  disabled  in  the  same,  or  oth- 
erwise so  disabled  as  to  render  their  incapacity  to  perform  manual  labor  equivalent  to  the  loss  of  a 
hand  or  foot,  shall  be  entitled  to  a  pension  of  eighteen  dollars  per  month,  from  and  after  the  fourth 
day  of  June,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-two.    Approved  June  8,  1872. 

THE  LAWS  PASSED  BY  DEMOCRATS. 

Contrast  the  above  general  law  with  the  following  for  some  of  the  same  classes 
of  disability,  passed  after  the  Democrats  obtained  control  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives.    They  at  once  increased  pensions  where  it  was  deserved : 

AN  ACT  to  increase  the  pension  of  certain  pensioned  soldiers  and  sailors  who  have  lost  both  their 
hands  or  both  their  feet  or  the  sight  of  both  eyes  in  the  service  of  the  country. 
Whereas,  it  is  apparent  that  the  present  pension  paid  to  soldiers  and  sailors  who  have  lost  both 
their  haiids  or  both  their  feet  in  the  service  of  the  country  is  greatly  inadequate  to  the  support  of 
such  ae  have  families;  therefore, 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con' 
gress  assembled.  That  on  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  all  soldiers  and  sailors  who  have  lost 
either  both  their  hands  or  both  their  feet,  or  the  sight  of  both  eyes,  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States,  shall  receive,  in  lieu  of  all  pensions  now  paid  them  by  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
and  there  shall  be  paid  to  them,  in  the  same  manner  as  pensions  are  now  paid  to  such  persoils,  the 
sum  of  seventy-two  dollars  per  month.    Approved  June  17,  1878. 

The  next  year  they  went  a  step  further  and  passed  the  following: 

AN  ACT  for  the  relief  of  soldiers  and  sailors  becoming  totally  blind  in  the  service  of  the  country. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  That  the  act  of  June  17th,  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-eight,  entitled  "  An  act 
to  increase  the  pensions  of  certain  soldiers  and  sailors  who  have  lost  both  their  hands  or  both  their 
feet,  or  the  sight  of  both  eyes,  in  the  service  of  the  country,"  be  so  construed  as  to  include  all  sol- 
diers and  sailors  who  have  become  totally  blind  from  causes  occurring  in  the  service  of  the  United 
States.  Approved  March  3,  1879. 
AN  ACT  to  allow  a  pension  of  thirty-six  dollars  per  month  to  soldiers  who  have  lost  both  an  arm 

aud  a  leg. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  Amei^ica  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  That  all  persons  who,  while  in  the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States, 
and  in  the  line  of  duty,  shall  have  lost  one  hand  and  one  foot,  or  been  totally  and  permanently  dis- 
abled in  both,  shall  be  entitled  to  a  pension  for  each  of  such  disabilities,  and  at  such  a  rate  as  is 
provided  for  by  the  provisions  of  the  existing  laws  for  each  disability:  Provided,  that  this  act  shall 
not  be  so  construed  as  to  reduce  pensions  in  any  case.  Approved  February  28,  1877. 
AN  ACT  for  the  relief  of  certain  pensioners. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Con- 
gress assembled.  That  all  pensioners  now  on  the  pension  rolls,  or  who  may  hereafter  be  placed 
thereon,  for  amputation  of  either  leg  at  the  hip-joint,  shall  receive  a  pension  at  the  rate  of  thirty- 
seven  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  month  from  the  date  of  the  approval  of  this  act.  Approved  March 
3,  1879. 

These  acts  leave  no  doubt  as  to  which  party  is  the  best  friend  of  the  soldier. 

THE  THREE   MONTH'S  EXTRA  PAY  TO   MEXICAN  SOLDIERS. 

On  the  17th  day  of  January,  1878,  Gen.  Banning,  from  the  Committee  on  Mili- 
tary Affairs,  reported  a  bill  to  pay  the  officers  and  men  of  the  Mexican  war  the 
three  months  extra  pay  allowed  them  by  an  act  passed  in  1848,  after  the  close  of 

24 


354  THE    DEMOCRATS    AXD    THE    SOLDIERS. 

the  war.  Some  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  had  not  taken  the  pay  at  the  time,  and 
the  right  to  do  so  had  lapsed.  The  bill  was  to  enable  those  to  take  it  who  had 
previously  neglected  to  do  so.  The  bill  passed  the  House  after  a  very  brief  ex- 
planation {see  Record,  part  1,  45^A  Gong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  386). 

It  was  taken  up  in  the  Senate  on  April  18,  1878,  and  Mr.  Maxey,  who  had  re- 
ported it,  asked  for  immediate  action.  Mr.  Edmunds  objected,  apparently  for 
no  other  reason  than  that  the  bill  had  something  to  do  with  the  Mexican  soldiers. 
In  consequence  of  this  objection  the  bill  was  not  again  reached  until  January 
15th,  1879,  in  third  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress.  The  Senate  committee 
had  amended  the  bill,  so  as  to  include  in  its  provisions  also  the  officers,  petty 
officers,  seamen  and  marines  of  the  United  States  navy  employed  in  the  prose- 
cution of  the  said  war. 

Mr.  Edmunds,  upon  whose  objection  the  bill  went  over  before,  then  offered  an 
amendment  to  grant  also  three  months'  extra  pay  to  the  soldiers  who  liad  served 
in  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  As  this  amendment  was  in  no  sense  germane 
to  the  bill,  its  offer  could  not  have  been  intended  for  any  purpose  but  to  embarrass 
it,  and  it  was  so  construed  by  the  friends  of  the  bill.  It  so  complicated  matters  that 
the  bill  again  went  over  {Record,  pari   \,M  sess.   45t7i   Cong.,  pp.  451  and  462). 

It  came  up  again  on  the  8th  of  February,  and  it  was  then  passed,  but  not  with- 
out opposition  on  the  part  of  Senators  Sargent  and  Edmunds  and  other  Republi- 
cans. They  insisted  that  the  pension  rolls  were  largely  increasing  year  by  year  ; 
but,  underlying  all  their  opposition,  was  a  manifest  indisposition  to  pass  the  bill 
because  it  would  help  the  veterans  of  Mexico,  the  majority  of  whom  resided  in 
the  South. 

Mr.  Maxey  administered  a  pointed  but  well-deserved  rebuke  to  this  spirit  of 
sectionalism  by  remarking  that  he  and  others  who  wore  the  gray  in  the  late  un- 
pleasantness had  cheerfully  voted  for  pensions  to  the  Union  soldiers,  because 
they  believed  it  was  right  to  do  so,  and  they  thought  it  right  also  to  vote  some- 
'  thing  to  the  old  veterans  who  had  fought  their  country's  battles  in  Mexico 
{Record,  part  2,  dd  sess.  45th  Cong.,  p.  1121), 

The  House  subsequently  concurred  in  the  Senate  amendment  and  the  bill  was 
passed,  but  the  veterans  who  got  the  pay  are  under  no  obligations  to  the  Repub- 
licans of  either  House  for  it. 

SOLDIERS  PROTECTED   FROM  EXORBITANT  PENSION  FEES. 

In  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  the  House  Committee  on 
Pensions,  with  the  view  of  protecting  the  soldiers  from  the  pension  claim  agents,, 
reported  a  bill  fixing  by  law  the  fees  they  were  authorized  to  charge.  On  mo- 
tion of  Mr.  Fuller  of  Indiana,  a  Democrat,  the  charge  was  limited  to  ten  dollars. 
The  bill  passed  with  but  slight  opposition  in  the  House.  It  went  to  the  Senate, 
where  it  was  debated  some  time,  Messrs.  Conkling,  Christiancy,  Hoar,  Dorsey  and 
other  Republicans  arguing  in  favor  of  allowing  the  claim  agents  a  larger  fee.  The 
bill  passed,  however,  by  a  vote  of  41  to  8,  and  more  than  one-half  of  those  voting 
in  the  affirmative  were  Democrats. 

Those  voting  yea  were:  Messrs.  Allison,  Anthonj%  Bailey,  Bamnm,  Bayard,  Beck,  Booth,  Bruce, 
Burnside,  Butler,  Cameron  (Wis.),  Cockrell,  Conover,  Dawes,  Eaton,  Eustis,  Gordon,  Grover,  Harris, 
Hore,  Ingalls,  Johnston,  Jones  (Fla.),  Jones  (Nev.),  Kellogg,  Kiernan,  Kirkwood,  Lamar.  McCreery, 
McMillan,  Maxey,  Merrill,  Sargent,  Salsbury,  Saunders,  Teller,  Voorhees,  Wadleigh,  Wallace, 
Whyte,  and  Withers— 41. 

Of  the  above  22  are  Democrats.     The  Senate  at  the  time  had  a  clear  Republican 
majority. 
^     Of  the  negative  vote  7  were  Republicans,  and  only  1  a  Democrat. 


THE    DEMOCEATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS.  355 

Those  voting  were:  Messrs.  Christiancy,  Coke,  Conkling,  Dorsey,  Hoar,  Mitchell,  Paddock,  and 
•Spencer. 

The  Democrats  in  this,  as  in  other  cases,  indicate  their  regard  for  the  interest 

of  the  soldier  {see  Record,  part  5,  45th  Gong.,  M  sess.,  p.  4842.) 

THE  LAW  FOR  FILING   CLAIMS  FOR  LOST    HORSES  AND   EQUIPMENTS. 

Mr.  De  Bolt,  a  Democrat  from  Missouri,  introduced  a  bill  in  the  Forty-fourth 
Congress  to  revive  the  law  and  extend  the  time  for  filing  claims  for  horses  and 
equipments  lost  by  officers  and  enlisted  men  in  the  service  of  the  United  States. 
The  bill  was  reported  back  promptly  from  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  by 
General  Cook  of  Georgia.  It  proposed  to  repeal  the  limitations  which  had  Icjn 
put  on  by  the  Republicans.  The  bill  was  general  in  its  application  and  was  in- 
tended to  cover  a  large  number  of  claims.  It  wa^  liberal  and  provided  that  all 
claims  for  horses,  or  other  property  lost  or  destroyed  in  the  military  service  of  the 
United  States,  filed  in  the  proper  department  after  the  first  day  of  January,  1876, 
or  before  the  passage  of  this  act,  shall  be  deemed  to  have  been  filed  in  due  time, 
and  shall  be  considered  and  decided  without  refiling. 

The  bill  promptly  passed  the  House  (Record,  2^art  5,  45th  Cong.,  2d  ses8.,p. 
4161). 

When  it  went  to  the  Republican  Senate,  what  fate  did  it  meet?  It  "  slept  the 
sleep  of  death."     Such  was  Republican  love  for  the  Union  officer  and  soldier. 

The  above  cases  are  cited  to  show  that  in  every  instance  where  the  real  interest 
of  the  soldier  was  at  stake,  the  Democrats  were  his  friends,  while  Republicans 
threw  impediments  in  the  way  of  relief. 

DEMOCRATIC  AND  REPUBLICAN  RECORDS  CONTRASTED. 

The  record  of  the  Democratic  majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives  since 
the  commencement  of  the  Forty -fourth  Congress  ;  that  of  the  Democratic  ma- 
jority of  the  Senate,  since  the  commencement  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress,  so  far 
as  relates  to  the  soldiers,  will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny.  The  verdict  of  every 
impartial  mind,  after  the  scrutiny,  must  be  that  the  interests  of  the  soldiers  have 
been  guarded  more  carefully,  that  more  has  been  done  for  them  in  the  brief  time 
that  the  Democrats  have  been  in  power,  than  during  all  the  long  years  of  Repub- 
lican domination  in  Congress.  The  whole  Democratic  party  has  been  charged 
with  hostility  to  the  Union  soldier,  while  the  Republicans,  with  characteristic 
impudence  and  arrogance,  have  claimed  credit  for  themselves  as  the  special  friends 
of  the  gallant  men  who  periled  their  lives  for  the  Union  cause. 

Compare  the  record  of  the  two  parties,  and  it  will  be  found  that  the  Democrats 
have  been  practical,  while  the  Republicans  have  been  theorizing.  The  Republi- 
cans promised  ;  the  Democrats  performed. 

It  is  not  only  in  the  matter  of  bounty  and  general  pension  laws  that  the  Repub- 
licans have  been  derelict.  They  have  falsified  their  professions  that  the  soldier 
shall  be  preferred  in  filling  the  civil  offices  under  the  government.  Laws  to  this 
end  were  passed  one  day,  only  to  be  broken  or  to  be  conveniently  forgotten  the 
next. 

HOW  SECTION   1754  HAS  BEEN  VIOL A1  ED. 

In  1865,  just  after  the  close  of  the  war,  the  following  law  was  passed: 
Persons  honorably  discharged  from  the  military  or  naval  service,  by  reason  of  disability  result- 
Ins;  from  wounds  or  sickness  incurred  in  the  line  of  duty,  shall  be  preferred  for  appointments  to 
civil  offices,  provided  they  are  found  to  possess  the  business  capacity  necessary  for  the  proper  dis- 
charge of  the  duties  of  such  offices  (s  c.  1754,  Revised  Statutes). 

In  grateful  recognition  of  the  services,  sacrifices  and  sufferings  of  persons  honorably  discharged 
from  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  country,  by  reason  of  wounds,  disease,  or  the  expiration 
of  terms  of  enlistment,  it  is  respectfully  recommended  to  bankers,  merchants,  manufacturers,  me- 
chanics, farmers  and  persons  engaged  in  industrial  pursuits,  to  give  them  the  preference  for 
appointments  to  remunerative  situations  and  employments  {sec.  1755,  Bevised  Statutes). 


356  THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 

But,  unfortunately  for  the  poor  soldier  seeking  employment,  these  laws  were — 

Like  Dead  Sea  fruits  which  tempt  the  eye, 
But  turn  to  ashes  on  the  lips. 

Examine  the  shameful  record.  Let  Union  soldiers  everywhere  look  around 
them  and  see  how  the  Republican  party  has  kept  its  pledges!  They  will  not  fail 
to  realize  that  they  have  been  mocked  at  bj"-  the  politicians  who  professed  to  be  their 
best  friends. 

The  laws  above  quoted  were  passed  as  far  back  as  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress, 
when  the  Republicans  had  more  than  two-thirds  in  each  branch.  They  soon  be- 
came obsolete  in  practice.  They  were  forgotten  by  Republican  oflEicials  until  the 
Democrats  called  attention  to  them. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC  HOUSE   RIGHTS   THE   WAY. 

In  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary  of  the  Democratic 
House  of  Representatives  reported  the  following  act  : 

An  Act  to  enforce  by  appropriate  legislation  the  will  of  the  people  in  7'egard  to  the  disabled  soldiers  of 

the  late  xvar. 

Be  it  enacted,  That  whoever  shall  violate  or  set  at  naught  any  of  the  provisions  of  section  1754 
of  the  Revised  Statutes  sliall  be  punished  by  a  fine  not  less  than  one  hundred  nor  exceeding  $5,000, 
and  by  imprisonraeut  not  less  than  one  month  nor  exceeding  two  years. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  bill  some  members  expressed  the  fear  that  section  1754 
did  not  apply  to  a  certain  class  of  soldiers,  namely,  the  Veteran  Reserve  Corps, 
and  in  order  that  there  might  be  no  doubt  of  the  intention  of  Congress,  the  fol- 
lowing additional  section  was  added  : 

Section  2.  Nothing  in  the  first  section  of  this  act,  or  in  section  1754  of  the  Revised  Statutes, 
shall  be  so  construed  as  to  exclude  from  appointment  to  oflSce  any  soldier  who  was  disabled  in  the 
line  of  duty  and  honorably  discharged,  or  the  widows  or  daughters  of  the  killed  or  disabled  soldiers. 

This  act  passed  the  Democratic  House  on  June  10th,  1878. 

THE  REPUBLICAN  SENATE  REFUSES  TO  ACT. 

The  Senate  was  at  that  time  Republican.  The  bill  was  sent  over  to  that  body, 
when  it  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  that  was  the  last  heard  of 
it.  Thus  the  pretended  love  of  the  Republicans  for  the  Union  soldier  has  always 
failed  at  some  point.  They  neglected  to  enforce  section  1754,  and  when  the 
Democrats  attempted  to  right  a  great  wrong  and  compel  the  enforcement,  the 
Republicans  kicked  the  bill  aside  unceremoniously. 

THE  LAW  NEVER   REGARDED. 

Let  any  one  examine  the  record  of  Republican  appointments,  and  he  will  find 
that  the  law  has  always  been  a  dead  letter.  Take  the  City  of  Washington.  Let 
any  mun  go  through  the  departments,  and  he  will  find  that  of  the  many  thousand 
men  in  the  employ  of  the  Republican  administration,  a  few  only  are  disabled 
and  crippled  soldiers.  The  lusty  politicians  who  never  trained  a  gun  on  an 
enemy  occupy  the  fat  places.  While  the  Republicans  have  thus  ignored  the  duty 
imposed  upon  them  by  law,  the  Democratic  majority  in  Congress  has  given 
ample  proof  that  no  reasonable  measure  for  the  relief  of  the  Union  soldier  has 
suffered  anj'  neglect  at  their  hands. 

A    SPECIMEN  BRICK — THE   RHODE   ISLAND   CASE. 

An  investigation  recently  made  in  the  state  of  Rhode  Island  shows  how  much 
regard  Federal  officials  had  for  the  claims  of  the  soldiers.  The  case  is  only  an 
illustration  of  many  others. 

J.  B.  Greene,  Augustus  Woodbury  and  other  honorably  discharged  soldiers 
and  sailors  of  the  United  States  and  citizens  of  Rhode  Island,  in  May,  1879,  pre- 
sented a  memorial  to  Congress,  alleging  violations  of  sections  1754  and  1755  of  the 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS.  357 

Revised  Statutes,  in  relation  to  the  appointment  of  wounded  soldiers  and  sailors 
to  civil  oflSces.    In  their  memorial  the  petitioners  say: 

It  is  herein  alleged  that  several  honorably  discharged  soldiers  have  been  within  a  short  period 
dismissed  the  custom-house  of  the  Port  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  Their  places  have  been 
filled  by  civilians  with  one  exception,  and  mainly  by  the  relations  of  Hon.  H.  B.Anthony.  Sev- 
eral of  these  deposed  veterans  are  and  were  ready  to  submit  to  a  competitive  examination.  This 
privilege  was  denied  them. 

Gallant  men,  with  dependent  families,  have  been  displaced  to  make  room  for  mere  striplings 
who  were  in  swaddling  clothes  when  these  veterans  were  fighting  the  battles  of  their  country;  men 
whose  8>  nse  of  duty  impelled  them  to  the  front  in  the  late  struggle  are  now  forced  to  yield  their 
well-earned  places  to  men  who  were  speculating  in  cotton  or  other  merchandise  during  the  late 
war.  *  *  *  Your  honorable  bodies  are  respectively  asked  to  interfere  in  be- 

half of  the  parties  aggrieved. 

Subjoined  is  the  roster  of  the  custom-house  of  the  Port  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island  ;  names  of 
the  civilians  nlarked  thus,  X 


Joseph  T.  Reed   X 1,095 

D.  M.Arnold 1,095 

J.  R.  Skinner,  soldier 1,095 

B.C.Allen  X 900 

William  S.  Chase,  soldier 1,095 

,  boatman  x 500 

E.  C.  Pomroy,  soldier 1,095 


Cyrus  Harris  X $5,000 

Edward  P.  Burrows  X 3,000 

E.C.Ashley  X 1,800 

Nathan  Goff,  jr.,  soldier 1,600 

Robert  Perkins  X  .  -• 1,095 

George  W.  Pettis,  soldier 1 ,095 

Master  Burrows  X 1,095 

J.  E.  Burrows,  soldier 1,095 

Total S22,655 

A  glance  at  the  above  names  and  figures  shows  that  the  civilians  far  outnumber  the  veterans. 
The  money  paid  to  the  civilians  is  twice  that  paid  to  the  veterans. 

The  memorial  w^as  referred  in  the  Senate  to  the  Committee  on  Civil  Service  and 
Retrenchment.  The  committee  was  subsequently  authorized  to  investigate  the 
charges,  and  were  further  authorized  to  sit  during  the  recess  of  Congress.  Accor- 
dingly, Senators  Butler,  Beck,  Wythe  and  Rollins  met  at  Newport  in  August, 
1879,  and  there  examined  a  large  number  of  witnesses.  They  not  only  inquired 
into  the  charge  that  sections  1754  and  1755  had  been  violated,  but  also  into  alle- 
gations of  the  violations  of  the  Civil  Service  rules  made  by  the  fraudulent  admin- 
istration. 

The  specific  allegations  and  charges  made  in  the  memorial  of  the  "  discharged 

soldiers  and  sailors"  were: 

That  sections  1754  and  1755  had  not  been  obeyed,  "  especially  in  regard  to  appointments  made 
for  collection  of  customs  dues  at  the  district  and  Port  of  Providence;  "  that  "the  statutes  have  been 
violated,  the  rules  of  civil-service  reform  have  been  disregarded,  and  nepotism  has  been  a  marked 
feature  in  the  selection  of  civilians  to  fill  the  places  of  discharged  veterans;  "  and  that  "  for  a  long 
time  the  interference  of  Federal  officers  at  the  polls  at  town,  city  and  state  elections  has  restrained 
men  from  the  exercise  of  rights  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution." 

THE  LAW  VIOLATED   IN  LETTER  AND   SPIRIT. 

The  committee  say  in  their  report : 

Your  committee  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  testimony  shows  beyond  dispute  that  sections  1754 
and  1755  have  been  violated  in  letter  and  in  spirit  in  "  the  appointments  made  for  collection  of 
customs  dues  at  the  district  and  Port  of  Providence;"  that  ''persons  honorably  discharged  from 
the  military  and  naval  service,  by  reason  of  disability  resulting  from  wounds  or  sickness  incurred 
in  the  line  of  duty,"  have  not  been  preferred  for  appointments  to  civil  offices;  "  but  that,  on  the 
contrary,  honorably  discharged  soldiers,"  though  not  suffering  "under  disabilities  from  wounds 
or  sickness  incurre'd  in  the  line  of  duty,"  were  "wounded"  in  the  line  of  duty  and  honorably 
discharsred  after  highly  meritorious  and  gallant  service  during  the  war,  have  been  removed,  and 
their  places  filled  by  civilians  wholly  without  a  record  of  service  in  the  army  or  navy. 

Not  only  were  these  discharged  soldiers  thus  supplanted,  but  it  appears  to  your  commitu  e  from 
the  evidence  entirely  without  proper  cause,  and  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  "  they  were  fomd  to 
possess  the  business  capacity  necessary  for  the  proper  discharge  of  the  duties  of  the  offices  "  in 
which  they  were  employed. 

General  James  Shaw,  Jr.,  the  collector  at  the  Port  of  Providence,  was  one  of 
the  officers  removed.  Mr.  Cyrus  Harris,  who  was  never  in  the  military  or  naval 
service,  was  appointed  to  succeed  him.  In  response  to  the  question  of  how  long 
he  was  in  the  military  service.  Gen.  Shaw  testified  as  follows : 

I  entered  the  service  the  26th  of  May,  1862;  remained  for  three  months;  it  was  a  three  months' 

jiment;  entered  again  the  last  of  December,  1862,  and  was  mustered  out  some  time  in  July,  1863; 

that  was  a  nine  months'  regiment.    I  was  nearly  eight  months  in  it.    I  again  entered  the  service 


regiment;  entered  again  the  last  of  December,  1862,  and  was  mustered  out  some  time  in  July,  1863; 
that  was  a  nine  months'  regiment.  I  was  nearly  eight  months  in  it.  I  again  entered  the  service 
in  command  of  the  Seventh  United  States  Colored  Troops  in  October  of  1863,  and  remained  until 


November,  1866.     We  were  finally  discharged  at  Baltimore,  Md.,  November  16,  1866. 

Q.  What  rank  had  you  when  you  were  mustered  out?    A.   Colonel  and  brevet  brigadier- 
general. 


358  THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 

The  testimony  shows  that  Shaw  was  removed  because  he  refused  to  contribute 
himself  or  ask  his  subordinates  to  contribute  to  a  forced  political  assessment. 
Of  his  case  the  committee  say : 

It  will  not  be  doing  justice  in  the  case  of  General  Shaw  and  others  to  say  simply  that  "  they 
were  found  to  pot^sess  the  business  capacity  necessary  for  the  proper  dischar^  of  their  duties." 

By  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  parties— importers,  merchants,  public  officials  and  employees 
—General  Shaw  "  possessed  "  the  highest  qualifications  for  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  collector 
of  the  Port  of  Providence,  and  appears  to  have  had  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  officials,  superiors 
in  rank,  and  the  entire  community  within  the  range  of  which  his  duties  were  performed. 

His  military  record  was  most  honorable  and  meritorious,  as  presented  to  your  committee,  and 
yet  he  was  displaced  for  no  other  cause  that  your  committee  can  discover— and  an  aged  civilian 
politician  appointed  in  his  stead— than  that  he  obeyed  the  Civil  Service  orders  which  had  been 
promulgated  by  the  head  of  his  department,  and  refused  to  be  assessed  on  the  amount  of  his 
salary  as  a  public  officer  for  political  purposes.  If  there  was  any  other  cause  for  his  removal  it  was 
not  made  to  appear . 

It  thus  appeared  that  a  soldier  was  displaced  because  he  refused  to  violate  the 
Civil  Service  rules  of  his  superior  officers,  the  President  of  the  United  States  and 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Cyrus  Harris,  who  never  saw  a  gun  fired 
during  the  war,  appears  to  have  been  appointed  chiefly  on  account  of  his  per- 
sonal or  political  influence,  to  succeed  Gen.  James  A.  Shaw,  who  was  a  gallant 
soldier  and  a  very  efficient  officer. 

OTHER   SOLDIERS  KICKED   OUT. 

Major  Wii-LTAM  II.  Joyce  was  another  soldier  who  was  .dismissed  for  no 

just  cause.     He  was  foreign  inspector,   weigher,  ganger  and  measurer  at  the 

Providence  custom-hou-e,  and  had  acceptably  filled  the  office  for  eight  years. 

Here  is  his  testimony  with  regard  to  his  service  in  the  war: 

William  H.  Joyce  sworn  and  examined  : 

By  the  Chairman:  Q.  What  Is  your  age  ?    A.  Forty-five  last  July. 


Q.  Were  you  a  soldier  in  the  late  war  in  the  Union  army?    A.  I  was. 


Be  good  enough  to  state  in  what  capacity.  A.  I  entered  the  service  on  the  first  call  of  the 
President  for  state  troops  in  1861,  in  the  First  Regiment  Rhode  Island  Detached  Militia,  under 
Colonel  (now  General)  Burnside.  Subsequently  I  was  commissioned  first  lieutenant  in  the  Seventh 
Rhode  It'land,  promoted  captain  therein  for  gallantry  at  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  and 
subsequently  promoted  major  for  gallant  and  meritorious  services  during  the  war. 

Q,.  Why  were  you  discharged?  A.  By  reason  of  the  termination  of  the  war  and  my  services 
being  no  longer  required. 

Q.  When?    A.  June,  1865,  I  believe. 

Q.  Honorably  discharged?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

The  hardship  to  which  this  soldier  was  subjected  by  being  dismissed  and  having 
a  civilian  appointed  in  his  place  was  brought  out  by  the  following  testimony 
elicited  by  Senator  Beck : 

By  Mr.  Beck:  Q.  I  want  you  to  state  again  your  story  as  connectedly  as  you  can.  You  are 
forty -five  years  of  age,  I  understand?    A.  Yes.  sir. 

Q.  You  have  a  wife  and  five  children  depending  on  you  for  support?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  State  briefly  your  length  of  service  in  the  war,  the  position  yon  held,  and  the  promotions 
made.  A.  1  first  entered  as  a  private  Company  C,  First  Rhode  Island  Detached  Militia;  served  the 
full  term;  was  discharged  by  reason  of  expiration  of  term;  re-entered  the  service  as  first  lieutenant 
in  the  Seventh  Rhode  Island  Volunteers;  September  6,  1862, 1  was  mustered  in;  was  promoted  cap- 
tain in  the  December  following— December  13, 1862 — and  subsequently  promoted  major. 

Q,.  You  were  promoted  for  gallant  services  where?  A.  At  the  first  battle  of  Fredericksburg, 
December  13,  1862. 

Q.  And  again  promoted  major  for  gallant  and  meritorious  services?  A.  Yes,  sir,  that  is  em- 
bodied ill  my  commission. 

Q.  Those  facts  are  set  forth  in  your  commission?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  you  served  till  the  end  of  the  war?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Then  you  held  two  other  positions,  I  understood  you  to  say,  which  you  did  not  name 
before?  A.  The  first  position  I  held  on  my  return  to  civil  life,  I  think,  was  assistant  United  States 
marshal  for  taking  the  census  in  1870;  the  next  position,  I  was  appointed  storekeeper  in  the  internal 
revenue  service.  A  short  time  after  getting  through  with  my  duties  as  assistant  marshal,  while 
acting  as  storekeeper  in  this  district,  there  was  no  particular  duty  for  me  to  perform  by  reason  of 
the  distilleries  to  which  I  was  assigned  Iteiug  closed  up.  The  then  internal  revenue  collector,  Mr. 
Earaes,  deputized  me  as  a  deputy  collector,  and  I  performed  duty  as  such  and  collected  the  inter- 
nal revenue  taxes  on  North  Providence,  and  in  this  city  a  portion  of  them. 

Q,.  Then  you  were  appointed  to  the  custom-house?  A.  I  resigned  my  position  as  storekeeper. 
I  was  actively  engaged  as  storekeeper  when  I  did  resign  to  accept  a  position  in  the  custom-house 
tendered  me  by  Collector  Shaw. 

Q.  Was  any  fault  found  with  you  in  the  discharge  of  any  of  your  duties  either  as  soldier  or  civ- 
ilian?   A.  I  never  knew  of  any. 

Q.  A 8  either  being  difihouebt  or  unfaithful  or  incompetent?  A.  I  challenge  the  strictest  scru- 
tiny on  that  point. 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS.  359 

Q.  And  no  complaint  was  made  against  j'ou  wh-n  yea  were  discharged  in  Maj-  last?  A.  None. 
I  inquired  for  the  reasons,  but  the  collector  perempt.ifily  declined  to  give  any  reasons. 

Q.  You  say  your  place  was  given  to  a  man  who  had  never  served  tne  country,  that  you  know  of, 
at  least  in  the  army?    A.  He  could  not  have  served;  he  was  too  young  to  serve  at  that  time. 

O.  A  single  man?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  A  former  clerk  of  the  collector?    A.  So  I  understand. 

Q.  Who  was  himself  a  civilian  during  the  war?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

{Senate  Report  No.  — ,  4Uh  Cong.,  2d  sets.,  p.  72.) 

Major  Joyce,  it  appears,  was  also  unwilling  to  contribute  to  a  forced  assess- 
ment, and  consequently  his  official  head  rolled  into  the  basket. 

Capt.  Henry  A.  Greene,  a  coastwise,  inspector,  was  also  dismissed  as  soon  as 
Cyrus  Harris  took  possession  of  the  office  of  collector.  There  were  no  charges  of 
dereliction  of  duty  against  him.  His  place  was  wanted  for  some  one  else.  Of 
these  cases  of  Joyce  and  Greene,  the  committee  say  in  their  report : 

What  has  heretofore  been  said  in  General  Shaw's  case  is  largely  true  of  Major  Joyce  and  Cap- 
tain Greene,  who  were  likev/ise  honorably  discharged  soldiers',  and,  moreover,  competent  and  faith- 
ful public  servants.  They,  too,  were  removed  without  proper  cause,  and  a  civilian  who  had  done 
no  military  service  during  the  war  was  appointed  in  the  place  of  Major  Joyce,  who  was  wounded  in 
service  and  promoted  for  gallant  and  meritorious  conduct. 

Major  Pomeroy,  appointed  in  Captain  Greene's  place,  was  a  Union  soldier  of  good  military 
record  and  was  wounded  in  action,  while  Captain  Greene  was  eng  isred  in  less  important  service, 
principally  on  the  Indian  frontier,  and  was  in  no  engagement  in  the  field,  and  therefore  in  his  case 
the  statute  has  not  been  violated. 

Many  other  facts  might  be  recited  from  the  evidence  relating  to  the  discharge  and  appointment 
of  employees  in  the  Providence  custom-house,  to  the  pernicious  practice  of  the  present  collector  in 
permitting  his  subordinates  to  engage  in  other  business  avocations  while  they  are  employed  by  the 
government,  to  which,  by  the  nature  of  their  contracts,  and  for  the  best  interest  of  the  public  busi- 
ness, they  owe  their  undivided  service. 

But  it  is  not  deemed  necessary  to  recount  them  in  order  to  sustain  the  proposition  that  the  above 
recited  sections  of  the  Revised  Statutes  and  the  Civil  Service  rules  and  orders  have  been  violated 
and  disregarded,  as  set  forth  in  the  memorial. 

Other  facts  were  brought  out  by  the  committee  showing  violation  of  the  stat- 
utes referred  to,  and  also  of  the  Civil  Service  orders  of  the  fraudulent  adminis- 
tration. All  the  facts  clearly  indicated  that  the  Republicans'  professions  of  love 
for  the  soldier,  and  their  desire  to  have  him  occupy  places  of  honor,  trust  and 
profit,  were  mere  lip  service.  The  Rhode  Island  case  was  but  one  of  many.  The 
same  condition  of  things  exists  elsewhere,  and  an  investigation  only  is  needed  to 
bring  out  the  utter  heartlessness  of  Republican  professions  of  love  for  the  soldier. 

ANOTHER  REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  SOLDIERS  IN  CIVIL  EMPLOYMENT. 

In  1865  Congress,  both  branches  being  then  largely  Republican,  passed  an  act 
which  was  entitled 

An  Act  supplementary  to  the  several  acts  relating  to  pensions. 

The  first  section  of  that  act  contained  this  proviso : 

Provided  that  no  pension  should  be  allowed  to  any  person  as  an  invalid  for  any  period  of  time 
during  which  he  received,  or  has  become  entitled  to  receive,  for  services  to  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment in  any  capacity,  the  full  pay  which  able-bodied  officers  or  employees  rendering  like  ser- 
vices are  allowed  by  law. 

This  proviso  remained  on  the  statute  book  for  one  year  and  more.  It  virtually 
struck  from  the  pension  rolls  every  wouilded  soldier,  no  matter  whether  he  had 
lost  an  arm  or  a  leg,  who  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  obtain  civil  employment 
under  the  government.  The  proviso  created  much  righteous  indignation  among 
the  soldiers  and  their  friends,  and  in  June,  1866,  the  proviso  was  repealed.  But 
no  pension  was  made  to  reimburse  the  soldiers  who  had  been  deprived  of  their 
pensions  between  the  date  of  the  enactment  of  the  proviso  and  its  repeal. 

THE   DEMOCRATIC   HOUSE  RIGHTS  THE   WRONG. 

On  May  24,  1878,  Gen.  A.  V.  Rice,  of  Ohio— a  gallant  soldier  who  left  a  leg 
upon  the  field  of  battle,  a  Democrat  tried  and  true,  and  one  of  the  best  friends 
the  soldier  ever  had  in  Congress— reported  a  bill  to  remedy  a  wrong  which  the 
Republicans  had  left  uncorrected  on  the  statute  book  for  twelve  years.  The  bill 
was  entitled 

An  Act  relating  to  soldiers  while  in  the  Civil  Service  of  the  United  States. 


360  THE    DEMOCRA.TS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS. 

The  bill  gave  the  pensioners  the  pensions  of  which  the  Republicans  had  de- 
prived them.     It  provided  as  follows  : 

That  all  persons  who,  under  or  by  virtue  of  the  first  section  of  the  act  entitled  an  Act  supple- 
mentary to  the  several  acts  relating  to  pensions,  approved  March  3d,  1865,  were  deprived  of  their 
pensions  during  any  portion  of  the  time,  from  the  3d  day  of  March,  18fi5,  to  the  6th  day  of  June, 
1866,  by  reason  of  their  beine  in  the  Civil  Service  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  paid  their  said 
pensions,  withheld  by  virtue  bf  said  section,  for  and  during  said  period  of  time. 

This  bill  passed  the  Democratic  House  without  a  murmur  of  opposition  (see 
Cong.  Record,  part  A:,  45th  Cong.,  2d  sess.,  p.  3757). 

It  went  immediately  to  the  Republican  Senate,  where  the  majority,  which 
claims  to  have  such  supreme  love  for  the  soldier,  let  it  lay  until  February,  1879, 
when  the  House  bill  was  taken  up  and  passed. 

The  bill  originated  in  a  Democratic  House,  it  was  pushed  to  a  passage  by  a 
Democratic  representative,  and  but  for  his  action  and  that  of  his  fellow -Demo- 
crats the  pensioners  who  were  deprived  of  their  money  in  1865  would  still  be 
without  it.  In  all  their  years  of  power  the  Republicans  never  thought  of  doing 
this  simple  act  of  justice, 

ANOTHER  DEMOCRATIC  EFFORT   TO  SECURE   CIVIL   EMPLOYMENT   FOR   SOLDIERS. 

In  the  regular  Annual  Pension  Appropriation  Bill  for  the  fiscal  year  ending 
June  30,  1879,  which  passed  the  House  April  11,  1878,  Gen.  Mce  of  Ohio  offered 
an  amendment,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Democratic  House,  providing  that  from 
and  after  July  1st,  1878,  the  oflSce  of  pension  agent  should  be  filled  by  wounded 
or  disabled  Union  soldiers.  It  seemed  to  the  Democratic  House  eminently  fit  and 
proper  that  the  money  disbursed  for  the  benefit  of  soldiers  should  be  distributed 
by  soldiers.  Besides  that,  it  opened  up  a  new  avenue  of  employment  to  a  number 
of  the  veterans  {fee  Cong.  Record,  ml.  7,  part  3,  4f)th  Cong.,  2d  sess.). 

The  bill  was  taken  up  in  the  Senate  on  May  6th,  1878,  and  the  Senate  Commit- 
tee on  Pensions  moved  to  amend  the  House  amendment  by  directing  the  Presi- 
dent to  give  preference  to  wounded  and  disabled  Union  soldiers  in  the  appointment 
of  pension  agents. 

The  amendment  of  the  House,  as  well  as  the  proposed  amendment  of  the  Senate 
committee,  was  opposed  on  the  ground  of  unconstitutionality.  It  was  argued  that 
Congress  could  not  instruct  the  President  who  to  appoint.  As  an  answer  to  this 
the  fact  was  pointed  out  that  in  appointing  judges,  the  President  necessarily  con- 
fined himself  to  the  legal  profession ;  that  in  appointing  surgeons  he  was  confined 
to  the  medical  profession,  etc. ,  and  that  there  was  therefore  no  impropriety  in 
directing  him  to  confine  himself  to  a  certain  class  in  the  appointment  of  pension 
agents. 

SENATOR   INGALLS'    TRIBUTE   TO   THE  DEMOCRATIC  HOUSE 

In  the  course  of  t;ie  debate,  Senator  Ingalls,  a  Republican,  said: 

At  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol  is  a  Houee  which  is  frequently  alluded  to  as  the  House  of  the 
Confederate  Tragedies.  They  have  no  unconstitutional  scruples  about  declaring  that  Union 
soldiers  shall  administer  the  pension  agencies  of  this  country.  The  men  who  have  served  in  tlie 
rebel  army,  and  have  had  their  disabilities  removed  and  have  come  to  Congress,  pass  a  section  to  a 
bill  expressly  declaring  that  the  powers  and  duties  of  those  offices  shall  be  exercised  by  disabled, 
wounded  and  honorably  discharged  Union  soldiers.  But  when  t^e  bill  came  to  the  Senate,  a  por- 
tion of  the  gentlemen  of  that  faith,  and  a  portion  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  opposite  political  faith, 
come  together  in  a  body  that  is  ostensibly  Republican,  and  find  a  great  many  constitutional  scru- 
ples about  the  power  of  the  Executive  to  appoint  Union  soldiers  to  office.  *  *  *  The 
Senate,  nominally  Republican,  attacks  a  section  that  comes  from  the  House,  actually  Democratic. 
That  body,  controlled  very  largely  by  the  sentiment  known  as  the  Confederate  during  the  war,  have 
sent  to  us  an  open,  manly  declaration  that  the  duties  of  these  offices  shall  be  discharged  by  wounded 
and  disabled  Union  soldiers.  *  *  *  jf  Democrats  and  Confederates,  as  they 

are  called  by  the  public  press,  can  find  no  constitutional  difficulty  about  this  matter,  it  seems  to 
me  that  we  ought  not  to  be  particularly  troubled  upon  the  point  {see  Record,  May  6,  1878, 
part  4,  \hth  Cong.,  2d  sees.). 

Senator  Ingalls,  in  the  extract  above  quoted,   recognized  and  confessed  the 

fact  that  the  Democrats,  including  the    "Confederate  Brigadiers,"  were  more 


THE    DEMOCRATS    AND    THE    SOLDIERS.  361 

disposed  to  do  equal  and  exact  justice  to  the  Union  soldier  than  the  Republican 
Senate  was. 

The  House  clause  was  amended  so  as  to  provide  that  in  case  of  a  vacancy  from 
any  cause,  the  office  of  pension  agent  shall  be  filled  by  wounded  or  disabled 
Union  soldiers,  or  the  widows  or  daughters  of  Union  soldiers. 

When  the  bill  went  back  to  the  House  it  was  sent  to  a  conference  committee, 
and  as  the  committee  could  not  agree  upon  the  construction  of  that  clause,  it  was 
dropped  out  entirely.  Thus  the  good  intentions  of  the  Democrats  toward  the 
Union  soldiers  were  defeated,  because  the  Republican  Senate,  in  the  language  of 
one  of  their  own  Senators,  "  had  constitutional  scruples  about  the  power  of  the 
Executive  to  appoint  Union  soldiers  to  office." 


362  THE    KEPUBLICAN    INSULT    TO    TUE    MEXICAN    VETERANS. 


THE  REPUBLICAN  INSULT  TO  THE 
MEXICAN  VETERANS. 


At  the  regular  monthly  meeting  of  the  Associated  Veterans  of  the  Mexican 
"War,  held  in  this  cit}',  on  Saturday,  July  3d,  the  following  resolutions  were 
adopted ; 

Whereas,  when  the  constitution  and  by-laws  of  this  association  was  formed,  in  1S73,  pa^-ty  politics 
were  ignored  as  forming  no  part  in  the  objects  and  aims  of  the  eociety.  it  being  then  the  desire  and 
intention  to  accord  to  every  member  perfect  freedom  in  action  and  belief  iu  all  i)olitical  questions 
of  the  day.  But  in  the  course  of  human  events  circumstances  sometimes  alter  cases.  The  time 
has  now  come,  iu  the  opinion  of  tliis  body,  for  a  temporary  suspension  of  this  rule,  and  for  taking 
a.  new  departure  in  the  interest  of  our  comrades.  It  is  well  known  that  leading  Republican  Senators 
and  mem Ders  of  Congresa  have  latterly  indulged  in  unmitigated  abuf^e,  malignant  falsehood,  and 
bitter  contempt  of  our  old  comrades  in  arms  whenever  our  friends  sought  occasion  to  have  our 
humble  claims  to  recognition  on  the  pension  roll  of  honor  considered  in  those  legislative  bodies. 
They  have  repeatedly  heaped  insultand  contumely,  in  a  most  ungenerous  spirit,  noon  the  heads  of 
old  sokiiersof  the  republic,  whose  pretensions  to  recognition  by  the  Pension  Oltice  on  a  footing 
with  other  pensioners  were  indorsed  by  twenty-five  state  legislatures,  and  a  leading  Republican 
Senator,  who  presided  over  the  Republican  Convention  atCnicago,  offered,  as  a  proviso  to  ihe  bill 
before  the  Senate,  that  before  the  Mexican  veterans  shall  be  pensioned  they  shall  firet  make  oath 
and  prove  themselves  paupers  1  Self-respect  and  the  common  instincts  of  manhood,  therefore, 
requireof  ufc«  that  we  should  combine  our  influence,  and  endeavor  to  enlist  in  our  cause,  by  an 
earnest  appeal,  the  sympathy  and  aid  of  our  fellow-soldiers  of  all  wars  in  which  the  couiitry  has 
been  engaged,  who  have  a  common  heritage  in  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  the  nation,  to  properly 
rebuke  thia arrogant  party,  grown  insolent  by  overfeeding  at  the  public  crib,  at  the  polls,  in  the 
forthcoming  contest  for  political  supremacy;  therefore. 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  to  our  kindred  associations  of  Mexican  veterans  through  ut  the 
United  States  to  organize  campaign  clubs,  and  cordially  invite  the  ex-soldiers  of  the  Republic,  in 
the  North  and  in  the  South,  in  the  fiast  and  in  the  West,  to  enndl  their  names  with  us  and  rally 
around  the  old  flag  as  a  grand  army  of  Ameficam  warriors,  in  support  of  the  nomine"  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  for  the  presidency,  General  Winfield  Scott  Hancock,  a  gallant  soldier  and  statesman,  in 
whom  every  patriot  whoever  bore  arms  in  defense  of  what  he  honestly  deemed  to  be  right,  may 
with  confidence  hope  to  find  a  friend  and  wise  counsellor. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  furnished  for  publication  in  The  Videfte,  and  to  the 
press  of  the  country,  and  we  earnestly  recommend  their  adoption  by  the  associations  of  veterans 
of  Mexico  in  every  state  of  the  Union. 

JAMES  W.  DENVER,  President. 

A.  M.  Kenadat,  Secretary. 

It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  these  veterans  should  have  taken  this  stand.  It  would  have  been 
surprising  if  they  had  not.  They  have  been  treated  most  shamefully  by  the  Republicans  in  both 
branches  of  Congress.  They  have  not  only  been  refused  a  place  on  the  pension  rolls,  but  the  Re- 
publ^gfifis  have  gone  so  far  as  to  attempt  even  to  deny  their  cause  a  respectful  hearing  by  voting 
tim«  Jmd  again  against  taking  up  their  pension  bill. 

James  A.  Garfield  was  always  among  those  who  refused  to  do  justice  to  these 
brave  men.  It  would,  therefore,  be  the  sublimity  of  impudence  for  Garfield  or 
his  friends  to  appeal  to  a  single  Mexican  sold  er  for  his  vote.  Before  the  Demo- 
crats came  into -power  in  the  House  no  attempt  was  made  to  pension  the  veterans. 
The  Democrats  in  Congress  stood  as  a  solid  phalanx  in  favor  of  pensioning  them. 
The  Republicans  refused  to  pension  the  Mexican  soldiers,  because  they  hoped  to 
make  political  capital  out  of  the  fact  that  the  bill  might  pension  a  few  who  were 
not  on  the  Union  side.  Once  in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  when  the  Democrats 
had  an  overwhelming  majority  in  the  House,  a  bill  was  passed  through  that  body, 
after  much  difficulty  and  many  delays.  But  the  Republican  Senate  killed  it  by 
indirection 


THE    REPUBLICAN  INSULT   TO   THE   MEXICAN    VETERANS.  363 

LEGISLATION   IN   THE   FORTY-FOURTH   CONGRESS. 

Early  in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  a  number  of  bills  were  introduced  and 

referred. 

Granting  pensions  to  certain  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  Mexican,  Florida  and  Black  Hawk  wars, 
and  to  certain  widows  of  deceased  soldiers  of  the  same. 

On  February  24,  1876,  Mr.  Hewitt,  of  Alabama,  reported  a  substitute,  embrac- 
ing the  features  of  all  the  bills,  and  moved  to  make  it  a  special  order  for  a  certain 
day. 

Mr.  Kasson,  Republican  of  Iowa,  objected  {see  Record,  vol.  4,  parti,  1st  seas. 
Ut7L  Cong.,  page  126S). 

On  May  3d,  Mr.  Hewitt  succeeded  in  having  the  bill  assigned  for  the  19th  of 
that  month,  but  in  consequence  of  objections  and  other  business,  it  was  not  taken 
up  on  that  day  {Ibid.,  part  3,  page  2917). 

It  was  not  reached  again  until  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress. 
On  January  4th,  1877,  it  was  taken  up  and  passed  {Record,  vol.  5,  part  1,  M  sess. 
Uth  Cong.,  pp.  427-432) 

It  went  to  the  Republican  Senate,  where  it  was  referred,  and  killed  iii  com- 
mittee. 

LEGISLATION   IN  THE   FORTY-FIFTH    CONGRESS. 

Early  in  the  first  session  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  (called  session)  Mr.  Hewitt 
reintroduced  the  bill.  It  was  reported  back  January  17,  1878,  and  Mr.  Hewitt 
tried  to  have  a  day  fixed  for  its  consideration. 

Mr.  Conger,  Republican,  of  Michigan,  objected  to  it  {Record,  vol.  7,  part  1,  2d 
sess.  4o^/i  Con^. ,  p.  384). 

On  February  14th  Mr.  Hewitt  succeeded  in  getting  the  bill  up  in  committee  of 
the  whole  House,  and  tried  to  limit  debate.  The  Republicans  objected.  They 
were  determined  to  talk  it  to  death.  They  pretended  that  their  principal  oppo- 
sition to  the  bill  arose  from  the  fact  that  if  it  was  passed  Jefferson  Davis  would  be 
placed  on  the  pension  rolls.  In  order  to  meet  this  objection  the  friends  of  the 
bill  were  willing  to  add  a  clause 

that  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  not  apply  to  any  person  while  under  the  political   disabili- 
ties imposed  by  the  14th  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Even  this  did  not  satisfy  the  opposition,  and  their  refusal  to  accept  the  proposi- 
tion was  the  best  evidence  that  Jefferson  Davis'  name  was  used  merely  as  a  blind, 
and  that  the  real  opposition  was  to  the  Mexican  soldier  {Record,  vol.  7,  part  2, 
2d  sess.  45th  Cong.,  pp.  1038,  1047). 

GARFIELD  SHOWS  HIS  HAND. 

February  25th  Mr.  Hewitt  again  moved  to  go  into  committee  of  the  whole  on 
the  bill.  On  this  occasion  the  Republicans  resisted  that  motion  and  demanded 
the  yeas  and  nays.     The  motion  prevailed  by  a  vote  of  174  to  51. 

The  negative  side  was  as  follows  : 

Messrs.  Bacon,  Ballou,  Bayne,  Blair,  Brewer,  Brig^,  Burdick,  Camp,  Campbell,  Clark  (Iowa), 
Cox  (Ohio),  Cummings,  Danford,  Deering,  Dwight,  Ellsworth,  Erret,  Field,  Foster,  Garfield, 
Hardenburgh,  Hendee,  Hiscock,  Humphrey,  Hungerford,  James,  Jones  (N.  H.),  Keightley,  Lap- 
ham,  Lathrop,  Lockwood,  McCook,  McGowan,  Monroe,  Patterson  (Col.),  Patterson  (N.  Y.),  Rice 
(Mass.),  Robinson  (Mass.),  Sampson,  Starin,  Stone  (Mich.),  Stone  (Iowa),  Strait,  Townsend 
(Ohio),  Townsend  (N.  Y.),  Wait,  White  (Pa.),  Williams  (Wis.),  Williams  (Del.),  Williams  (Ore- 
gan)  and  Willetts. 

In  committee  the  Republicans  again  tried  to  talk  the  bill  to  death.  They  would 
not  permit  a  vote  to  be  reached  {Ibid.,  pp.  1315,1321). 

The  same  thing  occurred  on  February  26th,  27th  and  28th.  The  friends  of  the 
bill  tried  hard  to  pass  it,  but  the  Republicans  always  resisted  successfully,  either 
by  debate  or  by  dilatory  motions.     The  result  was  that  the  bill  went  over  until 


364     THE  REPUBLICAN  INSULT  TO  THE  MEXICAN  YETERANS. 

the  next  session.     Then  the  Republicans  repeated  their  tactics  to  defeat  the  bill, 

and  on  every  yea-and-nay  vote  James  A.  Garfield  is  recorded  as  voting  against 

the  bill  {see  Record,   ml.  S,  parti,  M  sess.  45th  Cong.,  pp.  440,  441,  447).     This 

was  the  short  session  of  Congress,  and  the  Republicans  by  their  conduct  were 

successful  in  preventing  any  action.     The  bill  was  consequently  lost. 

Early  in  the  Forty -sixth  Congress  bills  were  introduced  in  both  Houses.     In 

the  House  it  is  on  the  calendar.     Several  attempts  were  made  to  take  it  up,  but 

the  Republicans  individually  objected.     In  the  Senate  the  bill  was  discussed,  but 

no  vote  was  taken.     General  Williams,  of  Kentucky,  made  an  eloquent  speech  in 

behalf  of  his  old  comrades.     Other  Democrats  spoke  in  the  same  strain.     The 

Republicans  denounced  the  bill,  as  usual,  and,  as  the  Mexican  veterans  say  in 

their  resolution,  they  took  the  ground 

that  before  the  Mexican  veterans  shall  be    pensioned,  they  shall  first  make  oath  and   prove 
themselves  paupers. 

It  is  not  at  all  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  old  soldiers  should  be  indignant 
and  that  they  should  espouse  the  cause  of  their  old  companion  in  arms.  Gen. 
Hancock. 

Garfield  and  his  party  friends  are  unworthy  of  a  single  consideration  at  their 
liands. 


THE    BEBEL    BRIGADIEK.  365 


THE  REBEL  BRIGADIER: 

DANGEROUS  AS  A  DEMOCRAT — FIT  FOR  THE  HIGHEST  HONORS  AS 

A  REPUBLICAN — RADICAL.  DEMAGOGUISM — THE   SOLDIERS' 

ROLL  OF  THE   CONFEDERATE  CONGRESS. 

Since  the  Democrats  came  into  control  of  the  Senate  and  House,  the  Republi- 
can speakers  and  press  have  persistently  represented  that  the  Democratic  party  in 
its  appointments  of  employees  of  Congress  had  shown  its  hostility  to  the  Federal 
soldier.  Repeated  denials  accompanied  by  conclusive  evidence  did  not  stop  the 
misrepresentation. 

In  1879  the  Republican  party  of  Ohio,  in  nominating  as  their  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor a  man  who  staid  at  home  during  the  entire  war  and  never  exposed  himself 
to  a  moment's  danger,  saw  fit,  in  connection  with  that  nomination,  to  indulge  in  a 
hypocritical  gush  against  the  abuse  which  Federal  soldiers  were  receiving  from 
the  Democratic  party.     They  passed  the  following  resolution : 

Resolved,  That  the  memory  of  our  dead  heroes  who  gave  their  lives  to  save  the  nation  from  de- 
struction protests  against  the  expulsion  of  their  hving  comrades  from  public  ofBlces  to  gratify  the 
partisan  purposes  of  the  dominant  party  in  Congress. 

One  would  suppose  from  the  loud  pretense  of  Republican  love  for  the  soldiers 
that  at  least  every  other  man  officially  connected  with  the  Republican  Senate  and 
Republican  House  was  a  discharged  and  wounded  veteran.  "When  the  Senate 
was  turned  over  to  the  Democratic  party  there  were  found  just  six  wounded 
soldiers  on  its  rolls  and  no  more,  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  employees.  Under 
Democratic  rule  the  six  are  still  in  the  employ  of  the  Senate. 

In  regard  to  the  employees  of  the  House  the  following  statements  carry  their 
own  story: 

Doorkeeper's  Ofpice,  ) 

House  of  Representatives,  United  States,  >• 
Washington,  D.  C,  June  6,  1879.  ) 

I  certify  on  honor  that  there  are  now  upon  the  rolls  of  the  Doorkeeper's  Department,  House  of 
Representatives,  my  appointees,  twenty  gentlemen  who  served  in  the  "  Union  Army  "  during  the 
late  war.  Of  this  number  is  Colonel  Baker,  chief  of  document-room,  one  of  the  most  responsible 
positions  in  the  House;  a  second  is  Captain  Knight,  assistant  doorkeeper,  appointed  by  me  to  that 
place  for  the  reason  that  he  was  a  Union  soldier. 

CHARLES  W.  FIELD. 

Engineer's  Department,  House  of  Representatives,  June  5,  187!). 
There  are  employed  in  the  engineer's  department  of  the  House  of  Representatives  two  persons 
who  served  in  the  war  for  the  Union,  namely,  William  Lannan,  chief  engineer,  who  served  in  the 
navy,  and  S.  J.  Davenport,  who  served  in  the  army. 

WM,  LANNAN,  Chief  Engineer,  House  of  Representatives. 

Clerk's  Office, 
House  of  Representatives,  United  States,  - 
Washington,  D.  C,  June  6,  1879.  ) 

There  are  employed  in  the  office  of  the  Clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives  five  ex-Union 
soldiers,  among  whom  are  Hon.  George  M,  Adams,  Clerk  of  the  House,  and  Henry  H.  Smith, 
journal  clerk. 

GREEN  ADAMS,  Chief  Clerk,  House  of  Representatives. 

The  soldier  roll  at  this  hour,  with  the  Democratic  party  in  the  ascendency 


366  THE    REBEL    BRIGADIER. 

in  both  branches  of  Congress,  under  the  control,  of  "Confederate  brigadiers," 

to  use  a  hackneyed  phrase,  shows  a  better   patronage  bestowed  on  the  Union 

soldier  than  it  did  when  the  Republican  party  had  unlimited  sway. 

The  Democratic  party  has  been  arraigned  for  the  present  composition  of  the 

Senate.     Senator  Conkling  m  a  speech  delivered  m  the  Senate  said : 

Twentj'-seven  states  adhered  to  the  Union  in  that  dark  hour.  Those  states  send  to  Congress 
two  hundred  and  sixty-nine  Senators  and  Representatives.  Of  these  two  hundred  and  sixt^-nine 
Senators  and  Representatives,  fifty-four  and  only  fifty-four,  were  soldiers  in  the  armies  of 
the  Union. 

He  is  now  speaking  of  the  House  as  well  as  the  Senate : 

The  eleven  states  which  were  disloyal  send  ninety-three  Senators  and  Representatives  to  Con- 
gress. Of  these,  eighty-five  were  soldiers  in  the  armies  of  the  rebellion,  and  at  least  three  more- 
held  high  civil  station  in  the  rebellion,  making  in  all  eighty-eight  out  of  ninety-three. 

Let  me  state  the  same  fact,  dividing  the  House.  There  are  but  four  Senators  here  who  fought 
in  the  Union  army.  They  all  sit  here  now;  and  there  are  but  four.  Twenty  Senators  sit  here  who- 
fought  in  the  army  of  rebellion,  and  three  more  Senators  sit  here  who  held  high  civil  command  in, 
the  Confederacy. 

Since  the  war  closed  four  Senators  have  been  elected  in  the  State  of  New 
York  by  Republican  legislatures.  Each  time  that  party  had  an  opportunity  to 
send  somebody  here  who  had  shed  his  blood  or  offered  to  shed  it  in  the  war  for 
the  Union.  Four  times  they  refused  to  do  it,  three  times  by  sending  Mr.  Conk- 
ling, and  once  in  sending  Mr.  Fenton.  Four  times  the  party  of  which  the  Sena- 
tor is  leader  and  king  in  his  own  state  had  a  chance  to  select  as  Senator  some 
soldier  who  had  adorned  the  history  of  New  York  by  his  valor,  who  had  been 
conspicuous  by  his  heroism,  who  had  faced  the  belching  batteries  of  the  enemy, 
and  yet  each  time  the  towering  figure  of  Conkling  himself  intercepted  the 
soldier's  hopes.  Those  who  wore  the  blue  went  to  the  rear  while  the  tall  plume 
of  the  civil  chieftain  went  to  the  front;  and  yet  he  now  rails  at  the  Democrats  for 
not  filling  the  Republican  seats  in  the  Senate  with  Union  soldiers.  Amazing 
spectacle  ! 

Senator  Blaine  has  made  constant  assaults  on  the  Democratic  party  for  its  a Jeged. 
hostility  to  Federal  soldiers.  He,  too,  has  been  disturbed  because  there  are  so- 
many  men  on  one  side  of  the  Senate  Chamber  who  have  periled  their  lives  in 
battle  and  so  few  on  the  other.  If  the  fact  is  to  be  deplored,  then  why  comes  the 
Senator  from  Maine.  Why  does  he  not  yield  to  some  gallant  soldier  from  the 
Pine  Tree  state  ? 

But  there  have  been  in  the  state  of  Maine  five  elections  for  Senators  since  1865, 
each  time  resulting  in  the  choice  of  a  Republican  Senator.  Are  there,  in  fact,  na 
soldiers  in  that  state  to  send  to  the  Senate  ?  Is  there  nobody  there  fit  to  be  a 
member  of  this  body  who  wore  the  blue  during  the  war  ?  If  there  is,  and  he  has 
been  jostled  aside  by  the  superior  ability,  artifice  or  ingenuity  of  the  Senator  from 
Maine,  certainly  that  Senator  ought  not  to  reproach  the  Democrats  for  his  own 
grievous  fault.  Five  times  the  state  of  Maine  has  had  the  chance  to  do  honor  to 
some  soldier  in  her  borders,  and  five  times  she  has  done  nothing  of  the  kind,  and 
thus  she  has  added  five  conspicuous  illustrations  of  the  dire  hypocrisy,  the  vile 
sham,  and  black,  false  pretense  of  the  Republican  party  in  its  pretended  love  for 
the  Federal  soldier.  The  ' '  home  guards  "  are  there  in  force.  The  proper  order 
of  things  is  reversed.  The  rear  ranks  are  to  the  front,  and  the  front  ranks  have 
gone  to  the  rear.  And  now  these  rear  men  in  war  and  front  men  in  peace  fill  all 
the  air  with  a  dismal  cry  over  the  injustice  which  they  themselves  have  inflicted 
on  the  soldier. 

The  Republican  party  in  common  decency  ought  to  be  silent  on  the  subject, 
because  they  have  had  a  hundred  chances,  taking  all  the  states  throughout  the 
North  together,  to  remedy  the  very  evil  they  rail  about.      The  Republican  party 


THE    REBEL    BRIGADIER.  367 

of  Indiana,  with  all  of  its  clamorous  outcry  for  the  Union  soldier,  and  its  love  for 
the  soldier,  always  pushed  the  soldier  aside  and  sent  men  to  Washington  who 
never  faced  the  enemy.  The  Union  army  is  as  well  represented  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  and  House  now,  so  far  as  Indiana  is  concerned,  as  it  ever  was. 

Vermont  has  held  seven  senatorial  elections  since  the  war  closed.  There  could 
not  have  been  any  soldiers  in  that  state,  or  some  one  might  have  been  fou^d  in 
seven  trials.  The  state  is  not  large;  the  population  is  not  extensive.  Seven  times 
a  Senator  was  called  and  seven  times  a  civilian  answered  and  was  chosen.  Seven 
times  the  roll  of  public  merit  has  been  called  of  those  who  deserved  well  of  their 
country ;  and  seven  times  the  eager,  hungry,  stay-at-home,  home-guard  politician 
has  rushed  to  the  front,  seized  the  prize,  and  the  soldier  has  staid  at  home.  He 
goes  not  to  the  Senate  from  Vermont. 

Massachusetts  sent  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  troops  to  the  field.  Since 
the  war  it  has  six  times  held  a  senatorial  election,  and  no  soldier  was  elected. 
The  hypocritical  policy  of  the  Republican  party  is  thus  fully  illustrated. 

Let  us  see,  however,  about  this  dangerous  person  called  the  Confederate  briga- 
dier. Who  is  responsible  for  the  introduction  of  the  Confederate  brigadier  to  the 
theater  of  national  politics  ?  Southern  gentlemen  are  in  Congress  because  they 
thought  the  country  was  restored  to  its  normal  relations ;  that  the  states  were  re- 
habilitated under  the  Constitution ;  that  each  state  had  the  right  to  select  its  own 
representatives  in  both  branches  of  Congress,  and  that  they  were  not  compelled  to 
.ask  leave  to  come  of  any  set  of  men  from  any  part  of  the  country. 

They  are  right  in  being  there.  They  are  met,  however,  by  a  party  with  a  vio- 
lent unwelcome,  with  abuse  and  denunciation  hurled  as  a  key-note  to  party  war- 
fare by  the  great  Senator  from.  New  York,  and  followed  up  by  all  the  Senators  on 
his  side  of  the  Chamber.  There  is  something  due  to  history  on  this  subject.  Is 
the  Confederate  soldier  unfit  to  take  part  in  the  affairs  of  this  government ;  or,  is  it 
in  fact  only  the  Confederate  soldier  who  votes  the  Democratic  ticket  to  whom  they 
•object  ?  Is  it  the  Confederate  soldier  ^er  se,  or  does  the  objection  to  him  only  arise 
when  he  votes  the  Democratic  ticket  ?  If  a  Confederate  soldier  votes  the  Repubh- 
can  ticket,  and  indorses  all  the  rascality  that  overwhelmed  the  South  as  a  deluge 
during  carpetbagism,  do  they  not  embrace  him  ?  None  such  have  ever  been  cast 
out  by  the  Republican  party.  On  the  contrary,  all  such  have  had  seats  of  dignity 
and  robes  of  honor  assigned. 

THE   ROLL   OF   HONOR. 

Grant  appointed  Brigadier-General  Amos  T.  Akerman,  of  Georgia,  to  a  seat  in 
his  Cabinet.  A  majority  of  the  Republican  Senators  m  the  Senate  to-day  on  their 
oaths  voted  to  confirm  as  the  first  law  ofiicer  of  this  government.  They  gave  it 
to  him  to  construe  the  Constitution,  to  interpret  the  laws,  to  render  decisions  bind- 
ing for  years,  and  perhaps  for  all  time.  General  Grant  put  into  the  hands  of 
Confederate  Brigadier-General  Amos  T.  Akerman  the  portfolio  of  justice,  and  a 
Republican  Senate  confirmed  him;  and  why  ?  Not  because  he  was  greatly  learned 
in  the  law.  Nor  did  they  object  that  he  had  carried  a  sword,  and  killed  whom  he 
could,  under  the  Confederate  flag;  he  voted  the  Republican  ticket,  and  that  was 
enough ;  it  washed  away  all  his  sins,  and  made  him  clean  and  pure  in  their  eyes, 
though  his  sins  had  been  as  scarlet  before. 

The  present  administration  has  confided  one  of  its  very  important  Cabinet  port- 
folios to  another  Confederate  brigadier,  Postmaster-General  Key.  It  not  only  thus 
took  liim  to  their  heart,  but  has  provided  that  during  his  life  or  good  behavior  he 
shall  sit  as  a  United  States  judge  to  construe  the  law  of  the  land.  General  Key,  in 
the  Senate,  just  before  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  Cabinet,  in  a  speech  said: 


368  THE    REBEL    BRIGADIER. 

And  on  this  testimony,  the  falsehood  of  which  is  so  apparent  on  its  face,  a  state  is  to  be  dis- 
franchised, and  a  President  whom  the  people  never  elected,  is  to  be  placed  in  office. 

"Within  but  a  few  days  of  his  appointment  and  confirmation,  he  not  only  an- 
nounced that  the  present  President  of  the  United  States  was  not  elected  President 
by  the  people  at  all,  but  further,  that  there  was  a  plot  to  foist  him  into  that  office 
by  disfranchising  a  state  through  the  instrumentality  of  wholesale  falsehood.  He 
has  never  recanted  this  truthful  statement.  He  has  agreed  to  vote  the  Republican 
ticket,  and  doubtless  he  does  so.  It  was  on  that  condition  that  a  Republican 
Senate  confinned  this  Confederate  brigadier  with  an  additional  handicap  in  the 
shape  of  the  speech  quoted  from  above. 

Going  south  of  the  Potomac  one  can  still  further  illustrate  the  shameless,  false 
pretensions  of  the  Republican  party  on  this  subject.  A  Federal  judge  (Judge 
Hughes)  is  holding  an  office  for  life  in  Virginia.  He  was  an  original  secessionist 
and  the  editor  of  a  secession  paper  when  the  war  broke  out.  He  now  construes 
the  law  over  a  large  and  intelligent  population. 

They  have  welcomed  Confederate  officers  to  the  bench  and  to  the  Cabinet;  they 
have  welcomed  them  to  foreign  missions ;  they  have  welcomed  them  to  official 
positions  of  every  description,  on  the  one  sole  condition  that  they  Avould  vote  the 
Republican  ticket.  Party  politics  control  this  whole  matter.  When  they  vote 
the  Republican  ticket  they  are  "  loyal "  brigadiers;  when  they  vote  the  Democratic 
ticket  they  are  "rebel  "  brigadiers. 

Here,  next,  is  another  Virginian,  John  S.  Mosby.  Who  was  John  S.  Mosby  ? 
One  time,  it  was  a  question  whether  his  surrender  would  be  received, 
whether  he  would  be  accepted  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  or  whether  he  should  be  out- 
lawed from  that  general  amnesty  which  the  government  was  then  extending. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  name  of  Mosby  paled  the  faces  of  men  in  the  Cap- 
itol. There  was  a  time  when  it  was  supposed  he  fought  under  a  black  flag,  and 
that  it  could  sometimes  be  seen  from  the  dome  in  the  soft  sunlight  on  an  after- 
noon. It  was  thought  that  his  warfare  partook  of  the  nature  of  the  guerilla,  and 
such  a  belief  largely  prevails  to  this  hour.  But  all  is  forgiven  now ;  not  only  for- 
given, but  verily  this  most  offensive  Confederate  warrior  has  rich  reward.  He  cm- 
braced  radicalism,  and  it  in  turn  embraced  him.  Instead  of  some  wounded 
Federal  soldier  occupying  the  position,  the  Republican  Senate  has  confirmed  John 
S.  Mosby  as  consul  at  Hong-Kong,  and  he  is  now  an  American  representative  to 
the  oldest  empire  on  earth;  he  is  among  the  Celestials. 

The  traveler  in  passing  through  Virginia  naturally  visits  North  Carolina  next. 
Let  us  do  the  same.  Thomas  Settle,  of  North  Carolina,  is  now  a  district  judge  of  the 
United  States,  a  life  office  of  rank  and  importance.  He  was  an  officer  of  the  Confed- 
erate army  ;  he  was  a  secessionist;  he  fought  the  battles  of  secession;  he  turned  to 
be  a  Republican,  and  was  made  president  of  the  Republican  National  Convention 
which  nominated  Grant  in  1872  at  Philadelphia.  Afterward  he  was  made  minister 
to  Peru,  and  he  now  occupies  a  high  judicial  station.  The  most  profitable  spec- 
ulation a  man  who  fought  in  the  Confederate  army  can  now  engage  in  is  to  adver- 
tise himself  ready  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  Republican  party  at  a  fair  compensa- 
,  tion. 

Governor  Holden,  of  North  Carolina,  was  an  original  secessionist  and  a  signer 
of  the  ordinance  of  secession  which  took  North  Carolina  out  of  the  Union.  The 
Republican  party,  as  soon  as  he  had  joined  its  ranks,  made  him  governor  of  the 
state.  He  remained  governor  until  he  was  impeached;  but  proven  crimes  did  not 
seem  to  disgrace  him  with  Republicans.  Since  then  he  lias  been  appointed  post- 
master at  Raleigh  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate,  and  he  is  there  now  at  a  good, 


THE    REBEL    BRIGADIER.  369 

wholesome  salary.  Every  weak  or  treacherous  man  in  the  South  who  for  shams 
or  for  love  of  gain  desires  to  abandon  his  friends  and  prey  upon  his  own  people  is 
thus  rewarded. 

Take  the  Barringers ;  one  of  them  is  a  United  States  judge  in  Egypt,  They  were 
Confederates ;  they  are  Republicans  now,  and  they  are  cared  for. 

The  United  States  district  attorney  of  North  Carolina,  Mr.  Lusk,  was  an  officer 
in  the  Confederate  army,  and  he  was  confirmed  here.  He  was  confirmed  by 
Republican  Senators, 

James  L,  Orr,  of  South  Carolina,  was  once  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. He  went  into  secession  and  ai-med  rebellion,  and  was  a  Confederate  officer. 
He  afterwards  joined  the  Republican  party ;  and  what  a  place  they  gave  him  !  They 
made  him  minister  to  Russia,  one  of  the  four  first-class  missions,  and  this  Con- 
federate officer  received  it  as  his  reward  for  joining  the  Republican  party. 
Colonel  Northrup  of  North  Carolina  is  now  United  States  district  attorney. 
He  was  an  officer  in  the  Confederate  army.  In  Mississippi  let  us  see  how  the  Re- 
publican party  has  managed  its  affairs.  Major  Morphis  was  the  most  prominent 
scout  of  General  Stephen  D,  Lee's  command,  and  he  is  now  the  United  States 
marshal  for  the  Northern  district  of  Mississippi, 

Captain  G,  W.  Hunt  was  an  aid  to  General  Hardee,  and  he  is  now  United  States 
marshal  for  the  Southern  district  of  Mississippi.  Ah  !  how  the  good  things  come 
to  the  regenerated  !  Thomas  Walton — I  knew  him;  he  is  in  his  grave,  and  peace 
to  his  ashes — was  an  aid  to  General  Longstreet.  He  was  appointed  United  States 
district  attorney ;  and  after  his  death  he  was  succeeded  by  Green  Chandler,  a  Con- 
federate officer,  who  was  at  that  time  United  States  mail  agent,  and  is  now  United 
States  district  attorney  in  the  place  of  Walton,  deceased. 

Colonel  G.  W.  Henderson  was  a  colonel  of  cavalry  in  General  Chalmer's  divi- 
sion. He  is  now  receiving  the  reward  of  his  services  as  a  United  States  revenue 
collector;  and  in  order  to  make  Republicans  feel  proud  of  their  party  in  Mississippi, 
and  to  finish  up  the  work  properly,  it  only  remains  to  state  that  the  Republican  can- 
didate for  state  auditor  in  1875  was  Captain  Buchanan,  captain  in  the  Second  Mis- 
souri Cavalry  at  Fort  Pillow.  He  is  said,  according  to  all  accounts,  to  have  fought 
fiercely  in  that  memorable  battle.  Yet  he  received  all  the  votes  the  Republican 
party  had  to  give,  as  well  as  the  prayers  of  his  Northern  friends  who  could  not  get 
to  the  polls  to  vote  for  him.  With  what  devout  aspiration  Northern  Republicans 
hoped  for  his  success,  and  we  have  no  doubt  he  could  prove  that  he  would  have 
been  elected  if  his  supporters  had  not  been  bulldozed.  Yes,  he  was  a  captain 
fighting  at  Fort  Pillow  under  the  Confederate  flag.  The  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party  as  the  representatives  of  indignant  loyalty  against  Confederate  brigadiers 
take  to  their  bosoms  this  Confederate  officer,  who  bathed  his  sword  in  their  blood 
at  Fort  Pillow. 

There  never  was  before  a  fountain  of  grace  so  wide,  so  deep,  so  exhaustless,  so 
spontaneous  in  its  unceasing  flow,  as  that  of  the  Republican  party  to  Confederate 
officers,  if  they  will  only  vote  the  Republican  ticket ! 

Take  Louisiana.  We  see  one  who  was  long  in  office  there  and  who  has  made  a 
great  and  bloody  figure  in  history ;  a  man  of  commanding  mihtary  capacity — Gen- 
eral James  Longstreet.  General  Grant  made  him  surveyor  of  the  port  of  New 
Orleans,  took  his  bloody  hand  in  his — not  only  forgave  but  rewarded  him,  not  only 
welcomed  him,  but  said,  ' '  Come  up  higher, "  Who  was  Longstreet  ?  Those 
who  fought  in  the  Wilderness  speak  of  the  dreadful  shock  of  battle  when  they 
encountered  Longstreet's  corps,  and  the  blood  ran  in  rivulets.  No  braver,  harder 
fighter  ever  drew  sword  or  encountered  our  Union  armies  than  Longstreet.     He 


^"70  THE    KEBEL    BRIGADIER. 

•was  educated  for  a  soldier  by  his  government,  and  he  cost  it  more  lives  than  any- 
other  one  man  who  commanded  no  more  than  a  corps  in  the  Confederate  army. 
Who  was  Longstreet  at  Gettysburg  and  at  Antietam  ?  An  educated  American 
soldier  fighting  with  desperate  courage  to  destroy  our  government. 

When  the  history  of  the  late  war  shall  be  written,  alongside  of  the  names  of 
Gordon  and  Stonewall  Jackson,  of  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and  Albert  Sidney  John- 
ston, will  be  written  the  military  achievements  of  James  Longstreet.  Yet 
nothing  stood  between  him  and  civil  preferment  the  moment  he  was  willing  to 
turn  his  back  upon  his  old  comrades,  who  had  shared  with  him  the  bloody  charge, 
the  nightly  bivouac,  and  the  overwhelming  disaster  that  fell  upon  them  all  at  the 
■close. 

It  is  proposed  to 

APPEAL   FOR  FAIRNESS, 

for  common  honesty  and  common  decency.  It  is  not  intended  that  the  record 
shall  be  made  up  in  the  interest  of  injustice.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of  Republican 
Senators  to  make  it  up  in  the  way  they  propose,  for  the  truth  is  not  their  way. 
Their  accusations  shall  recoil  on  their  own  heads.  Their  charges  rest  upon  false 
foundations.  If  there  is  guilt  at  all  on  this  subject  the  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party  are  themselves  the  guilty  parties. 


THE    NEGRO    EXODUS.  ^'^ 


THE  NEGRO  EXODUS. 


In  the  fall  of  1878  public  attention  was  attracted  to  the  wholesale  importation 
of  negroes  from  certain  Southern  states  to  the  Northwest.  Kansas  was  first  se- 
lected as  the  objective  point  of  the  exodus.  The  migration  began  from  the  states 
of  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas  and  Texas.  Companies  of  negroes,  destitute 
of  clothing,  furniture  and  money,  appeared  upon  the  various  landings  along  the 
southern  Mississippi  and  embarked  in  steamboats  for  St.  Louis.  A  great  major- 
ity of  the  emigrants  had  no  idea  where  their  future  homes  were  to  be.  Emissa- 
ries of  the  Republican  party  had  visited  them  in  their  cabins  and  had  followed 
them  through  the  rice,  cotton  and  sugar  fields  of  the  South,  tempting  them,  with 
promises  seductive  and  false,  to  leave  their  homes  and  move  to  the  North. 
Tales  extravagantly  untrue  were  told  them  of  fortunes  to  be  made  without  work 
in  the  Western  states.  All  were  to  be  given  easy  employment  at  wages  which, 
to  the  uneducated  negro,  seemed  fabulous  in  amount.  They  were  told  that  the 
white  men  of  the  North  were  waiting  with  open  arms  to  receive  them.  Bible 
illustrations,  which  always  impresses  the  mind  of  the  negro,  were  used  to  pro- 
mote the  scheme.  A  new  Canaan  was  promised,  with  a  modern  Moses  to  lead 
them  into  a  land  of  milk  and  honey.  They  were  promised  from  80  to  160  acres 
of  good  land  apiece,  and  assistance  in  the  construction  of  houses  and  the  purchase 
of  stock.  It  is  not  strange  that  these  tempting  offers  were  eagerly  embraced. 
Comfortable  cabins  were  deserted,  the  women  and  children,  scantily  clad,  were 
moved  to  the  nearest  railway  stations  and  steamboat  landings,  and  the  natives  of 
the  warm  South  set  forth  to  endure  the  rigors  of  a  cold  northern  winter,  ignorant 
of  what  the  future  had  in  store  for  them,  but  with  blind  confidence  in  the 
promises  of  their  seducers. 

WHAT  ATTRACTED  PUBLIC   ATTENTION. 

The  first  idea  the  people  of  the  North  had  of  the  extent  of  the  exodus  was 
the  cry  which  came  from  the  municipalities  of  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City  and  Lea- 
venworth. The  emigrants  were  arriving  in  those  cities  by  scores  daily.  They 
were  for  the  most  part  utterly  destitute.  Sickness  spread  among  them.  They 
cried  for  bread.  The  men  who  had  enticed  them  from  their  homes  could  not 
be  found.  The  negroes,  like  a  flock  of  frightened  sheep,  ran  hither  and  thither 
trying  to  learn  where  the  Canaan  they  had  been  promised  was  situated,  and 
what  Moses  could  be  found  to  pay  their  railroad  fares  into  the  promised  land. 

The  citizens  were  sorely  taxed  to  prevent  the  innocents  from  dying  of  cold 
and  starvation.  Proclamations  were  issued  by  the  mayors,  and  an  attempt  to 
stop  the  exodus  was  made.  Many  of  the  negroes  who  were  provided  with 
funds  returned  to  their  homes.  Others  were  given  assistance  to  return.  The 
stories  told  of  their  treatment  dissuaded  many  of  their  friends  from  emigrating, 
but  it  was  found  impossible  to  entirely  stop  the  tide.     The  radical  press  of  the 


S72  THE    NEGRO    EXODUS. 

North  encouraged  the  exodus.  It  represented  the  negro  as  a  martyr,  denied  the 
natural  rights  of  man,  defrauded,  oppressed  and  discriminated  against  in  the 
race  of  life,  liberty  and  happiness,  followed  by  bloodhounds,  hunted  with  shot- 
guns and  outraged  beyond  description.  In  strange  contrast  with  this  bloody- 
shirt  howl  were  heard  the  voices  of  the  white  people  of  the  South  urging  the 
negro  to  remain  at  home,  warning  him  of  the  dangers  and  trials  to  be  undergone 
in  emigrating  to  an  unknown  land  in  a  different  clime. 

REPUBLICAN  LEADERS  SEEK  TO   TURN   THE   EXODUS  TO   ACCOUNT. 

The  Republicans  in  Congress  also  encouraged  the  exodus.  The  leaders  of 
the  party  were  in  the  secret  of  the  trick  which  had  for  its  sole  purpose  the  ma- 
nipulation of  the  negro  vote  in  the  states  where  Republican  supremacy  was  endan- 
gered. On  the  16th  of  January,  1879,  Mr.  Windom  introduced  in  the  Senate 
the  following  resolution  : 

Besdved,  That  with  a  view  to  the  peaceful  adjustment  of  all  questions  relating  to  suffrage,  to 
the  effective  enforcement  of  constitutional  and  natural  rights,  and  to  the  promotion  of  the  best 
interests  of  the  whole  country,  by  the  elimination  of  sectionalism  from  j)olitics,  a  committee  of 
seven  Senators  be  appointed  by  the  chair,  and  charged  with  the  duty  of  inquiring  as  to  the  expe- 
diency and  practicability  of  encouraging  and  promoting  by  all  just  and  proper  metnods  the  partial 
migration  of  colored  persons  from  the  states  and  Congressional  districts  where  they  are  not  allowed 
to  fret'ly  and  peacefully  exercise  and  enjoy  their  constitutional  rights  as  American  citizens  into 
such  states  as  may  desire  to  receive  them  and  will  protect  them  in  said  rights,  or  into  such  ter- 
ritory or  territories  of  the  United  States  as  may  be  provided  for  their  use  and  occupa:ion  ;  and  if 
said  committee  shall  deem  such  migration  expedient  and  practicable  that  they  report  by  bill  or 
otherwise  what  in  their  judgment  is  the  most  effective  method  of  accomplishing  that  object ; 
and  that  said  committee  have  leave  to  sit  during  the  recess. 

In  February  following  Mr.   Windom  made  a  speech  on  this  resolution,  in 

which,  after  flaunting  the  bloody  shirt,  he  said  : 

If  it  should  cost  a  few  millions  to  provide  the  territory  for  them,  who  would  weigh  that  fact  in 
the  balance  against  a  solution  of  the  most  perplexing  and  dangerous  problem  that  menaces  our 
future  as  a  nation,  the  performance  of  partial  but  tardy  justice  to  a  race,  and  the  permanent  pacifi 
cation  of  the  country  ? 

Again,  he  said: 

Let  it  be  understood  that  such  a  place  is  ready  for  them,  and  the  bishops  and  ministers  of  their 
various  churches  will  head  the  exodus  to  the  promised  land  with  songs  of  praise  and  devout 
thanksgiving  to  God  for  this  mighty  deliverance.  Do  you  say  they  are  too  poor  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  proposed  journey  f  Doubtless  the  great  majority  are  so,  but  the  enterprising,  the 
Intelligent,  and  the  ambitious  Will  find  some  means  of  getting  there  ;  and  should  any  difficulty 
occur  at  this  point,  the  patriotism  and  philanthropy  of  the  people  may  be  confidently  relied  upon 
to  organize  and  provide  the  needed  funds. 

Mr.  Windom  struck  the  key-note  of  the  Republican  campaign  with  the  negro 
in  the  words  above  quoted.  Aid  societies  to  assist  the  negro  to  emigrate  were 
organized,  and  contributions  were  taken  up  in  the  churches  to  help  on  the  cam- 
paign work.  These  societies  were  first  formed  in  Washington  and  St.  Louis.  A 
few  months  afterwards  the  exodus  took  a  new  direction,  and  the  Republican  con- 
spiracy was  then  unmasked.  *'  On  to  Indiana  "  was  the  watchword  whispered  into 
the  ears  of  the  negro  by  the  agents  of  the  Republican  party.  Senator  Voorhees. 
in  his  speech  in  the  Senate  on  the  4th  of  June,  1880,  said  : 

I  shall  not  dwell  on  the  well  known  and  well  proven  fact  that  as  early  as  the  autumn  of  1878 
Republican  newspapers  in  Indiana,  edited  by  Republican  Federal  officials,  were  openly  and  system- 
atically engaged  m  encouraging  negroes  to  come  and  settle  in  that  state,  avowedly  for  political 
ends.  A  Democratic  state  ticket  had  just  been  elected  by  13,000  majority,  a  Democratic  legisla- 
ture by  a  majority  still  larger,  and  the  camp  of  the  Republican  party  was  desolate,  its  colors  were 
m  the  dust,  its  haughty  pride  was  broken,  and  it  cried  out  piteously'for  the  negro  to  come,  and  to 
come  in  large  numbers,  to  its  aid.  Passionate  appt  als  were  made  editorially,  and  circulars  were 
printed  of  tne  most  enticing  character  for  distribution  in  the  South.  The  Baiviei\  a  very  promin- 
ent Republican  paper,  published  at  Greencastle,  Indiana,  and  edited  by  Mr.  Langsdale,  the  post- 
master at  that  large  and  important  town,  appears  to  have  been  selected  to  do  most  of  this  work, 
while  the  whole  Republican  press  of  the  state  and  all  the  leaders  of  that  party  stood  by  either  in 
silent  or  outspoken  approval  of  its  course.  Not  a  whisper  had  been  heard  from  the  negroes  them- 
gelves  on  this  subject  up  to  that  time.  The  thought  of  emigrating  in  large  bodies  from  their  liomea 
in  the  South  had  not  until  then  occurred  to  them.  But  in  seeking  the  oriein  of  the  negio  exodus  I 
am  not  confined  to  the  Republican  papers  and  postmasters  of  Indiana.  Inhere  is  high  authority  in 
this  body  for  the  assertion  that  it  was  conceived  in  the  brain  of  a  Northern  white  man,  and  not  in 
that  of  a  Southern  black  man. 


THE    NEGRO    EXODUS.  373 

THE   MOVEMENT   ON  INDIANA 

■was  begun  simultaneously  from  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  and  from  Kansas. 
Agents  were  sent  into  the  states  first  mentioned  to  start  the  exodus  there,  and  the 
negroes  who  had  previously  been  started  into  Kansas  were  solicited  to  leave  that 
solidly  Republican  state  and  swell  the  army  that  was  expected  to  make  Indiana 
Republican.  The  object  of  the  exodus  was  so  apparent,  the  sufferings  which  the 
negro  would  be  forced  to  undergo  to  gratify  the  political  ambition  of  the  Repub- 
lican leaders  were  so  evident,  that  the  Senate  passed  the  following  resolution, 
introduced  by  Mr.  Voorhees,  on  the  15th  of  December,  1879  : 

Whereas,  large  numbers  of  negroes  from  the  Southern  states,  and  especially  from  the  state 
of  North  Carolina,  are  emigrating  to  the  Northern  states,  and  especially  to  the  state  of  Indiana  ; 
and 

Whereas,  it  is  currently  alleged  that  they  are  induced  to  do  so  by  the  unjust  and  cruel  conduct 
of  their  white  fellow-citizens  towards  them  in  the  South  :  Therefore, 

Be  it  Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  five  members  of  this  body  be  appointed  by  its  presiding 
otficer,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  investigate  the  causes  which  have  led  to  the  aforesaid  emigration, 
and  to  report  the  same  to  the  Senate  ;  and  said  committee  shall  have  power  to  send  for  persons 
and  papers,  compel  the  attendance  of  witnesses,  and  to  sit  at  any  time. 

The  testimony  taken  by  this  committee  showed  beyond  peradventure  that  the 
negro  exodus  was  a  well-organized  political  scheme  to  vote  Southern  negroes  in 
certain  close  Western  states  where  Democratic  success  would  be  fatal  to  Republi- 
can national  supremacy.  In  this  scheme  the  negro  was  to  be  used  as  a  mere  tool, 
regardless  of  his  own  well-being  or  the  future  of  himself  and  his  family.  Wit- 
nesses from  all  of  the  states  whence  negroes  had  migrated,  the  agents  of  the 
movement,  organizers  of  aid  societies  and  colored  men  who  had  participated  in 
the  exodus  in  any  manner  were  examined. 

O.  S.  B.  Wall,  a  colored  resident  of  Washington,  who  helped  to  organize  the 
National  Emigrant  Aid  Society,  testified  that  three  of  these  societies  were  organized 
in  Indiana,  one  at  Green  Castle,  another  at  Indianapolis  and  a  third  at  Terre 
Haute.  These  organizations  were  of  a  secret  character  and  their  object  was  to 
transport  pauper  negroes  from  the  South  into  Indiana. 

A   SPECIMEN  AGITATOR  FOR   THE   EXODUS. 

One  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  negro  agitators  was  Gen.  S.  W.  Conway. 
This  person  has  lived  on  the  proceeds  of  his  efforts  to  benefit  the  colored  race  for 
nearly  twenty  years.  He  first  appears  as  a  commissioner  of  the  unfragrant  Freed- 
man's  Bureau  for  Louisiana  and  Alabama.  When  that  swindling  concern  evap- 
orated he  became  Superintendent  of  Education  for  Louisiana,  an  office  which  he 
filled  as  long  as  the  carpet-baggers  were  permitted  to  plunder  and  rule  that  unfor- 
tunate state.  Since  1873  he  has  been  identified  with  the  "interests"  of  the 
colored  people  in  one  way  or  another,  always  managing  to  keep  well  fed,  well 
clad  and  never  entirely  without  money.  In  less  than  one  month  after  Mr.  Win- 
dom's  speech  was  printed  Conway  appeared  in  Washington  for  consultation  with 
the  Republican  leaders  in  regard  to  the  exodus.  The  late  Zach  Chandler,  Chairman 
of  the  National  Committee,  took  Conway  to  his  bosom,  encouraged  him  to  work 
up  the  exodus  and  said  that  the  funds  necessary  to  carry  out  the  scheme  would 
be  raised.  Six  months  before  the  negroes  began  to  arrive  in  Indiana  Conway 
went  to  Indianapolis  and  there  prepared  the  programme  of  the  exodus  with  the 
Republican  leaders  of  that  state.  He  talked  with  John  C.  New,  Chairman  of  the 
Republican  State  Central  Committee,  E.  B.  Martindale,  Postmaster  Hollo  way  and 
others.  They  conversed  together  about  the  prospects  of  carrying  Indiana  for  the 
Republicans,  and  the  idea  of  importing  negroes  for  that  purpose  was  approved. 
After  fixing  matters  in  Indianapolis  Conway  went  to  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City 
^nd  was  partially  successful  in  diverting  the  tide  of  immigration  from  Kansas  to 


374  THE    NEGRO    EXODUS. 

Indiana.  He  then  returned  to  Indianapolis  to  report  the  result  of  his  labors. 
The  scheme  was  concocted  with  careful  deliberation,  and  it  received  the  approval 
of  the  principal  politicians  in  the  Republican  party,  national  and  state.  Mr.  Con- 
way in  his  testimony  before  the  investigating  committee  admitted  it.  Being  ex- 
amined by  Mr.  Windom,  he  said ; 

Q,.  Do  you  know  of  any  effort  to  colonize  any  state  with  negro  voters  ?  A.  There  has  been 
some  talk  abont  it,  and  I  have  been  trying  to  help  carry  Indiana  by  their  aid. 

Q.  What  have  you  done  in  that  direction  ?  A.  I  encouraged  as  many  of  them  to  go  there  as  I 
could;  first,  because  I  believed  they  coulri  get  good  wa^es,  and,  second,  to  help  out  the  Republican 
cause  and  raise  the  negro  to  a  higher  civilization.  I  think  he  is  a  good  Republican  and  agood  loyal 
citizen,  and  should  be  allowed  to  vote;  therefore,  I  have  not  liked  the  idea  to  exclude  politics  from 
the  exodus.  I  think  the  negro  ought  to  go  where  he  can  do  the  most  good  for  himself  and  the  Re- 
publican party. 

Q.  Hasn't  it  been  something  of  a  failure  rather— your  trying  to  get  them  to  go  to  Indiana  ?  A. 
Yes,  sir;  I  think  so.  I  have  oeen  desirous  to  see  a  good  many  of  them  go  in  there.  I  wanted  to 
see  the  Democrats  beaten,  and  I  wanted  the  negroes  to  go  in  there  and  help  do  it. 

Q.  How  many  voters  do  you  suppose  have  gone  in  there  ?  A.  If  all  had  gone  whom  I  advised 
to  go  there  would  have  been  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand. 

THE  CONSPIRACY  TO  CARRY  INDIANA  PROVED. 

The  existence  of  the  conspiracy  was  proven  out  of  the  mouth  of  its  chief  agent, 
a  Republican  witness,  examined  by  a  Republican  Senator.  The  infamous  plot  to 
subvert  the  will  of  the  people  of  Indiana  by  the  importation  of  pauper  negroes  was 
fully  proven.  That  the  plot  failed  was  not  due  to  the  unscrupulous  zeal  of  its 
Republican  authors.  Employees  of  the  reform  administration  of  R.  B.  Hayes  as- 
sisted in  the  nefarious  task  of  colonizing  Republican  voters  in  Indiana.  H.  W. 
Mendenhall,  of  Wayne  Co.,  Indiana,  a  government  clerk  in  Washington,  was  a 
member  of  the  original  immigrant  society.  He  made  a  speech  to  the  society  advis- 
ing the  importation  of  negroes  to  Indiana  for  political  purposes.  He  corresponded 
with  Colonel  Dudley,  U.  S.  marshal  of  Indiana,  who  wanted  the  negroes  to  come 
into  Indiana  but  wisely  preferred  that  the  exodus  should  not  be  known  as  a  Re- 
publican movement. 

After  Conway  had  finished  his  persuasive  labors  in  Kansas,  the  tide  of  immigrants 
from  North  Carolina  began  to  flow.  They  came  by  hundreds  on  almost  every 
train  from  the  South,  filling  the  air  with  complaints  of  their  poverty  at  home, 
and  indulging  in  the  wildest  anticipations  of  the  paradise  they  were  to  enter  in 
the  Hoosier  state.  These  immigrants  were  composed  of  the  lowest  and  most 
impecunious  class  of  negroes  in  North  Carolina.  They  had  been  furnished 
with  transportation  by  the  agents  of  the  conspiracy.  Many  of  them 
were  destitute  of  food,  a  majority  were  insufficiently  clad  and  not 
a  few  had  been  provided  with  tickets  which  were  good  to  Washington  only. 
They  had  been  taken  away  from  their  homes  and  were  left  to  the  <;liarity  of  the 
public  for  means  to  complete  the  journey.  Hundreds  of  them  remained  in 
Washington  for  days  at  a  time  waiting  for  the  emigrant  aid  society  to  raise  funds 
to  carry  them  on  to  Indiana.  It  was  well  known  that  the  negroes  must  endure 
great  suffering  after  their  arrival  in  Indiana.  The  people  of  that  state,  regard- 
less of  party,  had  never  desired  the  presence  of  a  large  pauper  negro  population 
among  them.  There  was  no  demand  in  Indiana  for  their  labor,  and  no  prospect 
that  they  would  better  their  financial  or  social  condition  by  the  change. 

The  people  of  North  Carolina  had  treated  the  negro  with  kindness.  His  con- 
dition there  had  steadily  improved  since  emancipation,  and  the  exodus  from 
that  state  would  never  have  occurred  but  for  the  false  promises  of  Republican 
emissaries  and  the  lying  tales  printed  in  exodus  circulars. 

Another  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  exodus  was  caused  by  Republican  politicians 
is  afforded  by  the  testimony  of  Wm.  B.  Tinney,  passenger  agent  of  the  Bal- 
timore and  Ohio  Railroad  at  Indianapolis.     A  party  of  emigrants  were  stranded 


THE    XEGRO    EXODUS.  375 

in  Washington  for  lack  of  money  to  pay  their  railroad  fares.  Mr,  Koontz,  the 
agent  of  the  road  at  Washington,  telegraphed  Mr.  Tinney  to  call  upon  three 
prominent  Republican  politicians  in  Indianapolis  and  obtain  $625  to  pay  the 
transportation  bill.  Mr.  Tinney  obeyed  instructions.  The  money  was  promptly 
given  him  and  Ihe  delayed  emigrants  were  immediately  sent  on  to  the  Iloosier 
state.  Every  circumstance  indicates  that  this  money  was  raised  by  the  Repub- 
lican State  Central  Committee. 

The  evidence  taken  by  the  committee  showed  conclusively  that  the  negroes 
\vere  not  wanted  in  Indiana.  Every  witness  except  Republican  office-holders  and 
politicians  testified,  that,  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Voorhees,  "such  an  influx 
would  be  the  abomination  of  the  people  of  the  state;  that  the  supply  of  laborers 
was  far  greater  than  the  demand,  and  had  been  for  many  j-ears,  especially  since 
1873;  that  thenegroes  already  imported  there  had  fallen  upon  hard  lines,  many 
of  them  not  employed  at  all,  objects  of  daily  charity,  and  others  obtaining  a  pre- 
carious subsistence  from  temporary  and  uncertain  engagements." 

THE  PROSPEROUS  CONDITIOX   OF   NEGROES   IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

The  committee  also  investigated  tlie  condition  of  the  negro  in  North  Carolina, 
and  ascertained  by  a  line  of  unbroken  and  uncontradicted  testimony  that  there 
is  not  a  single  right  or  privilege  belonging  to  any  citizen  of  the  United  States 
that  is  not  enjoyed  by  the  colored  residents  of  North  Carolina. 

Charles  N.  Otey,  an  educated  colored  native  of  North  Carolina,  testified  before 
the  committee.  His  evidence  is  so  strongly  in  contrast  with  the  statements 
of  Radical  politicians  concerning  t*he  position  of  the  negro  in  that  state  that  an 
extract  is  given.     He  said: 

In  North  Carolina  the  most  kindly  relations  exist  between  the  white  and  colored  people.  At 
the  last  celebration  of  the  day  of  the  emancipation  proclamation  the  whites,  all  of  whom  had 
owned  slaves,  paid  three-fourths  of  the  expenses  neceseary  for  making  it  a  success.  They  not 
only  did  this  in  Raleigh,  but  in  other  places  where  the  day  was  celebrated" 

The  colored  people  as  a  mass  are  more  intelligent  than  in  any  other  state  in  the  South.  They 
always  had  more  opportunities  for  acquiring  an  education.  There  are  at  least  five  schools  in  the 
state' where  they  can  get  a  scholastic  education,  and  almost  every  town  has  a  graded  school. 

They  have  what  no  other  stale  in  the  South  possesses— an  asylum  for  the  deaf^  dumb  and  blind. 
A  Democratic  legislature  has  appropriated  money  for  the  erection  of  an  insane  asylum;  at  pres- 
ent the  colored  insane  are  in  the  white  asylum,  than  which  there  is  no  finer  in  this  country. 

The  free  schools  are  open  for  all,  and  colored  teachers  are  always  employed  in  preference  to 
A'hites. 

There  are  numbers  of  colored  lawyers  who  have  made  a  name  at  the  bar;  doctors  who  have 
■successful  practice;  farmers  who  own  their  farms  and  carry  their  own  cotton  to  market.  Why. 
Raleigh,  a  city  of  about  thirteen  thousand  inhabitants,  half  of  whose  population  is  colored,  has 
grown  within  the  past  five  years  to  such  extent  that  I  could  scarcely  recognize  my  native  city. 
There  are  more  colored  people  who  own  their  own  houses  than  there  are  in  the  city  of  Washington. 
Their  beautiful  cottages  are  to  be  seen  everywhere. 

As  I  beheld  this  sight  I  said  to  myself,  why  does  not  the  emigration  begin  at  Washington  ? 

In  one  word  I  eay  that  the  cause  of  the  exodus  from  North  Carolina  can  be  found  in  the  purses 
of  the  men  who  furnished  Perry  and  Williams  with  the  means. 

In  my  opinion  the  time  will  come  when  those  who  have  encouraged  this  movement  will  repent 
in  sackcloth  and  ashes. 

In  my  humble  judgment,  in  December,  1880,  many  colored  men  who  are  now  feasting  on  the 
lamb  in  Indiana  will  be  begging  for  money  to  pay  their  way  back  to  old  North  Carolina. 

Mr.  O'Hara,  the  Republican  candidate  for  Congress  in  the  last  election,  testi- 
fied before  the  committee.     He  said  : 

I  do  not  know  of  any  state  in  the  American  Union  where  there  is  a  better  feeling  between  the 
white  and  colored  people  than  in  North  Carolina.  It  is  a  very  usual  thing  to  see,  on  the  day  of 
election,  the  landlord  and  the  tenant,  the  employer  and  the  employee  going  to  town  in  the  same 
buggy  and  voting  different  ways.  I  have  even  wondered  why  it  was  that  the  employer  could  in- 
fluence his  tenant  ol- employee  on  every  other  subject  except  voting.  I  think  I  ought  to  say  with 
regard  to  Captain  Wall's  testimony,  as  it  will  all  come  before  the  House  in  due  time,  that  in  my  de- 
feat, or  rather  my  being  counted  out,  the  Republicans  had  more  to  do  with  it  than  the  Democrats, 
and  I  say  that  the  colored  Republicans  of  the  South  have  more  to  fear  from  the  white  Republicans 
than  the  Democrats.  And  tliere  is  always  a  combination  between  the  white  Republicans  against 
any  intelligent  colored  Re,  ublican  who  seeks  to  aspire  to  oftice. 

THE   SAD   STORIES  THE  EMIGRATING  NEGROES  TOLD. 

The  committee  did  not  listen  alone  to  the  statements  of  those  emigrants  who 
had  settled  in  Indiana.  They  heard  the  stories  of  dozens  of  deluded  colored 
people  who  had  learned  by  bitter  experience  that  the  exodus  was  a  fraud  and  a 


376  THE    NEGRO    EXODUS. 

cheat,  originated  to  benefit  the  Republican  party  at  the  expense  of  the  negro. 
Old  colored  men,  hungry  and  footsore  in  their  efforts  to  return  to  the  comfort- 
able homes  which  they  had  left  in  the  Southern  states,  related  their  experiences. 

The  statements  made  by  Mingo,  Simmons,  Green,  Ruffin  and  others  of  their 
treatment  in  Indiana  almost  paralleled  the  tales  which  the  Radical  newspapers 
used  to  unfold  day  after  day  during  the  campaign  of  1876.  RuflBn,  after  suffering 
in  the  land  of  his  adoption,  concluded  to  return  to  the  land  of  his  birth.  He  an- 
nounced his  determination  to  go. 

"Did  any  of  them  advise  you  to  stay  V  asked  a  committeee  man.  "Yes,  sir,"  was  the  reply. 
"  They  said,  they  did  not  blame  you  emigrants  for  wanting  to  go  home,  but  said,  you  try  and  stay 
until  after  the  presidential  election  and  then  we  think  it  best  for  you  to  go  home  ;  and  I  said,  aU 
right,  and  I  went  on  my  way  and  come  here." 

Ruffjn  also  testified  that  he  was  induced  to  go  to  Indiana  by  a  general  promise 
made  to  the  colored  men  that  they  should 

receive  $15  a  month  on  a  farm,  house  to  live  in,  firewood  furnished  and  a  cow  and  a  calf  to  milk 
extra  for  each  family. 

The  first  object  of  the  politicians  who  organized  the  exodus  was  undoubtedly 
to  revive  sectional  agitation  and  bitterness  by  the  circulation  of  untruthful  stories 
about  Southern  outrages,  whippings  and  bulldozing.  The  idea  of  colonizing 
Indiana  was  born  almost  simultaneously  with  the  execution  of  the  plan  for 
moving  the  negroes  into  Kansas.  Agencies  were  established  at  Topeka  and  at 
St.  Louis,  which  dealt  largely  in  the  manufacture  of  campaign  stories  of  the  out- 
rage type. 

A   CONSERVATIVE   SOUTHERN  VIEW. 

Senator  Lamar,  of  Mississippi,  made  a  speech  in  the  Senate  on  the  14th  of  June, 
in  which  he  discussed  the  question  of  the  exodus  from  a  conservative  Southern 
point  of  view.  The  evidence  taken  by  the  committee  had  convinced  him  that 
the  exodus  was  planned  by  Republican  politicians  for  political  purposes.  There 
was  nothing  in  the  condition  of  the  states  from  which  the  emigration  proceeded 
to  drive  labor  from  the  pursuits  in  which  it  was  actively  and  profitably  engaged, 
and  nothing  in  the  condition  of  the  states  to  which  the  emigration  proceeded  to 
call  for  such  an  influx  of  labor.  Mr.  Lamar  said  that  if  the  negro  believed  it  to 
be  for  his  best  interests  to  leave  the  South  he  would  bid  him  go.  If  they  were 
deluded,  the  delusion  would  soon  be  exposed.  He  said  that  the  planters  of  Mis- 
sissippi, even  while  he  was  speaking,  were  in  communication  with  laborers  in 
Kansas  and  Indiana,  looking  upon  them  as  more  accessible  sources  of  supply  than 
the  laborers  of  Georgia  and  Alabama.  In  a  single  sentence  Mr.  Lamar  gave  the 
true  history  of  the  exodus.     He  said  : 

It  was  a  movement  concocted  outside  of  the  South,  having  no  connection  with  the  wants  of 
labor  or  tlie  demands  of  capital,  but  set  on  foot  for  the  purpose,  in  part,  to  obtaining  partisan 
ascendancy  in  a  northern  state  ;  in  part  to  diminish  the  basis  of  representation  in  the  Soutli  in  the 
approaching  census  ;  and  lastly,  to  renew  the  agitation  of  "  Southern  outrages  ''  in  the  coming 
presidential  election." 

He  went  on  to  say,  that  for  every  black  man  who  left  the  South  the  planters 
would  have  a  white  immigrant  from  the  North,  better  skilled  in  labor  and  more 
advanced  in  intelligence  and  more  political  experience.  His  speech  was  a  most 
emphatic  refutation  of  the  oft-repeated  charge,  that  the  South  is  Xhe  home  of 
disorder,  outrage  and  lawlessness.  From  the  labor  statistics  of  the  government 
he  showed  that  in  Mississippi,  a  population  of  581,206  above  the  age  of  ten  years 
was  reported,  of  which  number  318,850  were  employed  in  bread-getting,  while 
in  Minnesota,  the  state  which  the  sensational  exodus  agitator,  Mr.  Windom,  repre- 
sents, only  132,657  out  of  a  population  of  305,568  (Census  1870),  were  employed 
m  bread-getting.  The  occupation  of  such  a  proportion  of  the  citizens  of  Missis- 
sippi in  peaceful  labor  was  incompatible  with  a  condition  of  lawlessness  and 
disorder. 


HOW    THE    POOR    FKEEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  37f 


HOW    THE    POOK    FREEDMEN    WERE 
SWINDLED. 


THE  WICKEDEST  AIO)    MEANEST    OF  ALL   THE    FRAUDS    THE    REPUBLICAN .  PARTY 

IS  RESPONSIBLE  FOR. 

They  would  pillage  the  palace  of  the  King  of  Kings, 
And  strip  the  gilding  from  an  ange'l's  wings  ; 
Cheat  the  living,  rob  the  dead, 
And  deprive  the  orphan  of  his  crust  of  bread. 

The  wickedest  and  meanest  swindle  which  the  Republican  party  is  responsible 
for  was  that  practiced  upon  the  ignorant  and  helpless  f reedmen.  The  Freedmen's 
Savings  Bank  was  intended  by  the  majority  of  its  first  board  of  trustees  to  be  a 
worthy  institution.  The  conception  was  a  good  one.  Philanthropists  lent  their 
names  and  their  influence  to  it,  and  men  like  Chas.  Sumner,  Peter  Cooper,  William 
Cullen  Bryant,  A.  A.  Low,  S.  B.  Chittenden,  John  Jay  and  Gerritt  Smith  were 
among  its  trustees.  Under  these  excellent  auspices  it  was  ushered  into  existence. 
Its  sponsors  were  men  of  character,  but  its  originators  were  the  most  cunning, 
the  most  unscrupulous,  and  the  most  influential  leaders  of  the  Republican  party. 
The  men  who  governed  and  mismanaged  the  bank  after  its  organization,  and  who 
robbed  the  trusting  freedmen  of  their  hard-earned  savings,  were  hidden  behind 
this  cloud  of  philanthropists,  and  the  cowardly  scheme  for  plundering  the  igno- 
rant colored  people  was  matured  before  Mr.  Sumner  was  induced  to  introduce  the 
bill  which  gave  the  men,  with  whom  Gen.  Garfield  was  involved  in  at  least  one 
corrupt  transaction,  the  power  to  carry  out  their  design.  Sneak  thieves  are  brave 
men  compared  with  the  crowd  of  politicians  who  robbed  the  Freedmen's  Savings 
and  Trust  Company. 

ORIGIN   OF   THE  BANK. 

The  freedmen  who  first,  in  any  numbers,  earned  more  money  than  was  sufficient 
to  meet  their  daily  wants,  were  those  who  enlisted  in  the  Federal  armies.  The 
institution  which  has  done  so  much  injury  to  the  race  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  couple 
of  savings  banks  started  by  Generals  Butler  and  Saxton  at  Beaufort,  S.  C,  and 
Norfolk,  Va.  They  were  simply  for  the  colored  troops,  but  it  began  to  be  indi- 
cated by  the  deposits  made  in  them  that  the  race,  or  a  large  part  of  it,  was  inclined 
to  be  thrifty.  Deposits  accumulated  to  such  an  extent  that  the  shrewd,  calcu- 
lating spirits  in  Washington  saw  their  opportunity.  They  lived  on  plunder,  and 
here  was  an  undreamed-of  hoard  in  the  labor  of  freed  negroes  on  which  they 
might  fatten. 

Some  mysterious  person,  presumably  one  of  those  who  afterwards  became  one 
of  the  managers  of  the  bank,  drew  a  bill  in  the  winter  of  1864-5  chartering  the 


3V8  HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED. 

institution.     It  was  a  bill  giving  tlie  concern  the  ordinary  powers  of  a  savings 
bank.     Ostensibly  the  bill  was  to  induce  the  freedman  to  save  his  money  and  to 
educate  him  to  habits  of  thrift.     A  gloss  of  charity  was  spread  over  every  page^ 
and  its  purpose  recommended  it  to  the  kind  friend  of  the  negro,  Charles  Sumner 
who  introduced  it  into  the  Senate  on  the  17th  of  February,  18G5. 

The  following  taken  from  the  speech  of  Hon.  William  S.  Stenger  of  Pennsyl- 
vania is  the  precise  truth  concerning  the  origin  of  the  bank : 

They  [freedmen]  were  entirely  unfitted  to  make  safe  and  remunerative  investments  of  their 
money.  Here  was  a  proposition  to  render  them  necessary  assistance,  by  providin^j  them  a  deposi- 
tory where  their  funds  could  be  received  and  invested  for  their  benefit  in  the  stocks,  bonds,  treas- 
ury notes  or  other  securities  of  the  United  States.  It  was  a  lofty  and  laudable  purpose.  It  was 
calcuhited  to  encourage  the  freedman  to  the  exercise  of  industry,  so  tliat  he  might  make  monev,. 
and  to  the  practice  of  frugality,  so  that  he  might  husband  his  resources  and  thus  provide  for  the 
wants  of  himself  and  family  ac;ainst  the  coming  of  old  age,  sickness,  and  death.  And  with  this 
purpose  Mr.  Sumner  could  not  Dut  feel  the  heartiest  sympathy.  In  the  exhort  debate  in  the  Senate 
on  the  bill,  he  characterized  it  as  a  simple  charity.  He  ingrafted  in  it  an  amendment  requ  ring  the 
officers  of  the  bank  to  give  security.  But  it  never  occurred  to  him  that  it  was  necessary  to  inspect, 
line  by  line,  a  bill  that  had  been  i)laced  in. his  hands  by  men  known  as  the  professed,  zeah.us  friends 
of  the  freedmen.  He  never  dreamed  that  there  might  be  a  jjredeterminatitm  on  the  part  of  these 
men  to  abuse  the  great  trust  then  about  to  be  placed  in  their  hands.  Had  such  a  thought  occurred 
to  him,  I  do  not  doubt  that  additional  restrictions  would  have  been  imposed,  and  some  very  Impor- 
tant provisions  added. 

But,  sir,  devilish  cunning  and  ingenuity  played  their  part,  and  played  it  well,  in  framing  this  act 
of  incorporation.  There  were  men  who  saw  in  this  project  a  golden  opportunity  to  make  money 
for  themselves. 

The  bank  was  marked  by  evil  from  its  birth.  Bad  men  conceived  it,  and  hid- 
den away  in  the  bill  which  Mr.  Sumner  introduced  were  the  opportunities  for  the 
iniquities  which  ultimately  brought  ruin  on  the  best  of  the  negro  race,  and  sent 
them  back,  dispirited  and  hopeless,  into  the  poverty  from  which  they  had  hoped 
to  escape.  No  sooner  was  the  bill  before  Congress  than  a  lobby  was  gathered  in 
its  interest.  It  was  a  lobby  of  bad  men,  who  had  much  influence  with  the  Repub- 
lican party. 

THE   WORK   OF   THE   LOBBY. 

When  the  bill  was  introduced,  the  powers  conferred  by  it  as  to  extension  were 

unlimited.     The  managers  might  set  up  branches  of  the  bank  anywhere  within 

the  United  States.     The  attempt  was  made  to  pass  the  bill  through  the  Senate 

without  reading,  but  Mr.  Buckalew  called  attention  to  the  fact  and  said : 

I  have  read  the  bill ;  it  is  in  proper  form,  and  the  only  question  is  whether  we  ought  to  establish 
such  an  institution  outside  the  District  of  Columbia. 

.    After  a  short  colloquy,  Senator  Powell  of  Kentucky  said : 

I  find  by  the  reading  of  that  bill  that  it  is  a  roving  kind  of  commission  for  these  persons  fo  es- 
tablish a  savings  bank  in  any  part  of  the  United  States,  I  think  the  bill  is  wholly  unconstitu- 
tional. I  do  not  believe  Congress  has  any  right  to  establish  a  savings  bank  outside  of  the  District 
of  Columbia. 

Mr.  Sumner  thereupon  agreed  that  the  bill  might  be  amended  so  that  the  bank 
should  be  confined  to  the  District  of  Columbia.  This  amendment  was  adopted  by 
the  Senate,  so  that  the  bill  passed  by  that  branch  of  Congress  confined  the  bank  to 
the  District  of  Columbia. 

The  lobby  seems  to  have  followed  the  bill  to  the  engrossing  clerk's  office,  for  it 
was  not  engrossed  as  it  passed  the  Senate.  Some  one  was  interested  in  securing 
the  roving  commission  of  which  Senator  Powell  spoke,  and  had  power  and  influ- 
ence enough  to  manipulate  and  change  the  bill  while  it  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
clerks  of  the  Senate.  At  any  rate,  when  the  bill  reached  the  House  the  amenda- 
tory words  were  not  in  it. 

The  following  colloquy  took  place  in  the  House  on  this  subject: 

Mr.  Ganson:  I  would  ask  where  this  bank  or  association  is  to  be  located? 
Mr.  Eliot:  In  Washington  City. 
Mr.  Ganson:  It  is  not  so  stated  m  the  bill. 

Mr.  Eliot:  That  is  an  error.  Then  I  ask  unanimous  consent  to  insert  after  the  words  "body 
corporate  "  the  words  "  in  Washington  City,  District  of  Columbia." 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  379 

No  objection  was  made  and  the  amendment  was  adopted. 

Mr.  Ganson:  I  think  there  should  be  among  the  corporators  ttie  name  of  some  person  in  this 
District. 

Mr.  Eliot:  1  move  to  amend  by  inserting  the  name  of  Salmon  P.  Chase  among  the  trustees. 
No  objection  was  made  and  the  amendment  was  accordingly  agreed  to. 

The  lobby  was  as  potent  in  the  House  as  in  the  Senate.  The  bill  was  sent  back 
to  the  Senate  in  precisely  the  same  form  as  it  had  gone  to  the  House  from  that 
body.  There  was  no  allusion  made  to  the  amendments  in  the  message  from  the 
House ;  there  were  no  amendments  in  the  body  of  the  bill,  which  was  signed  by  the 
Vice-President  and  Speaker  of  the  House. 

THE   BILL,    THEREFORE,    BORE  ALL   THE    INDICATIONS   OP   FRAUD. 

At  the  outset  it  was  evident  that  dishonest  people  were  eager  for  its  passage, 
and  that  they  had  been  able  to  call  to  their  assistance  the  committees  on  enrolled 
bills  and  employees  of  both  Houses  of  Congress. 

Mr.  Stenger  said  concerning  the  fraud  that  marked  the  passage  of  the  bill : 

"Again,  this  charter,  as  originally  framed,  contemplated  the  widest  possible  stBetch  of  territory 
for  the  operaiions  of  the  company.  It  did  not  mean  to  be  liemmed  in  by  any  sort  of  inconvenient 
limitations.  Its  missionaries  were  to  be  commissioned  to  go  into  alJ  the  States  of  the  Union, 
and,  while  proclaiming  themselves  as  the  deliverers  of  the  bondmen  and  teaching  the  latter  "  to  toil 
and  to  save,"  to  gather  in  their  little  savings,  so  that  the  Ring  might  have  immense  sums  upon 
which  to  speculate  and  grow  rich.  *  *  *  *  *  *  *,*  * 

The  history  of  the  legislation  is  interesting,  not  only  as  showing  the  extent  of  the  powers  conferred 
upon  the  corporation,  as  understood  by  the  Senate  and  House,  but  also  as  showing  a  juggle  or 
trick  by  which  the  charter  was  illegally  procured,  and  the  freedmen  deprived  of  the  services  and 
protection  of  one  of  their  warmest  and  staunchest  friends.  It  shows  that  the  act  was  conceived  in 
fraud  and  brought  forth  iniquity. 

FRAUD   IN   THE   ORGANIZATION. 

The  motive  for  surreptitiously  striking  out  the  amendments  confining  the  bank 
to  the  District  of  Columbia  were  soon  seen.  The  first  act  of  the  company  was 
to  establish  the  bank  or  principal  office  at  New  York,  This  went  even  beyond 
the  charter  as  it  passed,  after  its  manipulation  by  the  conspirators.  The  organi- 
zation of  the  company  was  effected  May  16,  1865.  A  branch  bank  was  establish- 
ed in  Washington,  August  1st,  and  during  the  year  other  offices  were  established 
at  Louisville,  Ky.,  Richmond,  Va.,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Wilmington,  N.  C,  Hunts- 
ville,  Ala.,  Memphis,  Tenn.,  Mobille,  Ala.,  and  Vicksburg,  Miss.  During  the 
course  of  its  history  other  branches  were  established  at  Beaufort,  S.  C. ,  Jack- 
sonville, Fla.,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Alexandria,  Va.,  Natchez,  Miss.,  Newbern  and 
Raleigh,  N.  C,  St.  Louis,  Shreveport,  La,,  Columbia,  Ga.,  Lynchburg,  Va., 
Macon,  Ga..  Lexington,  Ky.,  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  New  Orleans, 
Norfolk,  Va.,  Tallahassee,  Fla.,  Philadelphia,  Augusta  and  Savannah,  Ga.,  and 
Montgomery,  Ala.  These  were  intended  to  be  feeders  to  the  central  concern, but 
they  were  simply  aids  to  the  plunder  of  the  freedmen. 

The  politicians  and  conspirators  soon  got  possession  of  the  institution.  The 
only  man  among  the  original  trustees  whose  name  is  smirched  by  his  connection 
with  the  bank  is  James  W.  Alvord.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  Bruce  committee, 
in  its  recent  investigation,  did  not  secure  the  testimony  of  tliis  man  concerning 
the  manner  in  which  the  charter  was  manipulated  during  its  passage  from  one 
House  to  the  other.  He  did  appear  before  the  committee,  but  begged  off  because 
he  was  then  on  his  way  to  Colorado  to  advance  to  his  two  boys  some  "  means  " 
with  which  to  engage  in  speculations.  That  was  the  last  of  him  so  far  as  the 
committee  was  concerned.  How  much  of  the  "means "  he  was  about  to  advance 
he  had  gleaned  from  the  toiling  negroes  of  the  South,  he  never  explained. 

This  man  was  evidently  the 

ADVANCE   PICKET   OF   THE   ARMY   OF   PECULATORS, 

for  whose  introduction  into  the  management  of  the  bank  a  way  had  been  care- 
fully prepared  in  the  charter.     The  number  of  the  trustees  was  fifty,  and  it  was 


380  HOW    THE    POOR    FKEEDMEN    WERE    SAVINDLED. 

provided  in  the  bill  that  if  a  trustee  failed  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  board  for 
six  months  his  place  should  be  considered  vacant,  and  a  vote  of  any  ten  trustees 
could  fill  the  vacancy.  James  W.  Alvord  was  an  excellent  man  to  take  advan- 
tage of  this  provision.  The  trustees  had  faith  in  him.  He  was  corresponding 
secretary  of  the  bank,  then  vice-president  and  finally  president.  He  was  a  pro- 
fessional philanthropist,  a  kind  of  man  who  goes  about  doing  good — for  pay.  He 
had  always  been  a  friend  of  the  negro,  and  had  been  connected  with  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau  at  different  times  as  inspector  of  schools  and  finances,  and  again  as 
superintendent  of  schools.  He  claims  to  have  been  the  originator  of  the  bank. 
Its  management  was  left  largely  in  his  hands  from  the  first,  and,  taking  advan- 
tage of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him,  he  proceeded  to  carry  out  the  original  de- 
sign of  the  institution.  As  soon  as  vacancies  occurred  in  the  board  he  secured 
the  election  of  the  men,  then  the  bright  particular  stars  of  the  Republican  party 
in  Washington,  the  future  captains  of  hosts  during  the  Grant  administration  and 
members  of  the  District  Ring. 

The  proper  kind  of  persons  for  his  trustees  being  secured,  the  charter  gave  the 
power  of  the  board  into  the  hands  of  a  quorum  of  nine,  and,  more  a^stonishing 
still,  only  seven  votes  were  required  to  make  "  any  orders  for,  or  authorizing  the 
investment  of,  any  monej^s,  or  the  sale  or  transfer  of  any  stock  or  securities  be- 
longing to  the  corporation,  or  the  appointment  of  any  ofiicer  receiving  any  salary 
therefrom  ' 

THE   LAW   WAS  FRAMED   TO   FACILITATE   THE  FORMATION   OF  A  RING. 

By  another  regulation  the  control  of  the  assets  of  the  institution  was  given  into 

the  hands  of  even  a  smaller  number  of  men.    A  finance  committee  of  five  trustees 

was  appointed 

To  exercise  a  general  supervision  and  control  of  all  the  funds,  securities  and  property  of  the 
company— to  direct  as  to  the  temporary  deposit  or  loan  of  funds,  and  as  to  the  investment  thereof. 

Three  of  this  committee  constituted  a  quorum,  and  these  three,  during  the 
years  of  the  mismanagement  of  the  bank,  were  three  notorious  members  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  Ring,  men  with  whom  Gen.  Garfield  had  intimate  personal 
and  political  relations,  and  for  his  influence  with  whom  he  once  received  a  bribe 
of  $5,000.  They  were  Henry  D.  Cooke,  atone  time  governor  of  the  District,  and 
brother  of  Jay  Cooke,  W.  S.  Huntington,  and  Lewis  Clephane.  It  was  through 
these  men  and  J.  W.  Alvord  that  the  swindling  operations  were  conducted. 
Huntington  was  cashier  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Washington,  of  which 
Cooke  was  president,  and  was  connected  with  the  Metropolitan  Paving  Company. 
Clephane  was  a  member  of  the  "  District  Ring"  in  a  general  way,  and  president 
of  the  Metropolitan  Paving  Company.  With  these  three  of  the  finance  committee 
were  Associated  Le  Roy  Tuttle  and  J.  M.  Brodhead,  but  they  left  everything  to 
the  "  quorum."  Tuttle  was  Assistant  Treasurer  and  Brodhead  Second  Comptroller 
of  the  Treasury  Department.  Their  duties  seem  to  have  been  confined  to  ratify- 
ing anything  done  by  their  associates.  They  very  seldom  attended  any  of  the 
meetings  of  the  finance  committee,  and  when  one  of  the  three  was  absent,  the 
other  two  acted  and  took  their  decision  to  one  of  these  faithless  treasury  officials 
for  ratification. 

Everything  being  prepared  for  the  business  of  fraud,  the  managers  went  to 
work  to  secure  deposits.  The  first  and  chief  recommendation  in  the  eyes  "of  the 
negro  was  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  signed  to  the  charter  of  the  bank.  This 
was  taken  advantage  of  by  the  Ring.  At  first  a  newspaper  was  published  for 
Southern  distribution,  and  circulars  sent  out  assuring  the  negroes  that  the  man 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  381 

whose  memory  they  cherished  as  their  emancipator  approved  and  fostered  the 

institution.     The  announcement  was  : 

The  whole  institution  is  nnder  the  charge  of  Congress,  and  received  the  commendation  and 
countenance  of  the  President,  Abraham  Lincoln;  one  of  the  last  acts  of  his  valued  life  was  the 
signing  of  the  bill,  which  gave  legal  existence  to  this  bank. 

The  intention  was  to  deceive  the  negroes  by  making  them  believe  that  the  bank 
was  under  the  care  of  the  government.  This  is  further  borne  out  by  the  fact 
that  there  was  printed  in  the  pass-book  issued  by  the  bank  the  following: 

The  government  of  the  United  States  has  made  this  bank  perfectly  safe. 

This  was  as  bald  a  case  of  lying  as  can  be  found. 

THE   EVIDENCE   OF  ANSON   M.    SPERRY 

on  this  point  will  be  found  interesting.     He  was  continuously  in  the  service  of 

the  bank  during  its  existence. 

Q.  Do  you  know  whether  at  Vicksburg,  or  any  other  branch,  the  inducement  was  held  out  to 
depositors  to  deposit  in  that  bank  because  it  was  a  government  institution  ?    A.  I  think  it  was. 
Q.  That  inducement  was  made  to  Induce  persons  to  deposit;  that  it  was  a  government  instiution, 


and  that  the  government  was  bound  to  the  depositors  ?    A.  Yes;  I  cannot  say  especially  at  Vicks- 
„,   "     ighit  ■"      .     "  .  "  .      "   " 

C^.  Did  they  not  represent  that  the  deposits  made  by  individuals  would  be  guaranteed  by  the  gov- 


burg,  though  I  tliink  that  that  foolish  policy  was  adopted  there. 


emment  of  the  United  States?  A.  I  think  they  did,  but  I  will  qualify  ray  answer  by  saying  that  I 
am  not  certain  as  to  Vicksburg,  though  I  think  so;  but  of  this  I  am  certain,  that  you  will  find  on 
many  of  the  pass-books  of  the  New  ifork  branch  these  words,  in  English,  French  and  German: 
•'  The  government  of  the  United  States  has  made  this  bank  perfectly  safe." 

In  this  way  the  confidence  of  the  negro  was  gained.     Gen.  O.  O.  Howard,  then 

head  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau,  organized  simultaneously  with  the  bank,  added 

Ms  certificate,  as  follows : 

I  consider  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company  to  be  greatly  needed  by  the  colored 
people,  and  have  well  earned  it  as  an  auxiliary  to  the  Freedman's  Bureau. 

O  O.  HOWARD,  Major-GeneraL 

The  Bruce  committee,  appointed  last  winter  by  the  Senate  to  further  investi- 
gate the  bank,  finds  that  the  bank  was  well  managed  till  1868.  It  was  in  that 
year  that  the  conspirators  obtained  full  possession,  and  elected  Alvord  president. 
They  were  storing  up  material  for  plunder,  however,  during  these  three  years. 
•Tracts  touching  on  the  beauties  of  frugality  were  distributed.  Some  of  these 
were  in  poetry,  of  which  the  following  is  a  fair  specimen : 

'Tis  little  by  little  the  bee  fills  his  cell. 
And  little  by  little  a  man  sinks  a  well; 
'Tis  little  by  little  a  bird  builds  her  nest, 
By  little  a  forest  in  verdure  is  drest. 

'Tis  little  by  little  great  volumes  are  made; 
Ehr  little  mountains  or  levels  are  made; 
'Tis  little  by  little  an  ocean  is  filled, 
And  little  by  little  a  city  we  build. 

'Tis  little  by  little  an  ant  gets  her  store; 
Every  little  we  add  to  a  little  makes  more; 
Step  by  step  we  walk  miles,  and  we  sew 

stitch  by  stitch; 
Word  by  word  we  read  books,  cent  by 

cent  we  grow  rich. 

These  artifices  proved  successful.  The  negroes  deposited  their  little  earnings 
in  the  branch  banks  of  the  south,  being  told  that  they  could  draw  them  out  at 
any  time.  This  was  another  deception,  for  the  money  was  sent  to  the  central 
bank  at  Washington,  whither  it  was  removed  in  1867.  Deposits  came  in  rapidly. 
During  the  first  ten  months  of  its  orginization 

THE  BANK  RECEIVED  DEPOSITS 

amounting  to  $305,167.  For  the  year  ending  March  1,  1867,  the  deposits  were 
$1,624,853.33;  for  1868,  $3,582,378.36;  for  1869,  $7,247,798.63;  for  1870,  $12,605,- 
781.95;  and  for  1871,  $19,952,647.36.  When  the  bank  was  forced  into  liquida- 
tion in  1874  the  total  deposits  had  reached  $56,000,000;  the  amount  paid  out 


382  UOW    THE    POOR    FEEEDMEN   WERE    SWINDLED. 

was  $53,000,000,  leaving  a  balance  of  $3,000,000  due  depositors,  and  of  this  $3,- 
902,033.55  was  due  colored  persons.  The  following  payments  on  this  have  been 
made  by  the  commissioners  in  1874  appointed  to  wind  up  the  affairs  of  the  bank: 
November  1st,  1875,  a  dividend  of  twenty  per  cent,  was  declared.  Of  this  about 
$44,000  remains  still  unpaid.  A  second  dividend  of  ten  per  cent,  was  declared 
March  20th,  1878.  About  $40,000  of  this  remains  unpaid.  The  commissioners 
have  on  hand  about  half  enough  cash  for  another  ten  per  cent,  dividend,  and  a 
bill  has  been  introduced  in  Congress  authorizing  the  sale  of  the  real  estate  of  the 
bank  in  order  that  a  final  dividend  of  fifty  per  cent,  may  be  paid. 

SHAMELESS  FKAUDS  ON  THE  NEGRO. 

Mr.  Stenger,  speaking  of  the  losses  by  the  negroes,  said: 

But  these  losses,  important  as  they  may  seem  (the  losses  at  the  branch  banks),  are  utterly  insig- 
nificant compared  with  those  sustained  by  reason  of  the  irregularities  and  frauds  practiced  in  the 
principal  office  at  Washington.  Here  it  was  that  men  intent  on  plunder  found  and  tilled  the  richest 
field.  I  venture  the  assertion  that  the  history  of  all  the  banks  in  America  does  not  disclose  a  rec- 
ord of  such  shameless  disregard  of  law  and  wanton  violation  of  rights  as  does  the  history  of  the 
^)rincipal  office  of  the  Freedman's  Savings  and  Trust  Company.  Here,  in  the  American  Congress, 
'.  anaiyn  at  the  bar  of  public  opinion  the  men  who  have  heartlessly  speculated  uf>on,  mic^used, 
squandered  and  sunk  tne  hard  earnings  of  a  helpless  race  of  people,  whom  they  were  hypocriti- 
cally pretending  to  befriend.  And  I  cannot  but  think  it  strange  that  successive  Congresses,  cer- 
tainly large  majorities  of  those  who  claim  to  be  the  only  true  friends  of  the  colored  people,  should  not 
have  taken  sufficient  interest  in  their  welfare,  and  watched  the  operations  of  those  in  charge  of  this 
company,  so  as  to  have  prevented  this  terrible  abuse  of  a  sacred  trust,  and  consequent  shameful 
plunder  of  the  freedmen.  The  charter  provided  that  the  books  of  the  corporation  shall  at  all  times 
during  the  hours  of  business  be  open  for  inspection  and  examination  to  such  persons  as  Congress 
shall  designate  or  appoint;  but  no  such  persons  were  appointed.  This  failure  on  the  part  of  these 
pretended  guardians  to  exercise  the  necessary  vigilance  for  the  thorough  protection  of  these 
people  is  in  the  highest  degree  reprehensible.  But  when  it  is  taken  into  account  that  tbP  legisla- 
tion enacted  by  Congress  helped  to  facilitate  the  swindling  operations  of  the  ring,  words  are  power- 
less to  express  the  enormity  of  their  conduct. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen,  by  the  neglect  of  the  first  board  of  trustees  to  act,  the 
worst  members  of  the  District  Ring  got  control  of  the  bank,  and  by  the  influence 
they  had  over  Congress  a  legislation  was  procured  which  gave  opportunity  for 
the  methods  of  swindling  which  remain  to  be  narrated. 

The  leading  members  of  the  Ring  appear  to  have  been  H.  D.  Cooke,  William 
S.  Huntington,  Lewis  Clephane,  the  three  members  of  the  finance  committee  who, 
strangely  enough,  were  the  three  who  alone  always  had  time  to  attend  its  meet- 
ings, and  who  invariably  constituted  the  quorum  for  the  transaction  of  business; 
D.  L.  Eaton  and  Geo.  W.  Stickney,  the  two  actuaries.  These  were  the  "pals"  in- 
side the  bank.  The  outside  "pals"  were  Alexander  R,  Shepherd,  Hallet  Kil- 
bourn,  John  O.  Evans,  J.  V.  W.  Vanderburg,  and  some  others. 

The  following  paragraphs  are  submitted  as  illustrations  of  how  shamelessly  long- 
established  banking  and  business  principles  were  disregarded ;  how  all  sense  of 
responsibility  and  sacred  trust  was  sunk  in  the  mire;  how  individual  honesty,  per- 
sonal honor,  and  official  duty  were  swallowed  up  in  the  greed  for  gain;  how 
professional  philanthropists  proved  to  be  as 

WHITENED   SEPULCHRES. 

Henry  D.  Cooke  was  president  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Washington;  he 
was  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. ,  the  financial  agents  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  he  was  president  of  the  finance  committee  of  the  Freedmen's 
Bank.  William  S.  Huntington  was  cashier  of  the  same  National  Bank.  Among 
the  first  business  transactions  of  the  "quorum"  of  which  these  two  men  made 
the  majority,  was  the  making  of  the  First  National  Bank  the  depository  of  the  funds 
of  the  Freedmen's  Bank.  This  made  it  convenient  for  the  National  Bank  to  act 
as  the  agent  of  the  savings  bank  in  making  its  investments.  Consequently, 
Messrs.  Cooke  and  Huntington,  acting  for  the  Freedmen's  Bank,  negotiated  with 
themselves,  as  officers  of  the  National  Bank,  for  the  purchase  of  the  United  States 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEX    WERE    SWINDLED.  385 

securities  in  which  the  law  directed  that  the  funds  of  the  savings  bank  should 
be  invested.  They  thus  secured  some  large  commissions  for  the  National  Bank. 
This  was  not  illegal,  perhaps,  but  it  was  certainly  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the 
charter  and  the  purposes  of  the  institution. 

After  Alvord  became  president,  in  1868,  the  "quorum"  had  full  swing.  The 
Cookes  had  on  hand  large  "blocks  "  of  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroad  bonds, 
and  were  looking  about  for  a  market.  The  Freedmen's  Bank  presented  an  op- 
portunity for  an  easy  swindle,  for  Henry  D.  Cook  was  an  adept  at  negotiating 
with  himself.  He  made  excellent  bargains  to  buy  of  himself,  but  his  prices  were 
high  when  he  sold  to  himself  as  member  of  the  finance  committee,  or  rather  of 
the  "  quorum." 

How  to  do  it  was  the  question ;  how  to  overcome  the  difficulties  of  the  statute 
creating  the  savings  bank;  how  to  accomplish  what  the  law  prohibited.  It  was 
the  first  time  that  the  attempt  had  been  made  to  commit  such  a  flagrant  violation 
of  the  law,  and  the  conspirators  hesitated.  There  was  no  need  of  hesitation,  how- 
ever, as  they  afterwards  discovered,  for  they  had  behind  them  a  pliant  majority  in 
Congress,  willing  to  wink  at  all  the  iniquities  that  these  saints  of  the  Republican 
church  could  commit.  A  meeting  of  the  finance  committee  was  called,  and  the 
"  quorum,"  Messrs.  Cooke,  Huntington  and  Clephane,  pondered  over  the  pro- 
vision of  the  charter  which  directed  that  the  funds  of  the  bank  should  be  invested 
"in  the  stocks,  bonds,  treasury  notes  and  other  securities  of  the  United  States." 
The  board  of  trustees  had  left  t^is  question  to  be  answered  by  these  worthies,  the 
chief  of  whom  had  everything  to  make  by  answering  it  in  the  afflimative,  and 
everything  to  lose  by  saying  "no." 

Are  Pacific  Railroad  bonds  a  security  contemplated  by  the  charter? 

Mark  the  cunning  of  the  answer. 

Pacific  Railroad  bonds  are  not  a  security  contemplated  in  the  charter,  but  the  government  bonds 
Issued  to  the  company  are  within  the  meaning  of  the  law. 

In  a  short  time  afterwards  investments  were  made  in  the  government  bonds  of  the 
Union  and  Central  Pacific  Railroads.  Henry  D,  Cooke,  with  an  eye  always  in. 
the  main  chance,  made  the  purchases  through  his  own  firm,  Jay  Cooke  &  Co., 
and  again  the  "  simple  charity  "  over  which  he  had  such  large  control  was  made 
the  means  of  lining  his  purse  with  commissions. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  purchases  of  bonds  following  the  decision  just 

referred  to : 

February  17th,  1869,  Union  Pacific $100,000    |    June  8th,  1868,  Union  Pacific $15,000 

April  30th,  1869,  Union  Pacific 200,000        June  23d,  1868,  Central  Pacific 40,000 

May  4th,  1869,  Union  Pacific 50,000    |    October  8th,  1868,  Central  Pacific ....   300,000 

This  shows  a  total  investment  of  $705,000  in  Pacific  Railroad  bonds  within  a 
year. 

THE  FIELD  FOR   SWINDLING  ENLARGED. 

The  bank  thus  entered  upon  a  new  field  of  investment.     No  great  harm  would 

have  come  of  it  had  the  field  not  been  still  further  enlarged.     But  the  Cookes 

and  the  "Ring"  men  had  demonstrated  their  power  and  the  weakness  of  their 

opponents,  and  they  saw  their  opportunity  and  proceeded  to  profit  by  it.    It  was 

the  first  step  away  from  and  against  the  law — the  first  step  in  the  direction  of 

permitting  the  "quorum  "  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the  bank  according  to  their 

own  discretion  and  in  opposition  to  the  law,  which  soon  entirely  ceased  to 

govern   them.     The   next  inroad  in   the  charter  was  the   construction  by  the 

"  quorum  "  of  the  sixth  section  of  the  charter.     That  section  was  as  follows: 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  trustees  of  the  corporation  to  invest,  a» 
soon  as  practicable,  in  the  securities  named  in  the  next  preceding  section,  all  sums  received  by 


384  HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED. 

them  beyond  an  available  fund,  not  exceeding  one-third  of  the  total  amount  of  deposits  with  the 
corporation,  at  the  discreciou  of  the  trustees,  which  available  funds  may  be  kept  by  the  trustees  to 
meet  current  j)ayments  of  the  corporation,  and  may,  by  them,  be  left  on  deposit,  ac  interest  or  other- 
wise, or  in  such  available  foTyn  as  the  trustees  may  direct. 

Th(i  object  of  this  section  was  plain  enough.  The  bank  was  to  have  on  haixl 
always  a  sum  not  too  large,  "  not  exceeding  one-third  of  the  total  amount  of  de- 
posits," with  which  to  meet  the  current  expenses.  It  was  to  be  in  cash,  to  be 
something  that  could  be  kept  on  deposit  and  subject  to  sight  checks.  It  was  to 
be  available,  whether  it  drew  interest  or  not.  Availability  was  to  be  its  charac- 
teristic, the  evident  intention  being  that  the  bank  should  always  have  on  hand  a 
suflScient  sum  to  meet  its  expenses  and  the  daily  demands  of  its  depositors.  If  the 
trustees  did  invest  any  part  of  this  third,  as  they  might  under  the  charter,  they 
must  have  invested  it  in  the  stocks,  bonds,  treasury-notes  and  other  securities  of 
the  United  States.  There  was  no  other  subject  of  investment  pointed  at  by  the 
law  to  which  the  trustees  were  bound  to  conform. 

At  this  time  the  charter  did  not  permit  loans  on  real  estate.  It  is  a  pleasure  to 
record  that  in  this  instance  Henry  D.  Cooke  did  not  at  first  countenance  the  viola- 
tion of  the  law  which  is  now  to  be  decided.  He  gave  his  construction  of  the 
statute  in  writing,  and  the  opinion  was  spread  on  the  minutes  of  the  company.  It 
is  as  follows: 

•  My  understanding  of  the  clause  is  that  it  authorizes  the  leaving  of  a  certain  sum  in  deposit, 
which  deposit  may  draw  interest  or  otherwise,  but  it  must  be  always  subject  to  check  at  sight; 
and  I  think  a  careful  reading  of  the  clause  will  justify  this  interpretation. 

MR.    COOKE'S   VIRTUE   WAS   SOON  OVERCOME, 

however,  and  at  a  meeting  held  at  his  banking  house  soon  after  this  opinion  was 

written,  the  following  entry  was  made  on  the  minutes : 

The  question  under  consideration  was  the  recommendation  to  the  board  of  the  right  to  loan, 
under  section  6,  a  portion  of  the  idle  funds  now  on  deposit. 

It  was  decided  so  to  recommend.  D.  L.  EATON,  Actuary. 

Then  followed  a  most  extraordinary  scramble  to  throw  away  the  hard  earnings 
of  the  freedmen  in  the  most  worthless  securities.  Some  of  these  securities  were 
of  a  kind  that  no  reputable  banker  would  take,  but  they  were  such  as  are  gener- 
ally hawked  about  the  street  to  be  picked  up,  at  exhorbitant  rates  of  discount,  by 
the  sharp-eyed  gentry  who  do  their  business  on  the  curbstones,  or  in  underground 
oflSces.  In  three  weeks  loans  to  the  amount  of  $98,593.43  were  made.  Not  a 
single  security,  authorized  by  law,  was  taken  by  the  finance  committee  in  these 
negotiations. 

A   NOTE   AND  VOUCHER-SHAVING  BUSINESS. 

In  his  testimony  before  the  Bruce  committee,  Commissioner  Creswell  testified 
that  he  found  the  "  available  fund"  loans  as  "unavailable  "  as  any  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  institution,  and  Auditor  G.  W.  Stickney  testified  as  follows : 

Q.  What  was  this  "  available  fund  "  business?  A.  It  turned  out  to  be  very  unavailable  (laugh- 
ing). It  allowed  that  one-third  the  amount  of  the  deposits  should  be  invested  by  the  trustees  in  any 
"available  fund." 

Q.  Yes;  exactly.  A.  That  was  the  decision  of  the  finance  committee  that  they  had  the  author- 
ity to  do  that. 

Q.  The  bank  discounted  a  good  many  pay-vinchers,  government  vouchers  and  vouchers  of 
the  District  of  Columbia,  belonj^ing  to  the  clerks  and  employees  of  the  government  and  of  the 
District,  did  it  not?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  That  was  out  of  this  "  available  fund,"  was  it?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Can  you  state  what  rate  was  usually  charged,  or  whether  there  was  a  uniform  rate  for  dis- 
counting these  pay-vouchers?  A.  I  think  that  in  ihe  District  vouchers  they  used  to  charge  one  per 
cent,  per  month;  and  for  the  clerks  in  the  department  I  think  it  was  generally  one  or  two  per  cent, 
—I  forget  now  which— two  per  cent.  I  think  it  was,  for  a  while. 

Q.  About  how  much  of  that  kind  of  paper  remained  in  the  bank  at  the  time  of  the  failure? 
A.  About  a  thousand  dollars  or  so  of  the  clerk's  vouchers. 

The  ofllcers  of  the  bank  were  then  doing  a  note  and  voucher  shaving  business, 

like  a  Chatham  street  pawnbroker,  except  that  they  had  not  half  the  shrewdness 

that  characterizes  that  thrifty  race. 


HOW    THE    POOR    FKEEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  385 

Among  the  securities  taken  by  the  bank  for  these  loans,  which  still  remain 
unpaid,  and  most  of  them,  probably,  uncollectable,  are  certificates  of  the  Auditor 
of  the  Board  of  Public  "Works  to  pavement  companies,  bills  against  the  District 
government,  promissory  notes  of  individuals,  indorsed  and  unindorsed,  secured 
and  not  secured  ;  loans  without  any  collateral  whatever,  pay  orders,  life  insur- 
ance policies,  shares  of  stock  of  worthless  corporations,  shares  in  the  Washing- 
ton Sunday  Capital  newspaper,  deeds  of  trust  of  property  in  distant  cities,  orders 
on  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  the  District;  District  eight  per  cent,  bonds,  stilt 
unpaid,  and  checks.  There  is  still  due  on  this  account  $24,352.24,  the  total  loans 
from  the  available  fund  amounting  to  $303,875.46. 

HELPING  ALONG  NORTHERN  PACIFIC. 

Not  long  afterwards  the  available  fund  was  used  to  help  along  the  Northern 
Pacific,  this  time  with  Henr^^  D.  Cooke's  consent  and  at  his  instance,  showing 
that  his  former  opinion  was  given  largely  for  effect.  The  bank  was  made  the 
agent  for  the  sale  of  Northern  Pacific  bonds  m  this  way  ;  the  bank  to  pay  for  the 
bonds  and  sell  them  if  it  could,  for  which  it  was  to  receive  a  commission,  and  to 
take  the  guarantee  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  to  buy  them  back  within  one  year  if  not 
sold.  On  the  7th  of  February,  1871,  $50,000  of  these  bonds  were  bought  for  the 
bank.  After  the  transaction  had  been  completed,  and  the  bank  was  the  absolute 
owner  of  the  bonds,  the  question  was  raised  as  to  whether  the  bank  had  the 
power  to  purchase  them,  i.  e.,  whether  it  possessed  the  power  to  do  what  it  had 
already  done.  It  was  a  shrewdly  played  game,  a  game  in  which  the  leading  con- 
spirators enacted  their  parts  very  skillfully,  pretending  to  do  with  great  reluctance 
what  they  had  long  ago  made  up  their  minds  to  do.  The  proposition  seems  to 
have  greatly  excited  the  board  of  trustees,  for  on  May  3d  it  passed  a  resolution 
" doubting  the  expediency  of  investing  $50,000  in  these  bonds."  On  May  9th 
Mr,  Cooke,  pretending  to  have  carefully  examined  into  the  subject,  made  a 
special  report  on  it.     He  thus  expresses  the  judgment  of  the  finance  committee 

The  second  resolution  as  to  the  investment  of  the  company  m  the  bonds  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Railway: 

In  investing  its  available  funds,  the  actuary  found  this  state  of  facts*  On  the  7th  of  February, 
the  day  on  which  this  purchase  was  made,  the  lowest-priced  six  per  cent.  United  States  bond  in 
the  market  was  the  5-20  coupon  bond  of  1865  or  1867,  $1  09>^.  This  bond  of  109»4  pays  the  investor 
5  4-10  per  cent.,  so  that  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  bond  at  100  pays  73  -10  per  cent.,  so  that  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  bond  is  belter  by  l  9  JUper  cent. 

Further,  the  actuary,  witb  the  consent  of  the  finance  committee  and  the  board  [of  trustees  |  m 
full  session,  bought  the  bonds  lor  sale,  and  the  conditions  were  tbat  we  receive  3^  per  cent  com 
mission  in  cash,  and  i^  per  cent,  in  stock  tor  ail  bonds  aisposed  of  so  that  this  company  lealizes 
actually  in  cash  5  4-10  per  cent,  more  than  on  the  best  investment  in  government  bonds;  ana  id  ad 
dition  thereto,  3i^  per  cent,  in  stock  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  Company  for  an  bonas  sold. 

Tiie  only  question,  ttierelore,  is,  are  these  bonds  sale  ?  In  answer  to  thib  we  show  the  written 
pfuarantee  of  Messrs.  Jay  GooKe  <fe  Co  to  redeem  tliem  on  demand  at  any  time  wiinin  one  year 
from  date  of  purchase,  at  same  rates  we  gave  for  them. 

It  was  these  considerations  of  profit  anci  of  safety  abundant,  as  it  seemed  to  the  committee, 
which  led  to  the  investment  in  question,  anu  they  are  stiii  ot  foice  in  their  minds  As  to  the  other 
statements  of  the  resolution,  touching  the  character  of  tht  bona  itseli  fiameiy.  that  theioad  is  but 
begun,  and  may  not  for  years  be  able  to  pay  any  interest  out  of  us  earnings,  we  would  respectfully 
state  that  the  [N  P.  R.  R]  company  has  already  six  hundred  miies  of  r.oad  in  operation;  that 
nearly  three  hundred  miles  of  tiack  have  been  laid  during  the  three  hundred  days  wnich  have 
elapsed  since  the  commencement  of  work  upon  the  road;  tnai  the  company  is  endowed  by  govern- 
ment with  a  grant  of  land  amounting  to  over  fifty  millions  of  acres,  worth,  at  government  rates, 
over  $150,000,000  from  the  sale  of  which  ample  provision  is  made  lor  ttiu  payment  of  ihe  mterest 
and  [the]  principal  of  the  bonds,  in  audition  to  the  security  given  by  the  road,  its  equipments,  and 
all  the  property  and  franchise  of  the  company. 

Thus,  for  the  third  time,  did  Henry  D.  Cooke  manage  the  Freedmen's  Savings 
and  Trust  Company,  and  make  use  of  the  money  of  the  negroes,  lately  in  slavery, 
for  the  purpose  of  lining  his  own  purse.  He  was  directly  interested  in  the  sale 
to  the  bank  of  these  Northern  Pacific  Railway  bonds,  and  he  and  his  firm  made 
money  from  it.  When  the  head  of  the  "  quorum  "  is  found  to  be  such  a  man,  its 
decision  concerning  the  use  of  the  "available  fund,"  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
invested  iu  worthless,  and  wildcat  securities  will  not  be  wondered  at. 


.386  HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED. 

THE   DOOll  FOR   STEALING   WAS  OPENED   WIDER 

in  1870  by  the  passage  of  an  amendment  to  the  charter.  The  Republican  major- 
ity in  Congress  was  not  satisfied  with  the  stealing  their  rascals  in  the  District 
Ring  and  in  charge  of  the  freedmen's  banks  had  accomplished.  They  thought 
they  ought  to  have  more  latitude ;  that  they  should  not  be  confined  in  their  invest- 
ments to  the  "stocks,  bonds,  treasury  notes  and  other  securities  of  the  United 
States."  Grant  was  in  power,  and  the  "boys"  who  had  formerly  been  known 
only  as  the  heads  of  the  District  government,  were  now  potent  with  the  national 
administration. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  in  passing,  that  these  same  "boys,"  now  somewhat 
older,  who  made  the  District  Ring  and  the  Grant  administration  odious  by  their 
connection  with  them,  and  who  went  to  Chicago  to  help  nominate  Grant  because 
of  what  he  did  for  them  in  the  old  days  of  the  "  Ring,"  are  about  the  only  Grant 
-men  who  are  pleased  with  Garfield's  nomination.  They  like  Garfield  "because 
lie  is  a  friend  of  the  District " — friendship  to  the  District  meaning,  with  them, 
the  cherishing  of  the  contractors  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers.  This  is  especi- 
ally significant,  in  view  ^r  the  DeGolyer  charge  against  Gen.  Garfield. 

The  amend  ating  act,  among  other  things,  authorized  the  board  of  trustees  to 
Invest  the  funds  of  the  bank  "  to  the  extent  of  one-half  in  bonds  or  notes,  se- 
cured by  mortgage  in  real  estate  in  double  the  value  of  the  loan. " 

March  21,  1870,  Mr.  Cook,  an  ex-reverend  scoundrel,  who  was  the  subservient 
tool  of  Huntington  and  Shepherd,  and  served  them  well  a  year  later  in  the  pas- 
sage of  the  act  creating  the  District  Ring  government,  introduced  a  bill  to  amend 
the  charter  of  the  Freedmen's  Saving  and  Trust  Company.  In  April  Cook  re- 
ported from  the  Committee  on  the  District  of  Columbia  a  substitute  to  his  bill, 
which  authorized  the  bank  to  loan  money  on  real  estate.  This  substitute  was 
forthwith  passed  without  a  word  of  discussion,  without  a  single  inquiry  or 
suggestion.  There  was  not  even  a  formal  vote.  The  Speaker  asked  the  ques- 
tion: "Is  there  objection?"     There  was  none;  he  declared  the  bill  passed. 

In  this  way  the  money  of  the  f reedmen  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  man- 
agers of  the  bank  and  their  outside  "pals,"  who,  in  the  language  of  the  thieving 
fraternity,  were  working  everything  in  the  district  for  all  it  was  worth.  The 
thousand  and  one  schemes  of  public  improvement  and  private  speculation  that 
brought  ruin  to  those  engaged  in  them,  brought  also  ruin  to  thousands  of  helpless 
and  confiding  negroes,  trusting  in  those  whom  they  looked  upon  as  their  deliv- 
erers from  slavery  only  to  be  deceived  and  robbed  by  them. 

THE    "SENECA   SANDSTONE  COMPANY." 

It  was  this  notorious  swindle  that  reaped  the  first  benefit  from  the  new  act. 
Within  twelve  days  after  the  passage,  Henry  D.  Cooke  and  W.  T.  Huntington 
made  a  loan  on  the  second  mortgage  bonds  of  the  Maryland  Mining  and  Manu- 
facturing Company,  better  known,  as  the  Seneca  Sandstone  Company.  Hunting- 
ton and  Cooke  were  both  stockholders  of  the  company,  and  thus  directly  violated 
the  twelfth  section  of  the  charter,  which  provided  that 

No  president,  vice-president,  trustee,  officer  or  steward  of  the  corporation  shall,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, borrow  the  funds  of  the  corporation  or  its  deposits,  or  in  any  manner  use  the  same  except 
to  pay  necessary  expenses  under  the  direction  of  tlie  board  of  trustees. 

This  company  was  organized  upon  an  investment  made  by  Henry  D.  Cooke, 
Henry  H.  Dodge  and  John  L.  Kidwell,  in  a  tract  of  land  containing  six  hundred 
acres,  situated  in  Montgomery  county,  Maryland.  The  purchase  price  was 
$70,000,  and  the  cost  of  the  improvements  made  upon  it  was  $50,000.  The  land 
contained  quarries  of  Seneca  sandstone,  and  a  charter  was  procured  from  the 
state  of  Maryland.  Five  thousand  shares  of  stock  were  issued  of  the  par  value 
of  $100  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  original  stockholders  of  the  Maryland 
IBVeestone  Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company: 


HOW    THE    POOR    FEEEDMBN    WERE    SWINDLED. 


38* 


DATES. 

No.  of  Cer- 
tificates. 

No.   of 
Shares. 

NAMES. 

November  21, 1867 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

8 
9 
10 

930} 

734  ( 
930) 
733  f 
930  » 

735  f 

sf 

2(. 
3f 

Henry  D.  Cooke 

((                     4«             i» 

((                     «             <( 

John  L.  Kidwell 

<(                     it             <« 

M                  ((           <( 

Henry  H.  Dodge 

((                  «J           «J 

.(                <c          « 

J.  Heath  Dodge 

(i            ((       (I 

((            ((       « 

((                      «4             U 

Thomas  Anderson 

Total 5,000 


The  original  stockholders  made  it  their  business  to  secure  the  names  of  leading 
men  in  Washington,  both  in  civil  and  military  and  naval  circles,  as  shareholders 
in  this  company.  The  object  was  to  fill  Washington  full  of  public  and  private 
buildings  built  of  Seneca  sandstone. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  stockholders  as  they  appear  at  present,  and  as  they 
were  transferred  by  Messrs.  Cooke,  Kidwell  and  Dodge.  It  will  be  seen  from  this 
how  successful  were  these  gentlemen  in  placing  their  stock  where  it  would  do  the 
most  good : 

LIST  OF  STOCKHOLDERS  AS  THEY  AT  PRESENT  APPEAR  UPON  THE  BOOKS,  AND  AS 
THEY  WERE  TRANSFERRED  BY  MESSRS.  COOKE,  KIDWELL  AND  DODGE,  SUBSE- 
QUENTLY. 


Date.  Najnes  and  Shares. 


Date.  Names  and  Shares. 


Nov.  22,  1867,  B.  B.  French 200 

Nov.  22,  1867,  William  H.  Seward 200 

Nov.  22,  1867,  U.  S.Grant 200 

Nov.  22,  1867,  J.  K.  Barnes 200 

Nov.  22,  1867,  Caleb  Cushins. 200 

Jan.  21,  1870,  U.  S.  Gkant  (divM) 120 

Jan.  21,  1870,  Caleb  Cnshing  (div'd) 120 

Jan.  21,  1870,  B.  B.  French  (div'd) 120 

Jan.  21,  1870,  E.  B.  Washbume  (div'd) 120 

Jan.  21,  1870,  R.  J.  Dobbins 240 

J  an.  21, 1870,  W.  S.  Huntington 60 

Jan.  17,  1868,  E.  Washbume 100 

May  5,  1868,  E.  B.  Washbume 100 

May  2,  1868,  R.  J.  Dobbins 200 

March  1,  1870.  R.  J.  Dobbins 40 

Oct.  20,  1869,  F.  T.  Dent  (div'd)  100 

April  30, 1870,  F.  T.  Dent,  (div'd) 40 

Oct.  20,  1868,  Mrs.  H.  L.  Dent  (div'd) 100 

April  30,  1870,  Mrs.  H.  L.  Dent  (div'd) 40 

Dec.  3,  1868,  W.  S.  Huntington  100 

Feb.  28,  1870,  Caleb  Cushing 3 . 

April  14, 1874,  J.  K.  Barnes 60 

Jan.  2,  1869,  W.  B.  Love 3 

Jan.  21,  1870,  Wm.  B.  Love 1. 

Jan.  2,  1869,  C.  H.  Hayden -30 

Jan.  21, 1870,  C.  H.  Hayden , 21 

Feb.  17, 1869,  J.  A.  Wills 100 

Jan.  21,  1870,J.  A.  Wills 60 

Jan.  25,  1869,  W.  B.  Boggs 100 

Jan.  21,  1870,  W.  B.  Boggs 60 

June  25, 1869,  J.  L.  Kidwell 544 

Oct.  31,  1869,  J.  L.  Kidwell 2 

April  14,  1874,  J.  L.  Kidwell 217. 

July  13,  1869,  E.  D.  Townsend 50 

Jan.  21,  1870,  E.  D.  Townsend 30 

July  13,  1869,  Robert  Williams 1.50 

Jan.  21, 1870,  Robert  Williams 90 

Jan.  21,  1870,  H.  R.  Hubbard 120 

June  2,  1870,  H.  R.  Hubbard 100 

June  2,  1870,  H.  R.  Hubbard 100 

Feb.  2,  1870,  H.  D.  Cooke 468 

Sept.  27,  1870,  H.  D.  Cooke 235 

April  15, 1871,  H.  D.  Cooke 80 

Jan.  20,  1873,  H.  D.  Cooke 160 

May  20,  1873,  H.  D.  Cooke 46 

Aug.  27,  1873,  H.  D.  Cooke 100 

Jan.  2. 1874.  H.  D.  Cooke 2 

Feb.  28,  1870,  J.  C.  Kennedy 75 

March  1,  1870,  J.  C.  Kennedv 80 


Feb.  2,  1872,  J.  C.  Kennedy 25 

Feb.  2,  1872,  J.C.Kennedy 20 

Feb.  2,  1872,  J.  C.  Kennedy. 20 

Feb.  2, 1872,  J.C.Kennedy 10 

March  9,  1870,  Joseph  L.  Savage 80 

March  30,  1870,  Mrs.  M.  W.  Lynde 40 

Aug.  18,  1870,  Wyman  Crow  and  Ed.  C. 

Cushman 160 

\  Dec.  1, 1870,  H.  A.  Risley 150 

!  Dec.  19,  1870,  Thomas  B.  Bryan 320 

I  March  12,  1872,  Thomas  B.  Bryan 40 

:  March  24,  1871,  J.  W^.  Pilling 10 

I  March  24, 1871.  J.  W.  Pilling 10 

I  March  24,  1871,  J.  W.  Pilling.^ 10 

March  24,  1871,  James  C.  Pilling 10 

April  12,  1871,  Mrs.  Chr.  L.  Burnett 160 

I  April  12,  1871,  N.  W.  Burchell 10 

I  April  13,  1871,  Lewis  Johnson  &  Co 50 

;  July  22,  1871,  Riley  A.  Shinn 100 

'  Dec.  12,  1871,  Charles  A.  Nichols 50 

March  12, 1872,  Mrs.  Maria  V.  Brown 125 

March  12,  1872,  R.  T.  Merrick 2 

March  12,  1872,  W.  P.  Mattingly 2 

March  15,  1872,  W.  G.  Metzeroit  &  Co. . . .  2 

March  22,  1872,  Watkins  Addison 5 

March  22, 1872,  Watkins  Addison 5 

March  22,  1872,  Charles  E.  Mix  5 

March22,  1872,  R.  P.  Dodge 8 

March  28,  1872,  J.  V.  N.  Huyk 1 

Dec.  21,  1872,  J.  V.  N.  Huyk 3 

April  3,  1872,  Evan  Hnghes 2 

Nov.  13,  1872,  Evan  Hushes 12 

May  9, 1873,  Evan  Hugh^es 14 

Dec.  19,  1872,  A.  H.  Seward 80 

Dec.  19,  1872,  F.  H.  Seward 80 

Dec.  19,  1872,  William  H.  Seward 80 

Dec.  19,  1872,  Olive  Risly  Seward 80 

Jan.  6,  1873,  Francis  Dodge 9.3 

Jan.  20,  1873,  George  Peter 4 

May  9,  1873,  Huyk  &  Addison 12 

Aug.  22,  1873,  J.  H.  Cochrane 80 

Aug.  22,  1873,  Enoch  Totten 50 

Aug.  22,  1873,  Enoch  Totten 50 

April  14,  1874,  F.  W.Jones 10 

May  26,  1874,  Edwin  ;M.  Sems  (trust  estate 

of  Jay  Cook  &  Co.) 400 

April  14,  1874,  J.  W.  Alvord 10 

Nov.  10,  1874,  W.  V.  Brown,  Jr 4 


388  HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED. 

HOW   GRANT   GOT  IN — HOW   THE   FREEDMEN's  MONEY   WENT. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  list  that  these  gentlemen  obtained  subscriptions  for 
the  stock  from  several  influential  people.  The  President  of  the  United  States 
was  a  member  of  the  Goodby  Company,  and  the  ex-Secretary  of  State,  the  Sur- 
geon and  Adjutant-General  of  the  Army,  and  a  host  of  others  more  or  less  intim- 
ately connected  with  the  administration.  Whether  they  were  all  in  the  same 
boat  with  Gen.  Grant  or  not  is  not  known.  Although  he  permitted  this  swindling 
company  to  advertise  that  he  had  invested  $20,000  in  its  stock,  he  had  not  paid  a 
single  cent.  To  quote  from  a  report  made  by  the  correspondence  of  the  New 
York  Journal  of  Commerce: 

Your  correspondent  has  authority  that  can  be  relied  on  for  the  statement  that  Gren.  Grant 
never  invested  a  dollar  in  the  stock  of  the  Seneca  Sandstone  Company,  although  his  name  ap- 
peared in  the  list  of  stockholders,  and  he  voted  by  proxy  in  business  meetings.  Henry  D.  Cooke 
went  to  Gen.  Grant  and  asked  him  to  subscribe  to  the  stock  of  the  company.  The  general  replied 
that  he  had  not  at  that  time  any  money  he  could  spare  for  the  investment.  Mr.  Cooke  then  re- 
quested the  privilege  of  carrying  320  shares  of  stock  for  him.  The  request  was  granted.  And  that 
is  how  the  late  President  of  the  United  States  came  to  own  $32,000  of  Seneca  Sandstone  stock. 

The  first  loan  by  the  bank  to  this  concern  was  made  in  the  face  of  a  resolution 

passed  by  the  board  of  trustees  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  company  ought  not  to  loan  its  funds  upon  mining  and  manufacturing  stocks 
or  bonds;  and  that  the  loan  of  that  nature  now  existing  ought  to  be  called  in  as  soon  as  it  may  be. 

Again,  as  in  the  case  of  the  purchase  of  the  Northern  Pacific  bonds,  Henry  D. 

Cooke  was  ready  with  his  report,  which  was  as  follows : 

First  resolution:  The  Committee  beg  leave  to  state  respectfully  that  with  the  general  proposi- 
tion in  this  resolution  they  are  in  full  accord.  This  case  is,  however,  exceptional.  First  (m  that) 
the  Maryland  Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company  is  a  well-known  and  solvent  company,  estab- 
lished and  doing  business  in  this  city;  its  business  is  profitable:  it  is  earning  dividends,  audita 
stocks  and  bonds  are  both  well-known  and  have  ready  sale  in  this  market;  that  it  has  real  estate 
to  the  amount  of  six  hundred  acres  of  land,  the  farm  thus  constituted  being  one  of  the  most  pro- 
ductive and  profitable  in  the  state  of  Maryland. 

The  machinery  and  buildings  in  use  as  their  works  have  cost  over  $200,000,  and  the  latter  would 
sell  for  three-fourths  of  its  original  cost  for  use  in  any  other  quarry,  even  if  it  [they]  were  no  longer 
needed  for  this:  that  the  fifty-seven  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  bonds  of  this  company,  which  are 
held  as  collateral  for  this  loan  of  the  Freedmen's  Savines  and  Trust  Company  ($"27,000),  are  really 
a  first-mortgage  bond,  secured  upon  all  this  real  estate  and  other  property;  that  the  whole  issue  of 
bonds  is  not  equal  to  more  than  one-third  [of]  the  value  of  the  property,  and  therefore  the  loan 
itself  comes  fully  within  the  stipulation  of  the  charter  of  the  bank,  to  wit:  a  loan  on  real  estate  to 
the  extent  of  one-half  the  value  thereof;  or,  even  if  this  were  not  true,  the  loan  comes  fully  and 
abundantly  within  the  resolution  unanimously  adopted  by  the  board  May  12,  1870,  touching  the 
"  available  fund,"  that  it  shall  be  loaned  "only  on  collateral  of  government  or  railway  bonds,  or 
other  securities  of  a  marketable  value  of  at  least  10  per  cent,  more  than  the  loan.  The  marketable 
value  of  the  bond  held  here  as  collateral  is  at  least  double  the  loan.  *  *  *  Further,  the 
quarry  of  this  company  is  furnishing  the  stone  from  which  the  banking-house  of  this  savings  com- 
pany is  erecting.  It  employs  constantly  about  three  hundred  colored  men  in  its  works  and  in  this 
city,  and  it  is  in  these  respects  an  institution  kindred  with  the  bank;  their  interests  are  mutual. 
Those  who  from  week  to  week  and  month  to  month  watch  over  and  strive  to  direct  the  best  use  of 
the  freedmen's  money  in  the  bank  are  those  who  also  afford  them  this  field  of  valuable  and  profit- 
able labor." 

All  thi  s  was  untrue. 

July  25th,  1870,  the  bank  bought  of  the  company  $20,000  of  its  first  mort- 
gage bonds  at  90  cents,  when  they  could  not  be  sold  on  the  street  for  50  cents ; 
not  a  dividend  had  been  paid  by  the  company  since  its  organization  in  1867,  ex- 
cept in  watered  stock. 

The  following  is  the  statement  of  George  W.  Stickney,  actuary,  concerning  all 
the  transactions  of  the  bank  with  this  company  : 

ACTUARY    STICKNEY'S   STATEMENT. 

Washington,  D.  C,  Nov.  6,  1878. 
J.  M.  Langstok,  Esq.,  Chairman  Special  Committee  : 

At  your  request  I  would  make  the  following  statement  as  to  transactions  had  by  this  company 
with  the  Maryland  Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company  and  with  Me-^srs.  Kilboum  &  Evans: 

First.  As  shown  by  the  books  of  the  company,  May  18, 1870,  $4,000  were  loaned  to  said  Mary- 
land Freestone  and  Mining  Company,  secured  by  $10,000  of  their  second  mortgage  bonds. 

Second.  July  25,  1870,  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company  bought  of  said  Maryland 
Freestone  and  Mining  Company  $20,000  of  their  first  mortgage  bonds  at  ninety,  with  the  verbal 
nnderstandiug  that  the  company  would  take  said  bonds  back  from  the  hank  at  par  after  two  years. 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN   WERE    SWINDLED.  389 

Third.  July  17,  1871,  a  further  loan  was  made  of  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company 
by  said  mining  company  of  $27,000,  secured  by  $49,000  second  mortgage  bonds  of  the  same  as  col- 
lateral. This  statement  shows  that  up  to  January  2,  1872,  the  bank  held  of  second  mortgage  bonds 
of  the  Maryland  Mining  and  Manufacturing.Company  $59,000,  and  $20,000  of  the  first  mortgage. 

Fourth.  On  January  2,  1872,  as  shown  by  the  books,  the  transactions  as  between  the  bank  and 
said  company  were  settled,  said  company  at  that  date  being  in  debt  to  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and 
Trust  Company  for  cash  loaned. 

First.  Loan  of  May  18,  1870 $4,000  00 

Second.    Loan  of  July  25,  1870,  beingj  amount  paid  for  twenty  first  mortgage 

bonds 18,000  00 

Third.  Loan  of  July  17,  1871 27,000  00 

Fourth.  Interest  due  on  above  loans  December  30,  1871 : 2,785  73 

Total  due  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company $51,785  73 

At  this  date,  according  to  the  books  of  this  company,  a  transaction  covering  chis  whole  matter 
was  had  with  Messrs.  Kilbourn  &  Evans,  whereby  their  notes  were  given  for  $50,000,  payable  six 
months  after  date  and  secured  as  follows,  namely  :  Twenty-four  shares  American  Dredging  Com- 
pany, Philadelphia,  Penn.,  $2,400;  seventy-five  shares  Metropolitan  Paving  Company  stock, 
100  par  value,  $7,500;  one  thousand  shares  market-house  stock,  50  par  value,  $50,000;  forty  shares 
National  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance  Company,  $2,000;  one  hundred  and  fifty  bonds  Maryland 
Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company,  $509  each,  $75,000;  and  payment  by  the  Maryland  Freestone 
Mining  and  Manufacturing  Company  of  $1,785.73  on  account  of  interest.  This  payment  was 
made  by  check  on  the  First  National  Bank,  signed  by  C.  W.  Hayden.  treasurer. 

G.  W.  STICKNEY,  Actuary. 

CHEATrNG  THE  BANK  OUT  OF   $20,000. 

The  next  transaction  was  to  cheat  the  bank  out  of  the  $20,000  of  first  mort- 
gage bonds  held  by  it.  This  was  done  by  means  of  a  substitution  and  colorable 
loan  to  Hallet,  Kilbourn  and  John  O.  Evans.  Ostensibly  this  transaction  was  for 
another  and  no  less  culpable  purpose.  The  Seneca  Sandstone  Company  was 
always  a  suspected  corporation,  and  the  public,  and  especially  that  portion  of  it 
interested  in  the  fortunes  of  the  freedmen,  began  to  clamor  about  the  connection 
of  the  bank  with  it.  The  newspapers  had  grown  suspicious,  and  an  investigation 
of  the  concern  began  to  be  demanded.  To  quiet  the  apprehensions  of  those 
whose  money  was  at  stake  and  the  clamors  of  the  press,  a  disreputable  agreement 
was  resorted  to  for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  the  public.  The  transaction  with 
the  Sandstone  Company  became  a  business  arrangement  with  Messrs.  Evans  & 
Kilbourn,  and  the  following  agreement  was  entered  into: 

HOW  IT  WAS  DONE. 

Ofpice  op  the  Commissioneks  op  the  Freedmen's  Savikos  akd  Trust  Company,  } 

Washington,  D.  C,  December  30,  1873.  f 
The  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company  have  thia  day  made  q,  loan  to  John  O.  Evans  and 
Hallett  Kilbourn  of  $50,000,  upon  the  following-described  securities  as  collateral  to  their  note  : 
$2,400  stock  American  Dredging  Company,  Philadelphia  ;  $2,000  Metropolitan  Insurance  Company 
stock,  Washington,  District  of  Columbia  ;  $75,000  Maryland  Freestone  Manufacturing  and  Mming 
Company  6  per  cent,  gold  bonds,  Montgomery  county,  Maryland  ;  $7,500  Metropolitan  Paving 
Company  stock,  Washmgton,  District  of  Columbia  ;  $50,000  Washington  Market  House  etock, 
Washington,  District  of  Columbia.  Said  note  is  payable  eix  months  after  date,  with  10  per  cent, 
interest ;  a:  i  in  case  said  Evans  and  Kilboum's  note  shall  not  be  paid  as  it  becomes  due,  then  it  is 
fully  agreed  that  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company  Bhall  keep  the  $75,000  bonds  of  the 
Maryland  Freestone  Manufacturing  and  Mining  Company  as  full  pajTnent  of  said  note  and  interest, 
and  surrender  to  said  Evans  and  Kilbourn  the  other  securities  above  enumerated  (save  and  except 
the  $75,000  bonds  of  the  Marj'land  Freestone  Manufacturing  and  Mining  Company),  together  with 
their  note.  D.  L.  EATON,  Actuary. 

Approved : 

L.  CLEPHANE, 

WM.  S.  HUNTINGTON, 

L.  B.  TUTTLE, 

Finance  Committee. 

In  some  mysterious  way  that  it  is  difllcult  for  honest  men,  unfamiliar  with  the 
intricacies  of  fraudulent  banking,  to  understand,  the  bank  finally  became  pos- 
sessed of  $95,000  of  second  mortgage  bonds  which  are  not  worth  a  cent,  and  were 
not  at  the  time  they  were  taken  as  security  for  the  loan  of  $51,785.73,  which, 
with  interest,  now  amounts  to  $90,000  or  $100,000. 

THE  COMMISSIONERS  APPOINTED  WOULDN'T  PROSECUTE  THE  ROGUES. 

When  the  three  commissioners  were  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  business 
of  winding  up  the  affairs  of  the  Freedmen's  Bank,  two  were  appointed  for  politi- 


390  HOW   THE    POOR    FREEDMEN   WERE    SWINDLED. 

cal  reasons — ex-Postmaster-General  John  A.  J.  Creswell  and  C.  B.  Purvis — and 
and  a  third,  R.  H.  T,  Leipold,  because  he  was  a  skilled  accountant,  then  in  the 
employ  of  the  Treasury  Department.  The  manner  in  which  the  two  politicians, 
one  of  them  Purvis,  himself  a  colored  man,  treated  the  men  who  had  swindled 
the  freedmen  is  shown  by  the  following  testimony,  taken  before  the  Bruce  Com- 
mittee, concerning  the  means  taken  to  recover  the  amounts  lost  by  reason  of  the 
swindling  transactions  with  the  Seneca  Sandstone  Company.  Concerning  this 
Mr.  Leipold  testified  as  follows  : 

Mr.  Leipold  :  Well,  I  think  it  was  finally  developed  some  time  in  1875  —the  winter  of  1875, 1 
think.  This  conversation  took  place  some  time  in  the  winter  of  1875-76,  After  having  a  consulta- 
tion with  Colonel  Totten,  I  went  back  to  the  bank  and  wrote  a  note  to  the  other  commissioners, 
which  I  have  here.  This  is  the  original  note  that  I  wrote  (producing  the  original).  I  see  by  the 
date  that  there  must  be  some  mistake  as  to  the  time.  This  was  written  in  the  summer  of  1876,  in 
July.    (Reading  :) 

Office  of  the  Commissionbks  op  the  Freedmkn's  Savings  and  Trust  Company,  | 

Washington,  D.  C,  July.21, 1876.     j 
To  Messrs.  Creswell  and  Purvis,  Commissioners  : 

It  having  been  shown,  through  some  testimony  taken  in  the  suit  against  A.  Langdon,  that  a  num- 
ber of  deposit  accounts  were  paid  by  the  company  after  its  suspension,  June  29, 1874,  especially  one 
of  Sl-000  to  R.  W.  Tompkins,  Colonel  Totten  suggests  that  suits  should  be  brought  for  the  recovery 
of  all  such  moneys. 

Colonel  Totten  also  expresses  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  trustees,  and  especially  the  members  of 
the  finance  committee  who  approved  what  is  known  as  the  secret  agreement  in  the  Seneca  Stone 
loan,  can  be  held  personally  liable  for  the  amount  of  said  loan.  Such  being  the  case,  it  seems  to 
me  some  definite  action  ought  to  be  taken  at  once  looking  to  a  recovery  of  these  moneys  thus 
illegally  paid  out  and  invested. 

J  favor  immediate  action,  and  that  the  whole  matter  be  turned  over  to  Mr,  Totten,  with  instruc- 
tions to  make  a  careful  examination  of  the  law  bearing  on  these  cases,  and  if  he  should  find  that  th6 
law  sustains  his  opinion,  he  should  be  directed  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  recovery  of  the  several 
amounts. 

R.  H.  T.  LEIPOLD,  Commissioner. 
This  note  is  indorsed  as  follows  : 

This  matter  had  best  lie  over  until  it  can  be  presented  to  all  the  commissioners,  Mr.  Pmris  being 
now  absent  from  Washington. 
July  27,  1876.  JOHN  A.  J.  CRESWELL. 

Also  (in  pencil  memorandum)  : 
This  paper  was  on  Mr.  Purvis'  desk  until  April  15,  1879,  and  never  acted  on. 

B.  L. 

LETTER  ADVISING  ACTION  LAID  OVER. 

Mr,  Leipold  (resuming) :  I  put  this  communication,  as  I  did  every  matter  of  importance  in- 
volving an  exercise  of  discretion,  on  Mr.  Purvis'  desk.  I  did  that  on  the  21st  of  July,  1876.  On 
the  27th  of  July,  1876,  Mr.  Creswell  indorsed  this  paper  :  "This  matter  had  best  lie  over  until  it 
can  be  presented  to  blithe  commissioners,  Mr.  Purvis  being  absent  from  Washington."  This 
paper  then  lay  on  Mr.  Purvis'  desk  from  that  time  until  the  15tli  of  April,  1879. 

By  Mr.  Gordon:  Q.  And  what  was  the  year  when  it  first  laid  there  ? 

A.  In  1876.  No  action  in  writing  was  ever  had  on  this  subject  by  Commissioner  Purvis.  The 
matter  was  discussed  between  us  as  to  the  propriety  of  this  thing,  and  Mr.  Purvis  was  inclined  to 
apologize  for  the  board  of  trustees,  both  in  this  case  and  in  a  great  many  other  cases,  so  that  no 
united  action  could  have  been  had  against  the  board  of  trustees.  In  this  connection,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Bristow,  sent  for  me  to  bring  over  these  original  papers.  I  do  not  know 
whether  this  was  before  or  subsequent  to  this  discussion  of  the  matter.  I  took  these  papers  to  him: 
he  looked  at  them  and  said :  "Is  this  ourMr.  Tuttle?"  Mr.  Tuttle  was  then  Assistant-Treasurer 
of  the  United  States.  I  said,  "Yei*."  He  seemed  to  be  very  much  surprised  at  it,  and  expressed 
himself  to  the  effect  that  he  could  not  have  any  such  man  in  his  department— a  man  who  would 
sign  such  an  agreement  as  that.  I  had  known  Mr.  Tuttle  for  a  number  of  years,  and  did  not  believe 
that  Mr.  Tuttle  would  affix  his  signature  to  such  a  paper,  if  he  knew  the  contents  of  it,  and  I  told 
Mr.  Bristow  so.  His  reply  was  that  no  man  had  a  right  to  put  his  name  to  a  paper  of  that  kind 
without  knowing  what  was  in  it.  And  the  result  was  that  Mr.  Tuttle  left  the  department.  Mr. 
Purvis  has  abused  me  once  or  twice  in  this  case,  because  I  have  made  known  that  thing— he  taking 
the  ground  that  gratitude  on  my  part  to  this  man  who  had  elected  me  as  commissioner  ought  to 
make  me  lieep  quiet  on  the  subject.  I  do  not  know  that  that  was  exactly  his  language,  but  I  Know 
that  "gratitude  "  was  the  word  he  made  use  of,  that  "  common  gratitude  to  those  men  oughtta 
have  prevented  me  from  prosecuting  them,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  Of  course,  no  other  action 
has  been  taken  as  against  the  trustees  in  that  matter. 

WENT  AFTER  THE  BANKRUPT  COMPANY. 

By  Mr.  Withers:  Q.  No  action  ?  A.  I  was  about  to  say  that  we  did  proceed  to  some  extent.  I 
presented  the  coupons  of  the  Seneca  Sandstone  Company's  bonds  we  had  in  the  bank,  had  them 
protested  for  non-payment,  and  then  instructed  the  trustees  to  foreclose  the  mortgage.  A  bill  was 
filed  on  behalf  of  the  Freemen's  Bank  and  other  parties  to  have  the  property  sold,  and  the  property 
itself  is  now  in  litigation.  That  was  all  the  action  that  was  taken  by  the  commissioners.  I  want 
to  say  here,  that  in  some  conversations  which  took  place  last  summer  about  the  violation  of  the 
charter  by  some  of  the  trustees  Mr.  Purvis  notified  me  that  if  I  attempted  to  hold  tliese  men  up 
to  the  ridicule  of  the  community,  I  would  find  that  they  would  defend  themselves;  and  I  replied  to 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  891 

him— and  I  think  It  was  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Creswell— that  I  had  no  fears  on  that  score;  that 
whatever  facta  they  knew  they  were  welcome  to  bring  out;  I  did  not  care  anything  about  it. 

By  Mr.  Garland:  Q,.  After  you  read  that  letter,  you  stated,  I  believe,  that  you  had  some  consulta- 
tions with  the  other  commissioners  from  time  to  time?    A.  Yes. 

6.  And  you  agreed  upon  no  definite  course  of  action?    A.  No  sir,  not  as  against  the  trustees. 

Q.  Well,  j'ou  gave  Mr.  Totten  or  your  attorney  no  instructions  to  bring  suit?    A.  No,  sir. 

•.  MR.    CRESWELL'S  LAME  EXCUSES. 

Mr.  Creswell  testified  about  his  unwillingness  to  prosecute  these  dishonest 
officials  in  the  following  unsatisfactory  way: 

Mr.  Creswell :  I  do  not  remember. 

The  committee  will  obsepe  that  the  finance  committee  had  approved  this  transaction;  itis  signed 
by  L.  Clephane,  William  S.  Huntington  and  L.  Tuttle.  My  opinion  was,  to  recover  against  them 
we  would  be  obliged  to  show  in  court  that  they  had  proceded  corruptlj^.  I  knew  Mr.  Tuttle  by 
reputation;  I  had  heard  his  statement  about  the  transaction,  and  I  did  not  believe  that  we  could 
succeed  in  fastening  upon  him  any  such  imputation.  Huntington  was  dead,  and  Mr.  Clephane,  I 
believe,  I  did  not  know;  I  do  not  believe  that  I  had  ever  met  him  more  than  casually;  and  that  wa» 
the  reason  why  I  hesitated  in  authorizing  that  proceeding.  Of  course,  we  could  not  reach  Mr. 
Huntington,  he  being  dead,  nor  could  we  reach  the  others,  except  by  showing  improper  and  corrupt 
motives. 

Mr.  Leipold:  The  points  in  the  case  are  somewhat  different  from  those  stated  by  Mr.  Creswell.  I 
addressed  a  letter  directing  the  trustees  named  in  the  mortgage  to  proceed  to  sell  the  property  under 
the  mortgage  covering  the  bonds. 

By  Mr.  Garland:  Q.  A  letter  to  whom? 

Mr.  Leipold  :  A  letter  to  Joseph  T.  Brown,  who  was  trustee  in  the  mortgage  securing  these 
bonds.  And  this  Joseph  T.  Brown  about  the  same  time  received  another  communication,  from  an 
opposing  interest,  requiring  him  to  proceed  to  the  sale  of  the  property  under  the  first  mortgage 
bond  ;  and  although  our  letter  reached  him  first,  he  nevertheless  proceeded  under  the  first  mortgage 
bond,  and  it  was  subsequent  to  that  we  were  brought  into  the  courts  about  it. 

Adjourned  to  Thursday,  January  22,  1880. 

IT  WAS  ALWAYS  THUS  WITH  THE  RING  ROGUES. 

Thus  it  is  that  throughout,  from  first  to  last,  from  the  time  the  loan  was  made 
till  now — the  bank  is  wound  up — the  Seneca  Sandstone  Company  has  been  a  bur- 
den on  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company.  The  managers  of  the 
Freedmen's  Bank  were  closely  connected  with  the  District  of  Columbia  Ring. 
Cooke  was  governor  of  the  District  and  chairman  of  the  notorious  Board  of 
Public  Works,  which  was  under  the  control  of  Alexander  R.  Shepherd ;  George 
W.  Balloch,  of  the  examining  committee  of  the  bank;  William  S.  Huntington,  of 
the  finance  committee ;  Z.  B.  Richards,  of  the  board  of  trustees,  and  D.  L.  Eaton, 
actuary — these  men  were  all  connected  in  some  official  way  "with  the  District 
government.  Huntington  and  Clephane,  also  of  the  finance  committee,  were 
also  connected  with  the  Metropolitan  Paving  Company.  The  Board  of  Public 
Works  ran  out  of  money  and  issued  certificates,  worthless  unless  Congress — with 
whom  the  Ring  was  growing  in  disfavor,  largely  because  the  Republicans  had 
taken  alarm  at  the  rapidly-increasing  strength  of  the  Democrats — made  appropri- 
ations to  pay  them.  On  these  certificates,  perfectly  worthless  as  securities,  the 
officers  of  the  bank  loaned  the  money  of  the  freedmen. 

D.  L.  Eaton,  the  actuary,  was 

BRIBED 

with  a  half  interest  in  a  $100,000  sewer  pipe  contract  with  a  Ring  -contractor 
named  Vandenburgh,  the  transactions  of  whom,  in  connection  with  Shepherd 
and  others,  brought  ruin  and  hopelessness  into  the  home  and  heart  of  many  a 
poor  negro,  his  indebtedness  to  the  bank  standing  at  about  $144,164.83. 

Before  going  to  the  testimony  concerning  these  public  improvement  swindles, 
which  Gen.  Garfield  so  signally  aided  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Appro- 
priations, it  will  be  well  to  note  that  the  "available  fund"  was  scattered  and 
wasted  among  such  rotten  securities  as  the  Metropolitan  Paving  Company  stock 
(worthless).  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  stock.  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
stock  (worthless.)  This  loan  was  secured  by  the  Christian  financier,  Henry  D. 
Cooke,  and  the  Christian  soldier.  General  O.  O.  Howard,  Seneca  Sandstone 
Company  bonds,  shares  of  International  Steamship  Supply  Company,  Morris 


392  HOW    THE    POOE    FREEDMEX    WERE    SWINDLED. 

Mining  Company  stock,  chattel  mortgages  on  the  furniture  of  the  Arlington  and 
St.  James  hotels,  state  bonds  of  Virginia,  city  bonds  of  Philadelphia,  shares  of 
Washington  building  associations,  mortgage  bonds  of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio 
Railroad  Company,  shares  of  the  American  Seal  Lock  Company,  state  of  Florida 
bonds,  Detroit  Car  Loan  Company  stock,  Columbia  railroad  stock,  bonds  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church,  Second  National  Bank  stock,  District  of  Columbia 
certificates,  auditor's  certificates,  paving  and  curbstone  tax,  orders  on  the  Board 
of  Public  Works,  orders  on  and  acceptances  of  the  treasurer  of  county  schools, 
life  insurance  policies,  etc.  As  late  as  April,  1874,  more  than  six  months  after 
the  failure  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co. ,  the  bank  made  a  loan  and  accepted  as  col- 
lateral an  assignment  of  a  claim  on  that  firm  for  $11,975.    . 

HOW  THE  RING  ROGUES  GOT  THE  MONEY. 

The  following  extracts  from  Auditor  Stickney's  testimony  will  show  the 
manner  in  which  the  District  Ring  managed  its  financial  transaction  with  the 
bank: 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  loan  at  any  time  made  to  Vandenburgh  on  the  personal  assurance  of 
Alexander  R.  Shepherd  that  it  would  be  paid  in  a  day  or  two? 

A.  That  loan  was  not  made  to  Vandenburgh.  I  recollect  the  transaction  you  refer  to.  It  occurred 
in  November,  1873.  I  was  away  at  the  time  (simply  for  the  Saturday).  Governor  Shepherd  and 
Colonel  Magruder  came  to  Mr.  Alvord  and  goc  the  loan  of  $50,000  on  a  $30,000  check  on  the  First 
National  Bank,  drawn  by  J.  A.  Magruder,  treasurer,  and  on  a  $20,000  certificate  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Works,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  first  moneys  that  the  board  received  when  the  appropriation 
was  mfide  by  Congress.  I  found  out  from  Mr.  Tuttle,  the  assistant  treasurer,  as  soon  as  the  check 
was  made  for  the  amount  of  the  appropriation,  and  the  next  morning,  before  the  bank  was  opened, 
I  went  to  the  First  National  Bank  and  deposited  this  $30,000  check,  and  got  it  placed  to  my  credit 
by  Mr.  Swayne,  the  cashier  of  the  First  National  Bank.  The  $20,000  certificate  ran  along  without 
being  paid  until  February  or  March,  1874.  One  day,  as  I  was  in  the  Metropolitan  National  Bank, 
Mr.  Moses  Kelly  said  that  the  Board  of  Public  Works  wanted  a  loan  of  $35,000,  and  would  give  a  6 
per  cent,  bond  on  the  District  of  Columbia  for  it.  Mr.  Kelly  was  one  of  the  finance  committee  at 
the  time,  and  he  advised  that  the  loan  be  made,  saying  that  it  was  a  good  loan  and  the  bonds  were 
good.  The  market  price  was  then  85,  and  the  bonds  could  be  sold  iu  any  amount  for  that.  I  told 
film  I  was  not  willing  to  make  that  loan,  unless  the  $20,000  certificate  was  included  in  it,  and  bonds 
deposited  enough  to  cover  the  $55,000.  That  was  agreed  to,  and  I  made  the  loan  of  $35,000,  and 
took  $65,000  in  Donds  to  cover  that  loan  and  the  $20,000  certificate,  which  made  the  amount,  $55,000. 
That  ran  along  some  time,  something  less  than  a  month,  when  the  whole  amount  was  paid.  Mr. 
Vandenburgh  had  nothincr  whatever  to  do  with  it,  unless  perhaps  he  got  the  money  from  the 
Board  of  Public  Works.    The  loan  of  $50,000  was  made  to  Governor  Shepherd  by  Mr.  Alvord. 

Q.  What  was  the  certificate  worth  at  that  time.  A.  None  of  the  certificates  or  obligations  of  the 
Board  of  Pablic  Works  were  ever  worth  less  than  85 or  90  up  to  that  date.  None  of  them  brought 
less  than  80  or  85  until  after  the  panic.    That  certificate  was  put  into  this  new  loan. 

HOW  SHEPHERD  HELPED   VANDENBURGH  TO  OTHEll  MEN's  MONEY. 

Q.  Did  you  never  say  to  C.  B.  Purvis,  or  to  any  other  person,  that  you  had  done  one  wrong 
thing,  and  that  was  allowing  that  money  to  be  paid  to  Vandenburgh  on  the  personal  pledge  of 
Shepherd.  A.  No,  sir;  I  have  no  recollection  of  that.  I  know  where  Dr.  Purvis  got  that  idea.  In 
November,  1872,  Vandenburgh  came  to  me  and  wanted  some  more  money— five  or  six  thousand 
dollars— to  pay  his  men.  I  told  him  that  he  was  so  much  indebted  to  the  bank  that  I  did  not  feel 
like  letting  nim  have  any  more  money  on  the  securities  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  as  other 
people  seemed  to  get  their  money  and  we  could  not.  He  said  it  was  for  Mr.  Shepherd.  I  went  to 
Mr.  Shepherd  and  he  said,  "  If  you  allow  Vandenburgh  to  have  that  amount  of  money  now,  you 
shall  have  all  that  is  due  you  paid  up  when  we  get  the  first  appropriation;  but  if  you  let  him  have 
any  more,  it  will  be  your  own  lookout."  I  let  him  have  about  $5,000  on  that  occasion,  and  when 
the  appropriation  was  made  I  got  $22,000  of  him  instead  of  some  hundred  and  odd  thousand,  as  was 
promised:  but  as  to  any  sum  of  $30,000, 1  know  nothing  about  it. 

Q.  Did  Mr.  Shepherd  agree  that  he  would  pay  that  money  himself?  A.  No;  he  agreed  that  it 
should  be  paid  out  of  the  first  appropriation  that  the  board  got  from  Congress. 

Q.  And  you  got  $22,000  instead  of  $100,000  ?  A.  Yes;  there  was  due  the  bank  from  Vanden- 
burgh and  the  Paving  Company  some  $100,000,  and  we  got  about  $22,000. 

Q.  You  mean  to  say  that  when  that  loan  of  $5,000  was  made,  Mr.  Shepherd  said  that  you  should 
have  the  whole  amount  that  had  been  loaned  by  the  bank,  which  at  that  time  was  over  $100,000? 
A.  Y''e8,  sir. 

Among  the  new  facts  brought  out  by  Senator  Bruce's  committee  was  the  fact 
that  the  officers  of  the  bank,  especially  Mr.  Huntington,  were  in  the  habit  of 
loaning  money  to  themselves  in  violation  of  the  charter.  Clephane  also,  another 
member  of  the  finance  committee,  was.  in  the  habit  of  breaking  the  law.  He 
testified  before  the  Bruce  committee  that  he  and  Hallet  Kilbourn  at  one  time  bor- 
rowed $2,000  on  Metropolitan  Paving  Company's  stock.  All  these  loans  and  a 
number  of  others  were  made  mainly  on  worthless  securities,  almost  always  on 
securities  not  recognized  by  the  bank's  charter. 

The  notorious  firm  of  Kilbourn  &  Latta,  real  estate  brokers,  was  employed  to 
appraise  the  value  of  real  property  on  which  loans  were  solicited.  Many  of  these 
loans  were  secured  by  this  firm  as  brokers,  and  the  result  was,  as  might  have 
been  anticipated,  the  property  was  valued  at  about  double  its  value,  and  it  haa 
been  found  impossible  to  realize  the  mortgage  debts  on  much  of  it. 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED. 


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HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  395 

THE   ROUTINE   BUSINESS 

of  the  bank  was  managed  as  might  have  been  expected  of  a  gang  of  plunderers. 
The  clerks  did  as  they  would  without  supervision.  The  institution  was  not  a 
business  concern  ;  it  was  a  means  for  easy  plundering  ;  its  accounts  were  not 
subject  to  scrutiny,  and  it  made  no  manner  of  difference  that  the  books  were 
incorrect.  Incorrect  charges  were  made  and  proper  credits  were  not  given.  The 
consequence  was  that  the  books  furnish  no  reliable  evidence  against  any  debtor 
of  the  bank. 

The  following  from  Mr.  Sperry's  testimony  before  the  Bruce  committee  will 
throw  light  on  the  manner  in  which  the  regular  routine  business  of  the  bank  was 
managed :  He  testified  that  the  employees  were  all  inexperienced  persons,  mainly 
young  colored  men  to  whom  the  managers  of  the  bank  ostentatiously  gave  the 
preference,  while  robbing  the  rest  of  the  race.  Perhaps  it  was  as  well  for  their 
schemes  that  those  about  them  should  be  inexperienced  and  ignorant.  With 
such  guardians  it  was  easy  to  mutilate  the  books  and  to  tear  out  leaves  contain- 
ing^ damaging  stories. 

Being  asked  what  were  his  duties  in  connection  with  the  Washington  branch 
of  the  bank,  Mr.  Sperry  answered : 

A.  I  was  put  in  there  at  vanous  times,  if  possible,  to  straighten  out  the  accounts,  to  organize  the 
business,  and  I  did  my  best  to  do  so.  I  had  various  persons  to  help  me.  The  blunders  simply  ran 
over  me;  that  is  all  there  is  about  it.  I  stopped  the  business  once  and  opened  a  new  set  of  oooks. 
The  new  set  of  books  was  worse  than  the  old  set.  I  am  reflecting  on  nobody,  sir;  I  am  simply 
stating  the  facts. 

Q.  The  blunders,  you  say,  simply  overwhelmed  you?  A.  Yes,  sir;  they  just  overwhelmed  me. 
Why,  you  could  not  settle  the  cash  any  night.  Sometimes  they  were  from  five  thousand  dollars  to 
five  cents  one  way,  and  sometimes  they  were  t'other  way.  Everybody  felt  like  going  out  and 
having  a  special  oyster  supper  if  the  thing  came  out  even. 

Q.  It  was  an  exception,  you  mean,  to  have  it  come  out  even?  A.  That  is  what  I  mean,  sir.  Put 
the  actuary  on  the  stand  and  ask  him  if  he  don't  remember  those  times. 

Q.  When  the  account  of  cash  was  over  or  under,  what  did  the  officers  of  the  bank  do  about  it? 
A.  Oh,  they  did  the  best  they  could— opened  a  debit  and  credit  account  with  the  branch,  and  profit 
and  loss  on  the  books  of  the  principal  office.  If  the  cash  was  "over"  we  took  possession  of  it. 
When  it  was  short  we  made  it  up.    We  always  waited  for  something  to  turn  up. 

Q.  That  is,  you  transferred  from  one  side  of  the  account  to  the  other?  A.  That  is  ;to  say,  we 
would  start  the  teller  right  in  the  morning  anyhow,  and  keep  an  account  of  the  errors  and  omis- 
sions that  might  occur  from  time  to  time.  Things  were  continually  coming  up.  "  Overs  "  were 
accounted  for  generally  by  some  deposit  turning  up  that  had  not  been  properly  entered  on  the 
dei)08it  journal.  Then  these  things  were  so  numerous  that  they  have  furnished  your  experts 
legitimate  occupation  for  some  months,  I  understand,  and  they  have  not  yet  got  the  profit  and  loss 
account  cleared  up,  I  see. 

With  such  management  and  such  dishonesty,  is  it  any  wonder  that  this  Re- 
publican institution  for  the  benefit  of  the  freedmen  met  with  disaster,  and  its 
poor  dupes  with  ruin? 

In  1874  the  affairs  of  the  bank  were  placed  in  the  hands  of  three  commissioners. 
Their  acts  have  been  investigated  by  a  committee  of  which  Senator  B.  K.  Bruce, 
of  Mississippi,  was  chairman.  He  has  made  a  long  and  patient  investigation, 
and  the  testimony  taken  before  his  committee  corroborates  the  story  as  already 
told  in  these  pages.  It  does  more,  for  it  makes  certain  that  even  in  its  winding 
up  the  Freedmen's  Saving  and  Trust  Company  and  its  poor  creditors  were  still 
the  victims  of  unscrupulous  politicians.  Both  Purvis  and  Creswell  paid  no  more 
attention  to  the  affairs  of  the  concern  tj^an  though  they  had  never  been  employed 
to  look  after  the  business  at  salaries  of  $3,000  per  annum.  Leipold  alone  did^is 
work. 

The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  extraordinary  cost  this  commission  has 
been  to  the  bank: 


396 


HOW    THE    POOR   FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED. 


COST   OF  WINDING  UP  THE   BANK. 

Statement  of  the  annual  expenses  attending  the  appointment  of  the  Commission,  and  its  management 
of  the  business  of  the  Freedmen's  Savings  and  Trust  Company. 


Character  of  Expenditures. 


Salaries  of  commissioners 

Salaries  of  agents 

Advertising,  stationary,  express- 
age,  postage  and  other  ordinary 
expenses 

Attorneys'  fees  and  costs 

Rents 

Expenses  Incident  to  loans,  insur- 
ance, advertising,  auctioneers' 
fees,  expenses  of  foreclosure,  &c. 

Expenses  incident  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  properties,  insurance  re- 
pairs, fuel,  gas,  &c 

Taxes  and  arrearages  of  taxes 

Prior  incumbrances 

Miscellaneous  expenses,  premiums 
on  coin, over-payments  refunded, 
judgments  against  company, <fec. 

Total  annual  expenditure 


a  <u 
o  « 


$4,308  32 
24,912  24 


4,266  37 
2,503  65 
7,993  32 


4,570  89 


2,715  26 
17,933  28 
4,936  38 


316  72 


74,456  43 


1875. 


$9,000  00 
17,046  91 


4,539  17 
7,306  74 
1,238  00 


6,279  89 


9,675  37 

14,387  90 

572  26 


1,511  09 


71,557  33 


1876. 


$9,000  00 
9,925  74 


1,21717 
10,362  99 


10,596  92 


10,035  23 

26,691  95 

6,379  27 


85,37025 


1877. 


$9,000  00 
5,054  92 


63191 
7,019  03 


3,509  21 


9,811  01 

11,942  16 

416  80 


49  55 


47,434  59 


a  2 


$8,250  00 
7,289  76 


1,106 
4,186 


3,279  91 


7,907 

7,780 

76 


01 


57  96 


39,935  04 


Totals. 


^9,558  32 
64,229  57 


11,761  09 

31,378  82 

9,231  32 


28,236  34 


40,145  04 
78,735  30 
12,381  54 


3,096  30 


318,753  64 


The  following  statements  of  transactions,  not  heretofore  fully  narrated,  are 
taken  from  the  report  of  the  Bruce  committee : 

J.    C.    KENNEDY   LOAN. 

A  loan  was  made  to  J,  C.  Kennedy,  March  27,  1872,  for  $12,000,  on  $20,000  second-mortgage 
bonds  of  the  Seneca  Sandstone  Company.  This  loan  was  made  just  after  the  questionable  trans- 
actions between  the  bank,  the  Seneca  Stone  Company,  and  Kilbourn  and  Evans,  and  made  on  the 
same  kind  of  worthless  security.  This  loan  has  never  been  paid,  and  the  question  of  settlement  is 
now  pending  in  the  courts  on  suit  brought  by  the  commissioners.  The  probabilities  are  that  this 
amount  will  be  lost  to  the  bank. 

VANDENBURGH. 

Another  set  of  loans  by  which  the  bank  will  suffer  heavy  loss  are  those  made  to  J.  V.  W,  Van- 
denburgh  and  the  Abbott  Paving  Company,  of  which  Vandenburgh  was  treasurer.  Loans  amount- 
ing in  the  aggregate  to  $122,000  were  made  to  Vandenburgh,  the  collateral  for  which  consisted  of 
certificates  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  approved  bills  against  the 
District  for  work  done  improving  streets,  etc. 

There  is  still  due  the  bank  from  Vandenburgh  about  $77,000. 

The  Abbott  Paving  Company,  of  which  Vandenburgh  was  treasurer,  also  obtained  large  sums 
from  the  bank  in  the  nature  of  loans,  lor  which  the  same  class  of  securities  were  given  as  in  the 
Vandenburgh  loans.  The  loans  to  the  Abbott  Paving  Company  aggregated  $89,000,  of  which 
about  $48,000  have  been  paid.  Jx  is  estimated  that  the  loss  to  the  bank  in  these  two  cases  will  reach 
between  $50,000  and  $75,000. 

The  loans  made  to  Vandenburgh  and  the  Abbott  Paving  Company  were  made  at  various  times 
during  the  years  1870-'71-'72--73  and  '74. 


EVANS  LYONS  LOAN. 

The  Loan  of  $34,000  to  Evan  Lyons,  made  on  the  23d  of  July,  1872,  has  caused  a  loss  of  $25,000 
to  the  bank.  The  collateral  given  consisted  of  60  ^cres  of  land,  known  as  the  Lyons  Mill  Seat,  in 
Washington  county.  Lyons  made  four  applications  for  loans  of  smaller  amounts,  offering  in  each 
case  the  same  collateral.  Upon  presentation  of  the  application  to  the  finance  committee  ic  was  re- 
peatedly rejected,  and  on  the  8th  of  May,  1872,  it  was  rejected  absolutely.  Yet  on  the  23d  of  July 
following  the  same  finance  committee  approved  this  loan  to  him  for  $34,000.  The  board  of  trustees, 
at  a  meeting  of  Mav  16th,  1870,  expressly  forbid  the  making  of  any  loan  for  a  longer  period  than 
one  year.  When  the  bank  closed  in  June,  1874,  this  loan  remained  unpaid,  and  when  the  affairs  of 
the  bank  were  turned  over  to  the  present  commissioners  there  was  due  from  Lyons,  including  ac- 
crued interest,  the  sum  of  $38,188.37. 

The  commissioners  of  the  company  subsequently  sold  the  property  under  the  deed  of  trust  held 
by  the  bank,  and  bought  it  for  $40,000.  They  still  hold  the  property,  being  unable  to  obtain  a 
purchaser  for  it  at  a  price  anywhere  near  the  amount  of  indebtedness.  It  is  estimated  that  the 
loss  on  this  loan  will  amount  to  $25,000.  This  statement  of  facts,  taken  from  the  books  of  the 
company,  was  not  satisfactorily  explained  by  the  testimony  taken  on  this  point. 


HOW    THE    POOR    FREEDMEN    WERE    SWINDLED.  397 

R.    I.    FLEMING   LOANS. 

The  loans  made  to  R.  I.  Fleming  aggregated  about  $224,000.  A  balance  is  still  due  from  Fleming 
(.f  $a5,026.98.  The  securities  taken  for  the  loans  made  to  Fleming  were  often  insufficient,  consist- 
ing mainly  of  approved  bills  against  the  District  of  Columbia,  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
stock,  and  collaterals  of  that  character,  and  in  some  cases  no  security  was  taken.  Fleming  is  now 
bankrupt,  and  there  is  very  little  prospect  of  the  Freedman's  Savings  and  Trust  Company  ever  rea- 
lizing anything  on  his  indebtedness.  The  estimated  loss  on  the  Fleming  loans  will  aggregate 
$32,000.  The  following  named  were  members  of  finance  committee  and  approved  many  of  the 
loans  made  to  Fleming,  viz. :  Messrs.  Kelly,  Cooke,  Huntington,  Richards,  Langston,  Balloch, 
Clephane  and  Tuttle. 

JUAN  BOYLE  LOANS. 

The  loans  appearing  in  the  name  of  Juan  Boyle  were  made  in  direct  violation  of  the  charter. 
The  board  of  trustees  had,  by  a  yea-and-nay  vote,  closed  the  bank  on  the  29th  of  June,  1874.  The 
books  show  that  $33,366.66  was  loaned  Boyle  on  the  30th  of  June,  the  day  after.  For  one  loan, 
viz.,  $4,366.66  no  collateral  whatever  appears  to  have  been  taken,  and  for  the  other,  viz.,  $29,000, 
collateral  utterly  worthless  was  accepted,  in  direct  violation  of  the  amended  charter,  which  pro- 
vided that  the  collateral  in  all  cases  should  be  of  double  the  value  of  the  loan.  In  this  case  it 
amounted  to  but  $18,000,  $10,000  of  which  turned  out  to  be  of  no  value  whatever.  The  $10,000 
note  of  Boyle,  part  of  the  security,  Jwas  secured  by  real  estate  upon  which  there  existed  a  prior  lien, 
and  the  real  estate  in  question  was  sold  under  this  prior  lien,  thus  leaving  only  the  $8,000  of  rail- 
road bonds. 

The  estimated  loss  on  the  Boyle  loans  is  $31,000,  which  includes  interest,  cost  and  expenses. 
These  loans  were  not  approved  by  the  finance  committee  or  the  board  of  trustees. 

^The  result  of  the  Bruce  investigation  was  a  bill  introduced  by  Mr.  Garland^ 
a  Democratic  Senator  from  Arkansas,  repealing  the  act  providing  for  the  three 
commissioners  and  turning  the  institution  over  to  the  Comptroller  of  the  Cur- 
rency, with  power  to  sell  the  bank's  property  and  institute  civil  and  criminal  pro- 
ceedings against  the  men  who  robbed  the  freedmen. 


398  TWELVE    YEARS    OF   FRAUD,    PLUNDER    AND    PECULATION. 


TWELYE  YEARS  OF  FRAUD,  PLUNDER 
AND  PECULATION-THE  EMMA  MINE. 


A  brief  history  of  some  of  the  peculations  and  corruptions  which  have  charac- 
terized the  last  twelve  years  of  radical  rule  are  gathered  from  the  official  records 
of  the  government.  One  of  these  scented  flowers  in  the  bouquet  of  Civil  Service 
corruption  is  presented  m  the  case  of  the  "  Emma  Mine, "  showing  how  for  the 
first  time  in  our  history  an  American  minister  has  used  his  official  station  to  fleece 
the  people  to  whom  he  was  sent  as  the  representative  of  America. 

THE  EMMA  MINE. 

In  1871  Trenor  W.  Park  and  Henry  H.  Baxter,  American  citizens,  purchased 
9-16  interest  in  the  Emma  mine,^  situated  in  Utah,  for  which  they  paid  $468,750, 
or  at  the  rate  of  $1,500,000  for  the  whole  mine.  The  purchase  was  subject  to  a 
litigated  claim  of  James  E.  Lyon,  of  Wisconsin,  for  one-third.  Lyon  employed 
Senator  William  M.  Stewart  as  liis  attorney. 

The  Emma  mine  was  extensively  worked  up  abroad.  Fabulous  stories  were 
circulated  about  the  production  of  silver  from  its  richly-laden  veins.  Extra- 
ordinary efforts  were  made  during  the  summer  of  1871  to  secure  a  large  product 
of  ore,  and  the  mine  was  exhausted  in  the  effort.  The  ore  was  shipped  to 
England  arid  sold,  and  the  mining  world  was  fully  informed  of  the  large  yield 
and  extraordinary  prices  obtained.  In  September,  Park,  representing  the  owners 
of  the  mine,  and  Stewart,  representing  Lyon,  went  to  Europe  to  float  their  bauble 
upon  the  English  market.  Albert  Grant,  the  great  European  speculator,  whose 
star  of  prosperity  was  at  its  zenith  at  that  time,  agreed  to  put  the  mine  upon 
the  market. 

THE   SCHEME   CONCOCTED. 

The  contract  with  Grant  provided  that  the  property  should  be  capitalized  at 
£1,000,000,  or  $4,500,000  more  than  the  estimated  value  of  the  mine.  One-half  of 
the  property  was  to  be  offered  to  the  public  in  £20  shares,  and  the  other  half  to 
be  retained  by  the  vendors  for  nine  months,  unless  Grant  &  Co.  should  consent  to 
their  sale  at  an  earlier  date.  For  "promoting"  the  company  Grant  was  to  re- 
ceive 20  per  cent,  on  the  sales.  He  was  also  to  keep  up  the  market  by  buying 
the  vendors'  shares  whenever  it  became  necessary,  at  a  premium.  There  was 
one  other  and  very  important  stipulation  exacted  by  Grant  in  connection  with 
his  job  to  bloat  the  mine.  That  was  the  association  with  the  enterprise  of  Minis- 
ter Schenck 

HOW  MR.    SCHENCK  CAME  IN. 

In  November,  1871,  Robert  C.  Schenck  was  minister  of  the  United  States  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James.    When  Park  and  Stewart  arrived  in  England  they  deter- 


TWELVE    YEARS    6f    FRAUD,    PLUNDER    AND    PECLUATION.  399 

mined  to  secure  his  official  influence.  They  treated  him  just  as  Oakes  Ames  did 
Garfield  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  transaction.  Park  proposed  to  Schenck  that  he 
should  become  a  subseriber  in  the  company  to  the  extent  of  500  shares,  par  value 
£10,000,  with  the  understanding  that  he  should  not  be  required  to  pay  any. 
money,  but  should  have  the  amount  for  one  year  without  interest.  Park  also 
guaranteed  that  dividends  should  be  paid  on  Gen.  Schenck's  stock  at  the  rate  of 
1^  per  cent,  per  month,  or  18  per  cent,  per  annum  as  long  as  he  held  it.  The  25 
shares  were  sold  by  Gen.  Schenck  to  a  lady  residing  in  Paris  as  an  act  of  friend- 
ship for  £500. 

GENERAL   SCHENCK   RAISES  THE  BLIND. 

As  soon  as  the  American  minister  had  become  interested  in  the  company  with- 
out expending  a  dollar  of  his  money,  he  consented  readily  to  become  a  director. 
A  salary  of  $2,500  was  paid  to  each  of  the  directors.  A  prospectus  was  issued 
containing  a  list  of  directors,  among  them  the  name  of  "Gen.  Robert  C.  Schenck, 
United  States  minister,  London."  In  the  body  of  the  prospectus  was  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  : 

"Major-Gen.  Schenck,  on  account  of  the  exceptional  cha/racter  of  the  undertaking, 
has  consented  to  act  as  one  of  the  directors. " 

The  prospectus  contained  a  number  of  lies  at  the  outset.  It  stated  that  the 
profits  for  four  months  were  £231,059,  or  at  the  rate  of  £700,000  per  annum. 
Dividends  were  paid  for  thirteen  months  at  the  rate  of  li  per  cent.  Shares  went 
up  to  £32  and  the  owners  quietly  imloaded.  In  December,  1872,  the  scheme 
exploded,  and  shares  in  the  following  May  sold  at  £1  5s.  Innocent  investors  suf- 
fered great  loss  and  distress.  Hundreds  of  poor  people,  attracted  by  the  indorse- 
ment of  the  American  minister,  put  their  savings  into  the  scheme  and  lost  every- 
thing. 

GENERAL   SCHENCK  THROWS  UP  HIS  HAND. 

As  soon  as  the  fact  of  Schenck's  connection  with  the  mine  became  known  in 
the  United  States,  the  newspapers  criticised  his  conduct  severely,  and  Schenck, 
like  Garfield  in  a  similar  plight,  began  to  squirm  and  prevaricate.  He  said  he  had 
paid  "dollar  for  dollar"  for  his  shares,  which  was  entirely  false.  Schenck  then 
retired  from  the  -directorship,  but  gave  the  scheme  a  parting  puff  in  so  doing.  He 
said :  "  I  have  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  value  and  profitableness  of  the  property 
they  have  in  charge." 

In  April,  1872,  Schenck  obtained  300  additional  shares  and  sold  them  at  a 
profit  of  $10,000.  Park  notified  Schenck  by  telegraph  when  the  scheme  would 
burst,  and  Schenck  immediately  ordered  2,000  shares  sold  on  Park's  account,  500 
on  WoodhuU's  account  (Woodhull  was  Secretary  of  Legation),  200  shares  of  his 
475  investment  shares. 

After  a  full  investigation  of  the  transaction,  the  House  committee  passed  the 
following:  Besolxed,  That  this  House  condemns  the  action  of  Gen.  Robert  E. 
Schenck,  United  States  minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  in  becoming  a  director 
of  the  Emma  Silver  Mining  Company  of  London,  and  his  operations  in  connec- 
tion with  the  shares  of  the  said  company,  and  the  vendors  thereof,  as  ill-advised, 
unfortunate  and  incompatible  with  the  duties  of  his  official  position." 

This  case  (like  the  DeGolyej-  fee)  finally  came  into  court,  and  in  London,  on 
the  29th  of  July,  1880,  Sir  George  Jessel,  Master  of  the  Rolls,  gave  judgment 
against  Albert  Grant  in  favor  of  the  Emma  Mining  Company  for  £120,000,  that 
sum  being  claimed  by  Grant  as  profit  for  floating  the  company.  Sir  George  Jessel 
held  that  Grant,  by  making  a  profit  as  promoter  of  the  company,  was  guilty  of 
breach  of  trust. 


400  THE    WHISKY   KING. 


THE  WHISKY  RING. 


A  REMARKABLE  EPOCH    OP  OFFICIAL  CORRUPTION. 

Whisky  Rings  of  greater  or  less  magnitude  have  been  in  existence  ever  since 
the  tax  was  first  imposed  upon  distilled  spirits.  They  flourished  from  1862  to 
to  1874,  but  it  was  not  until  Gen.  Bristow,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  began 
his  fight  against  th^  violators  of  the  law  in  Missouri  and  Illinois,  and  the  ramifica- 
tion's of  the  conspiracy  were  found  to  extend  into  the  White  House,  that  public 
attention  was  attracted  to  the  enormity  of  'their  frauds.  In  1863  the  first  tax  was 
imposed  upon  whisky. 

THE  INCIPIENT  WHISKY  RINGS. 

The  civil  war  was  raging,  and  it  became  necessary  for  the  government  to  increase 
its  revenues.  There  had  previously  been  much  talk  about  imposing  a  tax  on 
spirits,  and  shrewd  speculators  had  bought  immense  quantities  of  whisky  and 
were  holding  it  for  the  rise  in  price  which  would  follow  the  imposition  of  the 
tax.  The  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  recommended  that  a  tax  of  twenty 
cents  per  gallon  be  imposed  upon  domestic  spirits.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
make  this  tax  apply  to  spirits  already  manufactured.  The  whisky  dealers 
assembled  at  the  capital  by  hund^-eds,  begged  and  bribed  members  of  Congress  to 
vote  against  the  proposition,  and  it  was  defeated.  The  tax  was  levied  only  upon 
spirits  manufactured  after  the  passage  of  the  law.  Millions  were  made  by  the 
speculators  within  two  years  from  the  imposition  of  the  first  tax.  An  increase  of 
the  duty  was  agitated  ;  the  same  tactics  were  repeated  ;  distilleries  were  enlarged 
and  the  capacity  of  stills  was  increased.  It  is  estimated  that  the  speculators 
had  25,000,000  gaUons  on  hand,  and  were  manufacturing  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
gallons  daily. 

Of  course,  the  high  tax  levied  upon  spirits  was  really  a  premium  on  fraud.  If  a 
distiller  could  manage  to  make  a  few  gallons  per  day  of  "crooked"  whisky  his 
profits  were  enormous.  The  Ring  was  liberal  in  its  expenditure  of  money.  The 
campaign  expenses  of  members  of  Congress  were  paid  by  the  distillers,  and  a 
favorite  method  of  securing  influence  was  to  buy  a  hundred  barrels  of  whisky  on 
commission  for  certain  Congressmen,  selling  after  the  tax  bill  had  passed. 

THE   RING   CONTROLS   THE   REPUBLICAN   ADMINISTRATION. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  the  campaign  expenses  of  the  Republican  party  in 
1868,  and  again  in  1872,  were  paid  by  the  Rings.  In  return  for  their  services  they 
demanded  the  means  of  making  money  rapidly,  and  their  shameful  robberies  were 
winked  at  by  the  party  in  power.  Combinations  were  formed  with  the  Federal 
officials  at  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Evansville  and  Milwaukee.  Officers  of  the  govern- 
ment were  appointed  at  the  direction  of  the  Rings.  Local  revenue  officials  were 
selected  by  the  members  of  Congress,  who  designated  appointments,  and  the  mem- 
bers themselves  were  elected  with  the  Ring's  money.     In  Galena,  111,,  the  north- 


THE    WHISKY    RING.  401 

western  Ring  was  very  powerful.  The  Galena  Ring  nominated  the  Federal 
officials  for  Chicago.  J.  Russell  Jones,  a  particular  friend  of  Grant's,  was  collector 
of  customs.  Ben.  H.  Campbell,  Babcock's  father-in-law,  was  marshal  of  the 
Northern  district  of  Illinois.  The  collector  of  internal  revenue  was  controlled 
by  Campbell.  Senator  Logan  was  credited  with  being  on  terms  of  great  in- 
timacy with  the  Ring.  Dan  Munn,  the  supervisor  for  the  district  comprising 
Indiana,  Illinois  and  Wisconsin,  was  a  particular  pet  of  Logan's.  Munn  was 
connected  with  the  frauds  which  brought  the  administration  into  such  bad  odor 
in  1874. 

WHY  GRANT  WAS  SUSPECTED  OP  COMPLICITY. 

The  perpetration  of  frauds  on  the  revenue  would  have  been  impossible  with 
honest  men  in  office.  When  the  administration  was  fortunate  enough  to  stumble 
upon  an  honest  and  capable  man,  he  was  not  allowed  to  remain  long  in  office. 
The  appointment  of  an  honest  collector  of  internal  revenue  in  any  district  where 
the  Rings  were  in  power  was  certain  to  be  followed  by  the  advent  of  an  army  of 
politicians  into  Washington  clamorous  for  his  head.  Grant  always  yielded.  He 
obeyed  their  behests  implicitly.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise  that  people  began 
to  suspect  that  the  ramifications  of  the  Ring  extended  to  the  White  House.  In 
May,  1869,  Col.  Jussen,  a  brother-in-law  of  Carl  Schurz,  was  appointed  collector 
of  internal  revenue  at  Chicago.  Jussen  was  an  honest  officer.  The  dealers 
attempted  to  buy  him,  but  failed.  He  detected  a  ganger  by  the  name  of  Lamper 
stealing  high  wines,  and  had  the  temerity  to  discharge  him.  Lamper  was  given 
another  office  by  Grant,  but  Jussen  was  not  disturbed.  A  few  months  after  he 
had  taken  the  office,  Orville  Grant,  the  President's  brother,  who  was  then  in  busi- 
ness in  Chicago,  approached  Mr.  Jussen,  and  proposed  that  he  should  join  him  in 
defrauding  the  government  by  permitting  a  certain  distillery  to  run  double  its 
registered  capacity.     Mr.  Orville  Grant  moralized  as  follows: 

"  If  you  decline,  the  government  will  gain  nothing,  for  in  that  event  the  distil- 
lery will  not  increase  its  product.  If  you  consent,  the  same  tax  which  you  now 
collect  will  still  be  paid,  and  the  receipts  of  the  government  will,  therefore,  not  be 
diminished.  A  few  barrels  more  or  less  on  the  market  cannot  depress  the  quota- 
tions, and  the  competitors  who  do  not  enjoy  the  privileges  I  ask  for  my  friends 
cannot  suffer.  There  can  really  be  no  fraud  in  the  transactions  proposed.  More- 
over, I  shall  see  to  it  that  all  is  safe  at  Washington.''  Mr.  Jussen,  of  course,  declined 
the  job.  The  collector's  honesty  was  a  serious  barrier  to  the  operations  of  the 
Ring.  Congressman  Farwell  and  the  local  politicians  joined  hands  in  securing 
Mr.  Jussen's  removal.  Senator  Logan  gave  his  assistance  to  the  movement,  and 
the  President,  without  any  complaint  being  made  by  the  Treasury  Department, 
unceremoniously  removed  him. 

MILWAUKEE  WHISKY  RING. 

In  June,  1874,  Bunker  &  Rogers'  distillery  in  Madison,  Wis.,  was  seized  for 
shipping  high  wines,  without  compliance  with  the  revenue  laws,  to  Sam.  Rhinds- 
kopf  of  Milwaukee  and  the  Killian  Bros,  of  Chicago.  As  soon  as  the  seizure  was 
made  Supervisor  Munn  went  to  Madison  to  take  possession  of  the  books  and 
papers  of  the  firms.  The  correspondence  he  thus  obtained  would  have  convicted 
all  the  guilty  parties. 

Sam,  Rhindskopf  of  Milwaukee,  whose  guilty  participation  in  the  fraud  was  so 
apparent  that  he  could  not  be  shielded,  was  arrested.  He  had  the  powerful  assist- 
ance of  Senator  Carpenter  of  Wisconsin  to  save  him  from  punishment.  He  was 
indicted,  but  the  case  was  postponed  from  time  to  time  at  the  request  of  Senator 


402  THE    WHISKY    EING. 

Carpenter,  Commissioner  of  Internal  Kevenue  Douglass  ordered  the  district 
attorney  to  continue  the  case,  and  the  probability  is,  if  the  Commissioner's 
instructions  had  been  obeyed,  that  Rhindskopf  would  never  have  been  brought  to 
trial.  The  district  attorney,  however,  proceeded  with  the  case,  and  Rhindskopf 
was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  $5,000  and  be  imprisoned  in  the 
county  jail  for  one  day  only.  The  fine  was  a  mere  bagatelle.  The  imprisonment 
was  an  amusement.  He  passed  the  day  in  the  company  of  his  intimate  friends,  to 
whom  he  gave  one  of  the  most  magnificent  entertainments  that  was  ever  heard  of 
in  Madison. 

The  Whisky  Ring  purchased  a  newspaper  and  ran  it  as  a  Carpenter  organ. 

The  special  revenue  agent  for  that  district,  Mr.  Burpee,  was  removed  at  the 
demand  of  Keyes,  the  Chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee,  and 
a  willing  tool  was  appointed  in  his  stead. 

Every  Democratic  district  in  Milwaukee  was  carried  by  the  Republicans  oy  a 
liberal  use  of  the  Whisky  Ring  money. 

When  the  books  of  Rhindskopf  were  seized,  the  check-book  stubs  showed  that 
each  distiller  and  rectifier  in  Milwaukee  was  assessed  $300  per  month  for  the 
*'  boss  "  of  the  Republican  "  machine,"  Mr.  Conklin. 

THE   WHITE  HOUSE  AND  THE  RING. 

In  1874  Gen.  B.  H,  Bristow  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Im- 
mediately after  his  confirmation  by  the  Senate  he  began  an  active  warfare  against 
the  Whisky  Ring.  His  lieutenant  was  Bluford  Wilson,  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury. 
George  W.  Fishback,  of  St.  Louis,  communicated  to  Gen.  Bristow  the  fact  that 
an  organized  system  of  fraud  upon  the  internal  revenue  existed  in  that  city. 

It  appeared  that  the  officers  of  the  revenue  service  in  that  city,  from  Supervisor 
McDonald  down  to  and  including  nearly  every  ganger  and  storekeeper  in  the 
public  service,  and  every  distiller  and  rectifier  in  St.  Louis,  were  banded  together 
in  active  efforts  to  defraud  the  revenue.  It  was  necessary  that  every  movement 
made  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  should  be  kept  secret. 
In  March,  1875,  the  nets  were  thrown  out  by  trusted  agents  of  the  department, 
under  the  direction  of  Gen.  Bristow.  The  Chicago  distillers  were  watched  and 
detected  in  their  frauds.  The  government  devoted  its  principal  attention  to  the 
frauds  in  St.  Louis.  McDonald,  the  supervisor  of  internal  revenue,  was  con- 
fronted by  Gen.  Bristow  with  the  proofs  of  the  frauds  committed  by  himself  and 
his  confederates.  He  broke  down  and  admitted  the  truth  of  the  charge.  To  Mr. 
Wilson  he  said  that  the  interests  of  the  Republican  party  in  Missouri,  and  in  his 
district,  would  be  damaged  greatly  by  the  seizure  of  the  distilleries.  He  said  that 
arrangements  had  been  made  to  heal  the  dissensions  then  existing  in  the  Republi- 
can party  in  that  state,  and  he  claimed  that  he  could  do  more  for  the  party  in  the 
ensuing  Presidential  campaign  than  any  other  man,  or  ten  men,  that  could  be 
found.  But  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Solicitor  were  not  influenced 
by  political  considerations.  McDonald  confessed  his  guilt  to  the  President,  hut  he 
was  never  dismissed.  McDonald,  Joyce,  McKee,  Avery  and  other  parties  were 
arrested  shortly  afterwards,  indictments  having  been  found  against  them  for  com- 
plicity in  the  whisky  frauds.  David  P.  Dyer  was  the  district  attorney  in  St. 
Louis.  J.  B.  Henderson  and  Lucien  B.  Eaton  were  appointed  his  assistants.  The 
rogues  were  convicted  and  sentenced  to  prison. 

About  this  time  suspicions  were  aroused  that  the  President's  private  secretary, 
Orville  E.  Babcock,  was  concerned  in  these  frauds.  It  was  not  known  whether 
the  ramifications  of  the  Ring  extended  above  the  private  secretary  of  the  President 


THE    WHISKY    RING.  403 

or  not,  but  certain  it  is  that  when  the  evidence  implicating  Babcock  reached  Pre- 
sident Grant  there  was  a  marked  change  in  his  demeanor.  Secretary  Bristow's 
course  was  not  approved  by  the  President,  and  the  rumor  was  current  that  he 
would  soon  be  forced  to  surrender  the  Treasury  portfolio. 

In  August  it  was  discovered  that  the  celebrated  "  Sylph  "  telegram  was  in  Gen. 
Babcock's  handwriting,  and  that  he  was  on  intimate  terms  with  the  members  of 
the  Ring.  Gen.  Bristow  attempted  to  secure  from  the  President  some  indorse- 
ment of  his  action  in  prosecuting  the  thieves,  and  Gen.  Grant,  who  was  then  sum- 
mering at  Long  Branch,  wrote  upon  the  back  of  a  letter,  the  celebrated  indorse- 
ment, "Let  no  guilty  man  escape,  if  it  can  be  avoided."  This  apparent  guarantee 
of  the  President  inspired  the  Secretary  with  new  zeal,  and  operations  against  the 
"  Ring  "  were  resumed  with  renewed  vigor.  The  oflacial  backers  of  the  thieves 
mustered  in  Washington  and  circulated  most  abominable  falsehoods  about  Secre- 
tary Bristow.  The  President  seemed  willing  to  listen  to  these  stories.  He  accused 
Bluford  Wilson  of  endeavoring  to  involve  him  in  the  whisky  frauds.  This 
unjust  accusation  Mr.  Wilson  promptly  denied.  Gen.  Grant  would  not  listen  to 
anything  imputing  guilt  to  Babcock. 

THE  PRIVATE   SECRETARY  INDICTED. 

The  proofs  against  the  private  secretary  were  so  strong  that  he  was  indicted. 
About  this  time  Gen.  Grant  charged  that  Mr.  Henderson  was  openly  hostile  to 
iim,  and  signified  his  intention  to  remove  him. 

Jim  Casey,  the  President's  brother-in-law,  who  was  also  believed  to  be  connect- 
ed with  the  Ring,  was  particularly  violent  against  the  government  prosecuting 
officers.  As  soon  as  Babcock  was  indicted  the  idea  of  a  military  court  of  inquiry 
was  brought  to  the  front,  and  the  President  of  the  United  States  took  the 
ground  that  the  military  court  should  supersede  the  civil  tribunal  at  St.  Louis. 
He  asked  that  the  papers  in  the  case  against  Gen.  Babcock  should  be  handed  over 
to  a  military  court  prior  to  their  issue  in  the  civil  courts  of  the  country.  Gen. 
Henderson  was  dismissed  from  the  prosecution  in  opposition  to  the  written  pro- 
test of  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury  and  the  verbal  protest  of  the  Secretary.  This 
dismissal  was  a  fatal  blow  to  the  prospect  of  a  successful  prosecution  in  Gen. 
Babcock's  case. 

Mr.  Wilson  was  sent  for  by  the  President  to  give  him  an  outline  of  the  proof 
against  Babcock  in  the  possession  of  the  government.  A  man  named  Everest 
announced  his  willingness  to  testify  that  he  had  seen  Joyce  mail  two  letters  con- 
tainiDg  $500  each,  one  addressed  to  Babcock. 

As  soon  as  the  President  had  obtained  this  interesting  information  he  impart- 
ed it  to  his  private  secretary,  and  Gen.  Babcock  called  upon  Mr.  Wilson  and 
asked  to  be  informed  of  the  evidence  in  possession  of  the  department  tending  to 
implicate  him.  The  President  questioned  the  prosecuting  officers  in  Babcock's 
interest.  To  secure  the  conviction  of  the  thieves  it  became  absolutely  necessary 
to  take  the  testimony  of  accomplices.  Gen.  Grant  made  a  terrible  fuss  about  this. 
About  this  time  he  compelled  the  Attorney-General  to  issue  a  circular  letter  to 
district  attorneys,  stating  in  substance  that  he  was  dissatisfied  with  the  policy 
that  had  been  adopted,  and  intimated  that  they  must  not  go  so  far  in  their  attempts 
to  secure  convictions. 

GENERAL  BABCOCK  WAS  DISMISSED. 

About  this  time  Gen.  Babcock  was  dismissed.  His  removal  was  not  due  to  his 
suspected  complicity  with  the  Whisky  Ring.     He  had  speculated  in  the  famous 


404  THE    WHISKY    KING. 

Black  Friday  operations  and  lost  about  $40,000.  He  had  deceived  the  President, 
but  Grant  expressed  his  belief  of  Babcock's  innocence  of  the  whisky  frauds  to 
,  the  last. 

Day  by  day  he  received  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  Mr.  Wilson  with  in- 
creased coldness.  Mr.  Wilson,  on  June  20, 1875,  tendered  his  resignation  as  Solici- 
tor of  the  Treasury,  and  a  day  or  two  later  Gen.  Bristow  resigned. 

The  Rings  were  substantially  broken,  but  the  faithful  officers  who  exposed  the 
frauds  were  punished  by  virtual  disniissal. 


THE   BELKNAP   IMPEACHMENT,  405, 


THE  BELKNAP   IMPEACHMENT. 


The  impeachment  of  General  W.  W  Belknap,  Grant's  Secretary  of  War,  was 
one  of  the  disasters  that  overtook  the  Republican  party  in  the  closing  years  of  its 
legitimate  exercise  of  power.  Belknap  was  the  victim  of  discovery.  He  was 
found  out,  but  in  his  finding  out  there  were  dragged  down  a  good  many  others 
against  whom  the  evidence  was  not  so  direct  as  it  was  against  him. 

The  case  against  Belknap,  stated  briefly,  was  this:  In  1870,  John  S.  Evans  was 
post-trader  at  Fort  Sill.  In  July,  1870,  Congress  passed  an  act  giving  the  appoint- 
ment of  post-traders  to  the  Secretary  of  War.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  this  pro- 
vision was  a  rider  on  an  army  bill.  General  Garfield's  objection  to  legislation  on 
appropriation  bills  seems  to  be  confined  to  that  kind  which  relieves  the  people 
of  burdensome  and  odious  laws  ;  he  always  voted  for  such  riders  as  the  post- 
trader  one,  which  gives  an  opportunity  for  official  plundering.  This  rider  was  in 
the  interest  of  thieving,  for  it  took  from  the  post  council  of  administration  the 
power  to  control  the  sutler  in  his  prices,  and  superseded  the  act  of  1866,  which 
provided  that  the  soldiers  should  have  their  supplies  at  cost.  It  thus  gave  to  a 
post-trader  the  monopoly  of  trade  with  the  soldiers,  and  the  power  and  right  to  be 
extortionate  as  he  naturally  would  be.  What  avail  the  Secretary  and  his  post- 
trader  made  of  their  rider  will  be  seen  further  on.  Evans  made  application  for 
appointment  under  this  law  as  early  as  June  Sj3d,  1870.  His  application  was 
indorsed  by  General  Gierson,  commandant  of  the  post,  and  by  all  the  officers 
stationed  at  the  post.  It  was  a  remarkably  strong  recommendation  of  a  man  who 
had  been  a  post-trader  at  Fort  Sill,  and  who  was  known  in  that  capacity  by  all 
who  indorsed  his  application.  Other  recommendations  were  forwarded,  and 
there  was  no  other  application  except  one  made  by  C.  P.  Marsh,  of  New  York, 
which  was  filed  on  the  16th  of  August.  The  evidence  in  the  trial  of  Belknap 
pointed  to  the  fact  that  this  letter  had  been  written  after  its  alleged  date  of  filing, 
and  was  not  received  August  16th.  It  is  indorsed  by  Belknap,  "  Received  August 
16th  ;"  but  the  records  of  the  War  Department  show  that  Belknap  was  absent  from 
Washington  from  the  12th  of  August  to  the  middle  of  September. 

There  was  nothing  in  support  of  Marsh's  application.  Evans  called  on  the 
Secretary  of  War  in  October,  and  was  then  told  by  Belknap  that  he  had 
promised  the  appointment  to  Marsh,  who  would  be  in  the  city  that  or  the  next 
evening,  and  he  had  better  see  him  and  they  could  probably  make  some  satisfac- 
tory arrangement. 

THE  ARGUMENT  BETWEEN  EVANS  AND  MARSH. 

Marsh  says  he  was  called  to  Washington  by  a  telegram  from  Belknap,  or  Mrs. 
Belknap ;  that  he  came  here  and  called  on  the  Secretary,  and  was  informed  by 
him  that  Evans  was  in  the  city  and  he  had  better  see  him.  The  Secretary  also 
«aid  that  Evans  had  a  large  stock  on  hand  at  Fort  Sill,  and  he  (Marsh)  ought  to 


406  THE  BELKNAP  IMPEACHMENT. 

make  some  arrangement  to  save  him  from  loss.  Belknap  told  him  where  Evans 
would  be  found  {seepage  164  of  the  Record).  At  this  suggestion  Marsh  called  on 
Evans,  and  they  made  the  arrangement  preliminary  to  the  agreement  of  the  8 oh 
October,  1870.  The  sum  of  $20,000  was  first  exacted  by  Marsh  ;  finally  $15,000 
was  fixed,  and  the  parties  were  to  go  to  New  York  the  next  day  and  have  the 
writings  drawn. 

On  the  way  to  New  York,  the  next  day,  Evans  stated  to  Marsh  he  had  seen  a 
statement  in  the  paper  that  a  portion  of  the  troops  stationed  at  Fort  Sill  were  to 
be  removed  ;  that  $15,000  was  more  than  he  could  pay,  and  the  sum  of  $12,000 
was  finally  agreed  upon,  to  be  paid  quarterly  in  advance.  "Why  paid  in  advance  ? 
Clearly,  from  the  terms  of  the  agreement,  to  secure  the  certain  payment  of  the 
bonus  and  to  enable  Evans  to  hold  the  place.  It  was  not  to  be  a  division  of 
profits,  but  the  payment  in  advance  of  a  fixed  sum,  whether  Evans  made  profits  or 
not.  If  he  had  made  a  dollar  or  a  dime,  he  was  bound  to  pay  this  large  bonus  or 
surrender  his  post  {see  Record,  Impeachment  Trial,  p.  112). 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  rider  on  the  army  bill  was  availed  of  so  far  as 
the  Secretary  of  War  was  concerned  ;  he  had  sold  the  otfice  the  appointment  to 
which  was  given  him  by  the  statute.  The  evidence  that  the  appointment  of 
Marsh  was  a  mere  cover  by  which  the  place  might  be  sold  to  Evans  for  the  bene- 
fit both  of  Belknap  and  Marsh  is  shown  by  the  following  correspondence : 

marsh's   letter  to   BELKNAP. 

No.  51  West  Thirty-fipth  Street,  I 
New  York  City,  October  8,  1870.      j 
Dear  Sir:    1  have  to  ask  that  the  appointment  which  you  have  given  to  me  as  post-trader  at 
Port  Sill,  Indian  Territory,  be  made  in  the  name  of  John  S.  Evans,  as  it  will  be  more  convenient 
for  me  to  have  him  manage  the  business  at  present. 

I  Mm,  my  dear  sir,  your  obedient  servant,  C.  P.  MARSH. 

P.  S.— Please  send  the  appointment  to  me,  51  Wet^t  Thirty-fifth  street,  New  York  City. 
Hon.  W.  W.  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War,  Washington  City. 

Two  days  after  this  the  respondent  made  the  following  appointment: 

War  Department,  ) 

Washington  City,  October  10th,  1870.  f 
Sir :    Under  the 'provisions  of  section  22,  of  the  Act  of  July  15,  1870,  you  are  hereby  appointed 
a  post-trader  at  Fort  Sill,  Indian  Territory,  and  will  be  required  to  assume  your  duties  as  such 
within  ninety  days  from  the  date  of  this  appointment.    You  will  please  report  to  this  department 
through  the  adjutant-general's  office  your  acceptance  or  non-acceptance  of  this  appointment. 

WM.  W.  BELKNAP,  Secretary  of  War. 
Mr.  John  S.  Evans,  care  of  C.  P.  Marsh,  Esq.,  51  Wes-t  Thirty-flfth  street,  New  Y'ork  City. 

Evans,  it  was  known,  would  lose  greatly,  if  not  suffer  ruin,  by  failing  to  secure 
this  post-tradership.  The  two  argued  from  this  that  he  would  be  willing  to  pay 
something  for  it. 

Belknap  carried  out  his  agreement,  at  once  ordering  the  removal  from  Fort 
Sill  of  all  traders  except  Evans.  This  order  was  obeyed  and  Evans  given  the 
monopoly. 

Almost  immediately  after  taking  the  post,  Evans  was  found  guilty  by  the  ofli- 
cers  stationed  there  of  introducing  liquor  into  the  Indian  country.  Belknap 
came  forward  m  his  defense,  and  without  an  opportunity  to  make  an  examination 
of  the  case,  declared  Evans  guiltless. 

BELKNAP  AND  MARSH  HAVING  CHARGED  EVANS   $12,000 

a  year  for  the  post-tradership,  the  latter  was  obliged  to  make  it  up  from  the 
soldiers  to  whom  he  sold  goods.  Complaint  having  been  made  by  General  Hazen, 
through  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  that  Evans  was  extortionate, 
Belknap  wrote  the  following  letter  to  General  Grierson : 

War  Department,  I 

Washington  City,  February  17th,  1872.  j 

The  commanding  officer  at  Port  Sill  will  report  at  once  directly  to  the  Adjutant -General  of  the 

Army,  for  the  information  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  as  to  the  business  character  and  standing  of 

J.  S.Evans,  post-trader  at  that  post;  whether  his  prices  for  goods  are  exorbitant  and  unreasonable 

or  whether  his  goods  are  sold  at  a  fair  profit;  whether  the  prices  charged  now  and  since  nis  appoint- 


THE    BELKNAP    IMPEACHMENT.  40 7 

nicnt  to  that  position  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  under  the  Act  of  July  15th,  1870,  are  higher  than 
those  charged  by  him  prior  to  that  appointment,  when  he  was  trader  under  previous  appointment; 
whether  he  has  taken  advantage  of  the  fact  that  he  is  sole  trader  at  that  post  to  oppress  purchasers 
by  exorbitant  prices;  whether  ne  charges  higher  prices  toenlisted  men  than  to  oflScers,  and  whether 
he  has  complied  with  the  requirements  of  the  circular  vf  the  Adjutant-General's  office,  issued  June 
rth,  1871. 
The  commanding  officer  is  expected  to  make  as  full  and  as  prompt  a  report  as  is  possible. 

W.  W.  B. 

To  this  General  Grierson  made  the  following  reply: 

Headquakters,  Fort  Sill,  Indian  Territory,  I 
February  28th,  1872.      ) 
Adjutant-General  United  States  Army,  Washington,  D,  C. 

Sii\-  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  dated  February  17th,  1872,  rela- 
Jive  to  the  post-trader  at  this  post. 

EVANS   NOT  AT  FORT   SILL  FOR  MONTHS. 

I  underetand  J.  S.  Evans"  character  as  a  business  man  is  good,  and  he  has  heretofore  given 
general  satisfaction  ;  but  Mr.  Evans  is  absent,  and  has  been  for  some  months,  and  has  associated 
with  him  J.  J.  Fisher,  now  also  absent,  who  has  had  control  of  the  establishment  and  who  claims 
to  have  the  greater  pecuniary  interest  in  the  business  (the  business  being  conducted,  however,  under 
the  name  of  J.  S.  Evans).  Repeated  complaints  have  been  made  to  me  of  the  exorbitant  prices  at 
which  goods  were  sold  by  them,  and  when  I  have  represented  the  matter  to  the  firm  they  replied 
that  they  were  obliged  to  pay  $12,000  yearly  (to  a  Mr.  Marsh  of  New  York  City,  who  they  represent, 
was  first  appointed  post-trader  by  the  Secretary  of  War)  for  their  permit  to  trade,  and  necessarily 
had  to  charge  high  pi  ices  for  their  goods  on  that  account.  I  have  repeatedly  urged  them  to  repre- 
sent this  matter  m  writing  to  me,  in  order  that  I  might  lay  the  matter  before  the  proper  authority 
to  relieve  the  command  of  this  burden,  upon  whom  it  evidently  falls  ;  but  they  declined  to  do  so, 
stating  1  hat  they  feared  their  permit  to  trade  would  be  taken  from  them. 

As  the  prices  could  not  be  regulated  by  a  council  of  administration,  the  trader  not  being  a  sutler, 
it  has  been  contemplated  by  some  of  the  officers  of  the  garrison  to  represent  this  matter,  without 
reference  to  J.  S.  Evans,  through  the  proper  military  channels,  but  as  it  was  claimed  that  the 
authority  for  the  tradership  emanated  from  the  Secretary  of  War,  it  was  feaied  that  that  course 
might  be  construed  as  taking  exception  to  the  action  of  superior  authority. 

The  prices  are  considerably  higher  since  his  appointment  by  the  Secretary  of  War  than  pre- 
viously, and  he  has  undoubtedly  taken  advantage  of  his  position  as  sole  trader  in  charging  these 
exorbitant  prices,  giving  the  reasons  above  quoted,  stating  that  he  could  not,  under  the  circum- 
stances, sell  goods  at  lower  prices. 

It  has  also  been  reported  to  me  that  he  charges  enlisted  men  greater  prices  for  the  same  articles 
than  he  does  officers,  and,  at  all  events,  it  is  very  evident  that  the  officers  and  men  of  this  garrison 
have  to  pay  most  of  the  $12,000  yearly,  referred  to  above,  they  being  the  consumers  of  the  largest 
portion  of  the  stores. 

UNITED   STATES   SOLDIERS  ROBBED   FOR  TRADERS'   BENEFIT. 

I  feel  that  a  great  wrong  has  been  done  to  this  command  in  being  obliged  to  pay  this  enormous 
amount  of  money  under  any  circumstances  :  the  largest  portion  of  which,  at  least,  has  been  taken 
from  the  officers  and  eniisted  men  of  this  post,  nearly  all  the  money  of  the  latter  mentioned  going 
to  the  trader.  The  responsible  party  of  this  great  injustice  should  be  held  responsible  and  be 
obliged  to  refund  the  money. 

If  J.  S.  Evans  has  not  paid  this  exorbitant  price  for  permission  to  trade,  as  stated  by  him,  his 
goods  should  be  seized  and  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  post  fund. 

In  order  to  insure  a  healthy  competition,  to  reduce  the  price  of  goods,  and  to  relievo  the  officers 
and  soldiers  of  this  garrison  from  this  imposition,  I  recommend  that  at  least  three  (3)  traders  be 
appointed,  and  that  those  appointments  be  made  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  officers  of  the 
post;  that  each  trader  be  known  to  be  interested  only  in  his  own  house,  and  that  they  be  obliged  to 
keep  such  articles  as  are  required  for  the  use  of  officers  and  enlisted  men  of  the  army  and  to  sell 
them  at  moderate  prices. 

The  trader  complies  with  circular  of  A.  G.  O.,  issued  June  7, 1871,  as  far  as  I  am  aware. 
The  buildings  (store,  etc.),  however,  are  not  convenient  to  the  present  garrison,  having  been 
built  when  the  command  was  in  camp. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

B.  H.  GRIERSON,  Colonel  Tenth  Cavalrj',  Commanding. 
Received  in  the  office  of  the  Adjutant-General,  March  9, 1872. 

[Indorsement.] 

War  Department,  A.  G.  O.,  March  11,  1872. 
Respectfully  forwarded  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  with  application  of  C.  P.  Marsh  for  tradership 
at  Fort  Sill. 

E.  D.  TOWNSEND,  Adjutant-General. 

Belknap  took  no  notice  of  this  matter  until  Gen.  McDowell  called  on  him  and  told 
him  it  was  "  a  thing  that  would  be  damaging  to  the  service  if  it  was  not  at  once 
corrected." 

Then,  with  the  concurrence  of  Gen.  McDowell,  Belknap  issued  an  order  which 
was  very  cunningly  devised.     This  order  gave  the  council  of  administration  the 
power  to  fix  the  prices  at  which  a  post-trader  should  sell  his  goods,  but  gave  the 
trader  the  right  to  appeal  to  the  War  Department  should  he  feel    himsel 
aggrieved. 


408  THE    BELKNAP    IMPEACHMENT. 

The  effect  of  this  order  was  to  reduce  the  amount  of  the  annual  payment  to 
$6,000,  it  having  been  discovered  that  too  much  robbery  of  the  soldier  was  made 
necessary  by  the  payment  of  $13,000. 

The  truth  about  the  payments  by  Marsh  to  Belknap  is  well  stated  by  one  of 
the  Republican  managers,  E.  G.  Lapham,  in  his  argument  before  the  Senate. 
Evans  paid  Marsh  $13,000  a  year.  One-half  of  this  Marsh  paid  to  Bellinap 
quarterly  in  advance :  the  first  $1,500  for  Mrs.  Belknap,  the  next  two  for  his 
child,  and  after  the  decease  of  the  child  the  like  quarterly  payments  were  made 
to  him  for  his  own  use. 

The  following  extraordinary  letter  was  ignored  both  by  Belknap  and  Grant, 
and  its  author  summarily  dismissed  the  army  in  court-martial  proceedings  : 

CAPTAIN  ROBINSON'S  LETTER. 
[Personal.] 

Saint  Louis  Barracks,  Missouri,  April  2d,  1876. 

Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  I  am  now  preparing  a  set  of  charges  against  the  firm  of 
J.  S.  Evans  &  Co.,  post-trader  at  the  post  of  Fort  Sill,  Idaho  territory.  I  have  been  stationed  at 
that  post  since  its  first  location  in  1868.  Among  the  many  charges  I  am  preferr  ing  against  this  firm 
is  one  of  malicious  slander,  in  which  both  members  of  this  firm  have  repeatedly  stated,  not  only  to 
myself  but  to  Brevet  Major-General  Hazen,  Brevet  Major-General  Grierson,  and  many  of  the 
officers  of  the  Sixth  infantry  and  Tenth  cavalry,  that  they  were  paying  you  at  one  time  $15,000  per 
year,  at  another  date  $12,000  per  year,  ^1,000  per  month  in  advance,  and  only  a  short  time  ago  Mr. 
J.  J.  Fisher  stated  in  my  quarters  at  this  post  that  he  w^as  still  paying  you  the  same  amount. 

He  also  informed  Gen.  Grierson  at  the  same  date  at  this  post  of  what  he  termed  "  these  facts." 
I  was,  while  at  the  post  of  Fort  Sill,  Idaho  territory,  on  the  post  council  of  administration  many 
times,  as  its  "  recorder."  The  repeated  statements  of  both  J.  S.  Evans  and  J.  J.  Fisher  to  the  fact 
that  they  could  not  sell  their  goods  any  cheaper  to  the  men  and  officers  of  the  United  States  arihy 
because  they  were  obliged  to  pay  to  the  Secretary  of  War  $15,000  per  year,  monthly  in  advance.  I 
took  down  carefully,  with  day  and  date,  and  the  names  of  the  officers  present  who  heard  these 
statements  made.  They  were  made  before  me  officially  as  the  recorder  of  the  post  council  of 
administration. 

I  have  thought  that  you,  sir,  should  know  these  facts  before  I  brought  them  to  your  official 
notice  by  sending  the  charges  to  you  througli  ail  of  the  official  channels,  and  to  ask  your  advice  as 
to  the  best  and  most  expeditious  manner  of  bringing  these  men  to  justice.  Every  man  and  officer 
of  these  regiments  have  been  most  outrageously  swindled  by  this  firm,  as  I  have  abundant  testi- 
mony to  prove.  If  I  leave  the  army  by  sentence  of  the  general  court  martial  that  has  just  tried 
me,  it  is  by  getting  into  unavoidable  debt  to  these  men,  who,  after  getting  all  the  money  I  had, 
now  seek  to  ruin  me,  knowing  that  I  alone  am  in  possession  of  all  the  facts  in  the  case  against 
them.  I  honestly  believe  that  these  slanders  on  your  name  and  action  are  false,  and  shall  bring 
this  firm  to  speedy  justice  whether  I  am  in  or  out  of  the  army,  and  ask  of  you,  sir,  your  advice  as 
to  my  procedure  before  action. 

Should  I  remain  in  the  army  I  shall,  if  you  desire,  transmit  all  of  the  documents  entire  to  you 
for  your  information,  and  such  action  as  you  may  see  fit  to  take.  I  will  either  act  as  prosecutor  or 
witness,  as  you  may  elect.  Many  of  my  notes  are  at  my  home  in  Baltimore,  some  of  them  here; 
but  I  have  enough  to  draw  charges  on  here,  which  I  am  now  doing.  Several  newspaper  men  have 
made  me  very  afluring  offers  for  these  papers,  but  I  prefer  to  take  the  course  I  am  now  doing,  so  as 
to  get  officially  all  the  facts  on  record  before  a  court  of  justice  against  these  men. 
I  am,  General,  your  obedient  servant, 

GEORGE  T.  ROBINSON,  Captain  Tenth  Cavalry. 

Hon.  W.  W.  Belknap,  Secretary  of  War. 

On  his  trial  Belknap's  counsel,  Judge  Black,  of  Pennsylvania,  defended  him 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  no  more  guilty  than  his  Republican  associates  in  office. 
The  following  extract  from  Black's  argument  is  instructive  though  humiliating : 

ARGUMENT  OF  HON.  JEREMIAH  S.  BLACK  IN  BEHALF  OP  BELKNAP. 

I  do  not  myself  believe  that  presents  are  proper  when  taken  by  a  public  officer  from  a  person 
who  may  by  any  possibility  in  the  future  have  an  interest  in  the  officer's  performance  of  his 
duties,  I  think  so  because,  in  the  first  place,  "  a  gift  blindeth  the  eye  and  perverteth  the  judgment 
of  the  righteous  ;"  and  also  because,  in  the  next  place,  these  gifts  may  be  used  to  cover  essential 
bribery.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  institutions  of  this  country  are  perfectly  safe  in  the  hands  of 
men  who  habitually  receive  presents  from  their  friends  and  constituents,  or  from  anybody.  But  I 
say  now  that  there  is  no  law  that  makes  it  a  crime  or  misdemeanor  ;  and  that  is  not  all.  There  is 
no  code  of  morals  known  to  the  public  men  of  this  age,  or  to  the  men  who  now  hold  office,  which 
condemns  it.  If  our  fathers  could  have  foreseen  the  fatal  degeneracy  of  their  sons,  perhaps  they 
might  have  made  some  provision  to  prevent  it ;  but  they  inserted  nothing  to  prohibit  it  either  in 
their  Constitution  or  in  their  statutes,  and  you  cannot  in  your  judicial  capacity  supply  the  cams 
omissus. 

PRESENTS  AS  A  BRIBE. 
•'  I  give  you  an  office  and  you  give  me  another  office,"  or,  "  I  give  you  office  and  you  give  me 
money."  What  of  that  ?  If  the  exchange  was  preceded  by  a  contract  which  made  one  tne  con- 
sideration of  the  other,  that  is  bribery  and  corruption,  but  if  there  was  no  contract  of  that  kind-, 
the  case  is  otherwise  ;  and  so  it  has  been  held  in  the  case  of  the  greatest  and  wisest  and  best  men 
we  have  ever  had  in  this  country. 


THE  BELKNAP  IMPEACHMENT.  409 

There  waa  a  time  in  1825  when  Mr.  Clay  held  in  his  hand  the  presidency  of  the  United  States, 
and  could  give  it  to  whom  he  pleased.  He  handed  it  over  to  John  Quincy  Adam?,  against  whom 
there  was  a  large  majority  of  the  states  and  the  people.  He  did  it  in  opposition  to  instructions  alff.ost 
unauimons  from  his  constituents  and  in  the  face  of  his  own  recorded  opinion  that  Mr.  Adams  was 
not  a  proper  person  to  be  chief  magistrate  of  the  country.  The  first  thing  that  Mr.  Adams  did 
after  he  went  into  office  was  to  appoint  Mr.  Clay  Secretary  of  State.  Did  these  two  men  bribe  one 
another!  They  were  charged  with  making  merchandise  of  the  highest  offices  under  the  govern- 
ment. The  defense  which  botli  of  them  made  against  the  charge  of  bribery  was  precisely  the 
same  that  we  make  here,  namely,  that  no  proof  could  be  produced  to  show  the  previous  existence 
of  a  corrupt  contract  or  understanding  which  could  have  influenced  their  conduct,  and  the  general 
public  acquitted  them  on  that  ground  alone. 

Remember,  I  do  not  hold  up  this  transaction  as  an  example  of  public  virtue.  I  admire  much 
more  the  high-toned  behavior  of  Mr.  Bayard  twenty-five  years  earlier.  He  did  not  vote  for  Mr. 
Jefferson,  but  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  protract  the  election  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives  so 
that  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Col.  Burr  would  both  of  them  have  been  defeated.  For  got)d  and  sufficient 
public  reasons  he  determined  that  he  would  not  use  that  power,  but  would  retire  from  the  contest 
and  allow  Mr.  Jefferson's  friends  to  elect  iiim.  After  a  few  days  Mr.  Adams,  the  then  incumbent 
of  the  presidential  chair,  offered  him  the  mission  to  France.  He  eaid :  "  No  ;  I  cannot  get  to  my 
post  of  duty  until  Mr.  Jefferson  shall  be  inaugurated,  and  then  he  will  have  the  power  to  recall 
me.  I  would  not  hold  any  office  under  him,  as  1  would  virtually  be  holding  this  office,  lest  it 
might  be  inferred  that  I  had  received  a  reward  for  my  action  in  the  presidential  election." 

The  most  distinguished  man,  perhaps,  that  this  country  ever  produced— certainly  the  greatest 
orator— one  who  was  gifted  with  the  most  exquisitely  organized  intellect  that  ever  was  bestowed 
upon  any  of  the  children  of  men— was  appointed  Secretary  of  State  by  General  Taylor.  He  said 
that  he  could  not  live  upon  the  salary  in  a  way  that  would  accord  with  nis  taste  and  habits,  and  he 
invited  his  friends  to  make  presents  to  him,  and  they  did  contribute  among  them  $100,000,  which 
they  invested  and  gave  him  the  interest  of  it  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Was  that  bribery  ?  It 
was  given  by  merchants  who  were  pleased  with  his  advocacy  of  the  bank,  by  manufacturers 
whose  interest  he  had  promoted  by  supporting  a  protective  tariff,  perhaps  also  by  lovers  of  the 
Constitution,  who  admired  him  for  the  noble  defense  he  had  made  of  its  principles.  But  there 
was  no  evidence  and  no  reason  to  believe,  and  nobody  ever  did  believe,  that  it  was  given  as  a  con- 
sideraiion  for  previous  services  or  in  pursuance  of  a  contract  for  future  service.  Therefore,  and 
therefore  alone,  he  was  held  to  be  innocent. 

The  member  from  Massachussetts  (Mr.  Hoar)  said,  speakin"  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  that 
every  foot  of  that  road  had  been  founded  in  corruption  and  built  with  the  wages  of  iniquity.  That 
is  true  ;  and  it  is  equally  well  known  that  the  managers  of  that  corrupt  concern  gave  large  amounts 
of  their  stock  and  bonds  to  the  wife  of  a  Senator  who  was  afterwards  elected  Vice-President.  The 
wife  received  it  with  the  full  consent  of  the  husband.  Though  he  had  voted  for  the  charter  of  the 
corporation,  and  afterwards  voted  to  extend  its  privileges,  and  always  vindicated  it  by  his  speeches 
on  this  floor,  there  was  no  proof  that  the  speeches  and  votes  were  the  consideration  given  for  the 
bonds  and  the  stock.  The  aosence  of  that  proof  left  him  in  the  full  possession  of  the  character  which 
he  had  earned  by  his  previous  life.  His  popularity  moulted  no  feather  ;  he  lived  respected  and 
honored  and  died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity. 

The  mt  mbers  of  the  House  of  Representatives  who  received  the  same  stocks  and  bonds  from 
the  agents  of  the  same  company  considered  themselves  as  fully  acquitted  when  the  committee 
failed  to  find  that  there  had  been  any  corrupt  contract,  and  such  was  the  view  of  the  House  when 
for  that  reason  it  refused  to  pass  a  vote  of  censure. 

If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been  impeached,  and  evidence  had  been  introduced  against  him  like 
the  trash  you  have  here  to  show  that  his  wife,  with  or  without  his  knowledge,  took  a  present  from 
some  contractor  or  some  officer,  who  would  have  listened  to  it  in  patience  ?  Mr.  Lincoln  could  not 
have  come  into  this  court  with  a  higher  character  than  General  Belknap.  Judge  Davis  would  have 
sworn  for  him  that  he  was  all  his  lifetime  scrupulously  honest.  The  governor  of  his  state  and 
any  number  of  ex-governors,  and  the  Senators  in  Congress,  would  have  testified  to  the  same  fact ; 
but  he  could  not  have  a  character  one  whit  better  than  that  which  is  made  out  by  General  Belknap, 
and  by  the  force  of  that  character  the  accusation  would  have  been  swept  away  like  chaff  upon  the 
summer  thrashing-floor.    Nobody  would  have  thought  of  a  conviction. 


410  THE  VENEZUELA  SCANDAL. 


THE  VENEZUELA  SCANDAL 


The  Venezuela  scandal  arose  out  of  the  treaty  of  April  25, 1866,  which  provided 
a  mixed  commission  for  adjudicating  the  claims  of  American  citizens  against  the 
Republic  of  Venezuela.  Under  this  treaty  each  government  was  to  appoint  one 
commissioner,  and  those  two  were  to  agree  upon  an  umpire.  If  they  were  unable 
to  agree,  the  selection  of  the  third  person  was  to  be  left  to  the  representatives  of 
Switzerland  or  Russia  at  Washington.  The  decision  of  this  mixed  commission 
was  to  be  final  and  conclusive  as  to  all  claims  pending  at  the  date  of  installation. 

The  action  of  this  government  was  marked  by  fraud  from  the  outset.  The 
first  step  taken  was  the  appointment  of  David  M,  Talmage  of  New  York  as 
commissioner  on  the  part  of  the  United  States.  General  Antonio  Guzman-Bianco 
was  appointed  commissioner  on  the  part  of  Venezuela.  Mr.  Talmage  had  not 
the  first  qualification  for  the  office  of  commissioner;  he  knew  nothing  of  law, 
especially  of  the  delicate  questions  arising  under  international  law,  and,  more- 
over, was  in  bad  repute  in  the  country  to  which  he  was  going,  having  been  a 
constructor  of  gas  works  in  Caracas,  and  there  involved  in  serious  lawsuits  aris- 
ing from  said  business.     In  New  York  he  was  a  coal  broker. 

General  Blanco  and  Mr.  Talmage  met  August  30,  1867.  Of  course,  they  dis- 
agreed as  to  who  should  be  appointed  umpire.  Mr.  Talmage  nominated  Mr. 
Rolandus,  but  General  Blanco  objected,  and  insisted  on  the  minister-resident  of 
either  England,  France,  Spain  or  Brazil.  For  some  reason  Talmage  would  not 
be  satisfied  with  any  one  but  Rolandus,  and  finally  grew  so  insolent  that  Blanco 
refused  to  hold  any  communication  with  him.  Talmage  then  appealed  to  the 
President  of  Venezuela,  General  Talcon,  but  was  told  that  the  government  could 
not  recede.  Finally  Blanco  retired  and  another  commissioner,  Senor  Francisco 
Conde,  was  appointed.  More  delay  and  more  correspondence  resulted  in  leaving 
the  matter  to  Baron  Stoeckl,  the  Russian  minister  at  Washington.  Immediately 
Talmage  came  home,  was  seen  about  Washington,  and  Stoeckl  was  mysteriously 
influenced  to  appoint  a  man  of  whom  no  one  had  ever  heard,  who  had  no  diplomatic 
or  legal  training,  but  who  was  simply  a  candle-wick  manufacturer.  He  had  been 
in  Talmage's  employment.  There  was  to  be  found  the  secret  motive  for  his  ap- 
pointment. His  name  was  Juan  N.  Machado,  Jr.,  but  Baron  Stoeckl  was  so 
ignorant  of  the  man  and  his  family  that  he  made  out  the  appointment  to  Juan  N. 
Machado.  Naturally,  this  would  have  gone  to  the  father,  but  Talmage  knew  who 
was  meant,  and  he  gave  it  to  the  son,  writing  back  to  the  State  Department  to 
have  the  mistake  corrected. 

The  commission  was  now  organized  to  work  the  intended  fraud.  Thomas  N. 
Stilwell  of  Indiana  was  minister  to  Venezuela,  and  his  brother-in-law,  William 
P.  Murray,  was  secretary  of  legation.  Notwithstanding  his  representative 
character,  Murray  was  attorney  for  a  large  number  of  the  claimants  before  the 


THE    VENEZUELA    SCANDAL       -  411 

commission,  and  charged  fifty  per  cent,  on  the  allowances  for  his  fee.  He  mad& 
this  exorbitant  charge  for  his  influence,  for  he  was  really  in  partnership  with 
Talmage,  who,  worse  still,  appeared  as  attorney  for  claimants  before  a  tribunal 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  Machado,  the  umpire,  being  a  willing  tool.  Murray 
openly  boasted  that  he  had  a  monopoly  of  the  influence,  and  it  is  certain  that  all 
the  claimants,  in  whose  favor  awards  were  found,  were  represented  either  by  Mr. 
Murray  or  Mr.  Talmage. 

SUSPICIOUS  CIRCUMSTANCES. 

From  Dr.  James  S.  Mackie,  a  highly  respectable  gentleman,  for  a  long  time 
connected  with  the  State  Department  of  Washington,  and  the  attorney  for 
William  H.  Aspinwall  and  others,  who  had  bona  fide  and  just  claims  against  Ven- 
ezuela, the  following  valuable  and  suggestive  evidence  on  the  modus  operandi  of 
the  American  modern  statesmen,  Stilwell,  Talmage,  Murray  &  Co.,  was  adduced 
before  the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee  of  the  present  Congress: 

I  went  into  a  coal  broker's  office,  and  found  Mr.  Talmage  to  be  a  coal  broker,  dealing  largely  in 
anthracite  coal.  I  introduced  myself,  and  congratulated  him  upon  his  appointment,  and  said:  "  Mr. 
Talmage,  I  want  you  to  do  me  a  favor,  to  look  at  a  memorial  which  I  have  here  (referring  to  a  par- 
cel of  b(mds).  Have  the  goodness  to  count  the  bonds  over,  and  to  see  that  they  are  all  there,  as 
stated  in  my  memorial,  and  take  charge  of  them  in  behalf  of  American  citizens  whom  I  represent 
as  attorney.'"  Mr.  Talmage  said,  "I  cannot  have  anything  to  do  with  that  kind  of  business."  I 
said,  "  I  beg  your  pardon;  I  thought  you  were  a  commissioner  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  to 
represent  our  citizens.'"  Said  he,  "I  have  nothing  to  do  with  taking  charge  of  their  claims."  I  said, 
"Mr.  Talmage,  if  you  will  excuse  my  personality,  I  was  twelve  years  in  the  Department  of  State, 
and  I  have  known  all  about  all  the  commissions  to  the  Spanish  governments  in  that  time,  and  I 
have  ni'ver  yet  heard  a  commissioner,  either  an  American  commissioner  or  a  foreign  commissioner, 
say  that  it  was  no  part  of  his  duty  t<»  take  charge  of  the  claims  of  his  fellow-citizens.  I  take  it  that 
that  is  one  of  the  objects  of  your  appointment."  He  said,  "I  cannot  reco^ize  that  at  all;  I  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it,"  I  then  said,  "Mr.  Talmage,  I  was  a  commissioner  of  the  United 
States  myself  to  Peru,  and  I  felt  it  not  only  a  duly  but  a  privilege  to  give  every  attention  that  I 
could  to  American  claims  before  I  went  abroad,"  He  still  persisted.  I  said,  "  It  is  very  strange; 
here  I  am,  an  attorney  for  these  recognized  claims,  and  you,  as  commissioner,  refuse  to  take  charge 
of  them.  What  am  I  to  do  ?"  Said  he,  "Mr.  Mackie,  I  advise  you  to  go  to  a  gentleman  who 
happens  to  have  a  great  deal  of  that  business  in  his  hands,  and  I  think  he  is  the  best  man  that  5'ou 
can  give  your  claims  to."  I  said,  "Who  is  he  ?"  He  said,  "Mr.  William  H.  Whiton."  He  gave 
me  his  address— I  think  some  place  in  John  street  or  Maiden  lane.  I  went  down  to  that  place,  and 
went  through  rows  of  bales  of  hay  piled  up  all  through  a  warehouse,  until  I  came  to  a  gentleman 
sitting  with  his  hat  on  at  a  desk  writing.  I  said,  "Is  Mr.  Whiton  here  ?"  This  gentlemen  looked  up 
and  said,  "Yes."  I  said,  "Whiton,  is  that  you  ?"  I  recognized  in  him  an  old  friend  and  neigh- 
bor of  .mine  when  I  was  living  on  the  heights  of  Georgetown.  Said  I,  "I  am  looking  for  another 
man."  He  said,  "Who?"  I  said,  "  A  man  of  the  same  name,  W.  H.  Whiton."  He  said, 
"What  do  you  want  with  him?"  I  said,  "I  was  referred  to  him  by  Mr.  Talmage  as  having 
charge  of  Venezuelan  claims;  but  j-'ou  have  nothing  to  do  with  Venezuelan  claims  ?"  "Yes," 
said  ne,  "  I  have;  I  am  the  man."  With  a  little  strength  of  expression,  I  asked  him  what  the  deuce 
he  knew  about  Venezuelan  claims.  He  said  that  he  had  peculiar  facilities  for  presenting  them,  and 
having  favorable  action  upon  them.  I  said,  "  Whiton,  I  have  got  a  bundle  of  claims  here,  but  I  do 
not  know  why  I  should  give  them  to  j-^ou  more  than  anybody  else.  What  are  you  going  to  charge 
for  taking  care  of  them?  "  He  said,  "  Fifty  per  cent."  Said  I,  "That  is  modest.  There  is  about 
$180,000  of  these  claims,  and  as  much  accrued  interest,  and  you  want  half  for  presenting  the  memo- 
rial and  claims.  All  the  claims  are  recognized  ;  they  are  simply  protested  notes  of  Venezuela.  I 
cannot  give  you  fifty  per  cent.,  because  I  could  not  control  that."  Said  he,  "  I  cannot  do  it  for  less, 
for  I  have  got  to  divide."  I  said,  "  You  cannotdivide  any  of  my  friends'  money,"  and  I  went  out. 
I  then  immediately  wrote  to  the  Department  of  State,  and  transmitted  my  papers,  and  I  have  the 
receipt  from  the  Department  of  State,  in  which  the  department  promised  to  send  them  to  Ven- 
ezuela, which  reads  as  follows  : 

Department  of  State,    \ 
Washington,  June  20,  1868.     j 

Sir:  Your  communication  of  the  19th  Inst.,  with  its  enclosure,  has  been  received  ;  also  the 
package  addressed  to  the  joint  commission  now  in  session  at  Caracas. 

\  our  wish  in  reference  to  the  papers  has  been  complied  with,  and  they  will  go  out  in  the  mail  of 
the  23d  instant.    I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant,  W.  HUNTER,  Secretary. 

James  S.  Mackie,  New  York. 

The  package  arrived  there,  but  was  never  brought  before  the  umpire.  Tal- 
mage told  Dr.  Mackie  with  reference  to  it,  that  he  went  to  the  umpire,  and  that 
the  umpire  told  him  that  he  had  allowed  so  many  claims  that  if  he  was  to  allow 
this  claim  he  could  not  look  the  Venezuela  government  in  the  face.  Worse  than 
all,  Murray  tried  to  make  away  with  the  bonds  intrusted  to  him,  and  it  was  with 
some  difficulty  that  Dr.  Mackie  secured  their  return. 

MINISTER  STILWELL'S  PART  IN  THE   CONSPIRACY. 

What  part  the  minister,  Stilwell,  played  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  at  his  death. 


412  THE  VENEZUELA  SCANDAL. 

although  he  had  been  so  poor  that  he  had  been  tempted  to  overdraw  his  account 
at  the  bank  of  which  he  was  president,  to  the  amount  of  $150,000,  there  was 
found  as  collateral  for  the  overdraft,  Venezuela  certificates  to  the  amount  of 
$80,400.  Congressman  Milton  L.  Robinson  swore  that  Stilwell  had  received  these 
certificates  for  his  influence,  as  American  minister,  in  securing  the  allowance  of 
claims,  Murray  paying  him  one-fifth  of  his  ill-gotten  fifty  per  cent.  Stilwell  paid, 
of  this,  $3,000  or  $4,000  to  Godlove  S.  Orth  of  Indiana,  for  lobbying  through 
Congress  legislation  favorable  to  these  fraudulent  awards. 

THE   IDLER  CLAIM 

is  an  instance  of  gross  fraud.  Whiton,  Talmage's  agent,  appeared  for  the  claim- 
ants. In  other  words,  Talmage  appeared  as  attorney  before  himself  in  behalf  of 
this  fraudulent  claim. 

On  this  claim  $253,814  was  awarded.  It  grew  out  of  supplies  furnished  the  old 
Colombian  Confederacy  in  1817.  In  his  lifetime,  Jacob  Idler  had  brought  suit  for 
this  in  the  Venezuelan  courts,  and  there  had  been  allowed  by  one  decision  $70, 520.- 
11.  This  had  afterwards  been  set  aside,  and  Idler  abandoned  the  suit,  leaving  the 
country.  It  slept  for  more  than  thirty  years,  and  was  revived  before  this  com- 
mission. It  was  not  in  the  list  of  claims  which  were  pending  in  the  American 
legation  at  the  time  the  mixed  commission  was  organized.  It  was  trumped  up 
afterwards.  Talmage  decided  that  the  $70,520.11  was  still  due,  notwithstanding 
the  adverse  decision  of  the  courts  and  the  abandonment  of  the  case  by  Idler. 
Talmage  insisted  on  the  decision  of  this  case  within  five  days  of  its  hearing,  but 
Conde  protested,  and  resigned  his  position  rather  than  consent  to  such  an  outrage. 
Talmage  gave  the  claimants  the  principal  and  $182,294  interest.  On  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  commission  Talmage  returned  to  this  country,  and  still  acting  as  attor- 
ney for  the  Idler  claim,  committed  perjury  by  swearing  before  Congress  that  he  made 
all  his  statements  "from  considerations  of  public  policy."  Afterwards  he  testi- 
fied that  at  this  very  time  he  was  in  receipt  of  a  $15,000  fee  for  acting  for  the  Idler 
claim,  in  getting  a  recognition  from  Congress  of  the  awards  of  the  commission. 
This  admission  was  the  result  of  the  investigation  of  the  scandal  by  the  Demo- 
cratic House  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress. 

Every  claim  on  which  the  two  commissioners  disagreed  was  allowed  by  the 
umpire,  who  acted  throughout  as  Talmage's  tool.  The  total  awards  of  the  com- 
mission were  $1,253,300.17,  of  which  $794,122  were  awarded  by  the  umpire.  Of 
these  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Forty- 
fifth  Congress,  found  as  follows: 

THE  TOTAL  AMOUNT  STOLEN. 

On  a  careful  examination  of  each  and  every  one  of  the  cases  decided  by  the  umpire,  your  com- 
mittee have  failed  to  discover  a  single  award  which  is  justified  by  the  law  or  the  evidence.  Not 
one  of  these  awards,  which  were  adjudged  to  be  paid  under  the  impoverished  resources  of  that  Re- 
public (Venezuela),  amounting  to  nearly  $800,000,  is  of  such  a  character,  when  the  merits  of  each 
case  is  fairly  considered  and  understood,  as  entitled  it  to  any  consideration  whatever.  Now  that 
the  fraudulent  character  of  these  claims  are  exposed,  our  government  cannot  consistently,  with 
national  honor  and  that  fair  dealing  which  should  always  characterize  the  conduct  of  stronger  gov 
emments  towards  weaker  ones,  insist  further  upon  their  payment. 

What  could  be  more  unjust  and  unreasonable  than  the  decisions  of  the  umpire  in  the  cases  above 
referred  to? 

HOW   A  REPUBLICAN  CONGRESS  DID. 

In  marked  contrast  with  the  action  of  the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives 
in  reference  to  these  frauds  is  the  action  of  the  Republican  Congress.  The  mixed 
commission  adjourned  August  5,  1868,  and  almost  immediately  the  Venezuelan 
government  began  to  enter  protest  against  its  action.  The  adjournment  was 
a  hasty  one,  being  a  month  before  the  statutory  limitation.  Talmage  and  Murray 
were  in  a  hurry  to  get  away  from  the  scene  of  their  rascalities,  and  left  Caracas 


THE    VENEZUELA    SCANDAL.  415 

surreptitiously.     Machado  also  fled  from  Venezuela  with  his  share  of  the  plunder. 

Then  followed  a  long  correspondence,   in  which  the  Venezuelan  government 

charged  the  American  minister  and  commissioner  with  bribery  and  corruption, 

and  that  the  awards  by  the  umpire  were  fraudulent  and  groundless.     This  was 

referred  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Forty-first  Congress,  of  which 

Godlove  S.  Orth  was  a  member.     The  subject  was  investigated,  and,  strangely 

enough,  the  following  extraordinary  resolution  was  the  outcome: 

That  the  adjudication  of  claims  by  said  commission,  pursuant  to  the  terms  of  said  convention,. 
is  hereby  recognized  as  final  and  conclusive,  and  to  be  held  as  valid  and  subsisting  against  the  Re- 
public of  Venezuela;  and  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing  the  collection  and  payments  of  the  sums  of 
money  so  awarded,  the  President  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  make  demand  upon  the  Re- 
public of  Venezuela  for  immediate  payment;  and  in  case  of  neglect  or  refusal  to  make  such  pay- 
ment, that  he  employ  such  portion  of  the  naval  and  military  forces  as  may  be  necessary,  in  his 
judgment,  to  secure  the  faithful  performance  of  the  terms  of  said  convention. 

This  resolution  was  not  pressed  to  passage,  and  nothing  more  was  done  by  the 
Forty-first  Congress.  The  subject  was  again  investigated  by  the  Forty-second 
Congress,  and  on  March  1st,  1873,  the  following  report  was  made: 

Your  committee  have  examined  this  testimony,  and  cannot  avoid  the  conclusion  that  it  shows 
reasonable  ground  for  complaint  on  the  part  of  the  government  of  Venezuela,  and  the  claimants 
whose  cases  were  adjudicated  before  the  tribunal. 

These  complaints  are  of  the  following  tenor:  That  powers  of  attorney  were  given  in  some  of 
the  cases  to  the  American  commisgioner,  and  he  received  pecuniary  compensation  for  executing 
the  same;  that  an  improper  intimacy  existed  between  the  American  commissioner,  the  umpire, 
and  Mr.  William  P.  Murray,  who  was  the  attorney  of  sundry  claimants,  and  was  also  represented 
as  being  the  secretary  of  legation,  all  the  claims  having  to  pass  through  his  hands;  and  that  the 
said  William  P.  Murray  received  from  the  tribunal  of  arbitration  certificates  to  the  amount,  in 
most  cases,  of  one-half  the  sum  allowed  to  the  claimants.  This  last  ground  of  complaint  is  com- 
mon to  the  Venezuelan  government,  and  to  the  claimants,  who  earnestly  request  the  passage  of  a 
joint  resolution  to  authorize  the  President  to  call  in  all  the  certificates  issued  by  the  commission,, 
so  as  to  defeat  any  payment  to  those  whom  the  memorialist  consider  fraudulent  holders. 

The  bill  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  and  there  it  slum- 
bered. This  is  where  Godlove  S.  Orth  appears  in  the  matter.  Having  been  a 
member  of  the  Forty-first  Congress,  and  on  the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee,  he 
became  a  lobbyist  for  Talmage  and  Murray  before  the  Forty-second  Congress.  His 
influence  was  sufficient  to  defeat  the  bill.  He  testified  as  follows  before  the  inves- 
tigating committee  at  the  Forty-fourth  Congress : 

Q.  State  your  residence  and  position*  A.  I  reside  in  Indiana;  I  was  a  member  of  the 
Thirty-eighth,  Thirty-ninth,  Fortieth,  Forty-first  and  Forty-third  Congress.  I  have  just  returned 
from  Europe. 

Q.  Are  you  still  Minisfer  Plenipotentiary  to  Austria  ?  A.  Yes;  I  have  not  yet  sent  in  my  resig- 
nation, but  I  expect  to  resign  in  a  day  or  two. 

Q.  You  were  a  member  of  Congress  in  the  summer  of  1873?  A.  Yes;  I  was  elected  in  October, 
1872,  from  the  slate  of  Indiana,  at  large,  to  the  Congress  which  organijted  on  the  first  Monday  in 
December,  1873. 

Q.  Do  you  know  anything  about  what  is  called  the  Venezuelan  awards?  A.  Yes.  During  the 
Forty-first  Congress,  I  was  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  when  I  first  heard  the 
trouble  about  the  Venezuelan  awards.  That  committee  had  an  investigation  of  the  matter,  and 
took  testimony,  which  I  presume  is  among  the  archives  of  the  committee,  and  it  made  an  unani- 
mous report  feustainin^  the  awards.  I  think  the  report  was  made  to  the  House  by  Mr.  Wilkinson. 
That  was  at  the  second  session  of  the  Forty -first  Congress.  1  went  out  of  Congress  on  the  4th  of 
March,  1871.  Subsequently  to  that  time,  and  when  I  never  expected  to  be  in  Congress  again,  / 
accepted  an  employment  from  StUwell  and  Talmage  to  act  as  their  attorney  in  xyrocuring  a  payment 
of  some  money  which  had  been  forwarded  hereby  the  Venezuelan  government,  and  which  ivas  in  llie 
State  Department.  That  employment  included  my  service  down  here  in  Washington  to  assist  in  pro- 
curing the  passaae  of  the  joint  resolution  of  the  Forty-second  Congress  declaring  the  validity  of  the 
award.  My  recollection  is  that  the  House  passed  a  joint  resolution,  which  weiit  to  the  Senate,  and 
that  the  Senate  amended  it  by  striking  out  what  was  supposed  to  have  been  the  foi-ce  part  of  it,  as 
It  was  called;  and  when  it  came  back  to  the  House,  the  House  concurred  in  the  Senate  amendment. 
Mr.  Packard,  of  Indiana,  reported  it  from  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs. 

Q.  Wan  Mr.  Packard  a  member  from  the  same  district  which  you  represented?  A.  No,  sir;  he 
was  a  member  from  the  La  Porte  district,  and  I  lived  in  the  La  Fayette  district.  I  was  here  in  the 
latter  part  of  January  or  the  first  of  February  of  that  year,  1873.  I  was  here  at  the  time  that  the 
House  concurred  in  the  Senate  amendment. 

Q.  Were  you  favoring  thejyassage  of  the  bill  reported  by  Mr.  Packard,  in  which  the  President  of 
the  Uni  ed  /States  was  authorized  and  directed  to  adopt  such  measures  as  he  might  deem  expedient 
to  enforce  the  claims  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  adjudicated  by  the  mixed  commissson? 
A.  My  impression  is  that  the  House  bill  had  passed  before  I  came  here,  and  that  the  Senate  struck 
out  what  was  called  the/wee  clause  of  it. 

ORTH  TAKES  SEVEN  OR  EIGHT   OF   THE   FRAUDULENT  CERTIFICATES. 
Q.  While  you  were  here  you  were  acting  in  behalf  of  Talmage  and  Stilwell?    A.  Yes,  sir. 


414  THE  VENEZUELA  SCANDAL. 

Q.  Who  was  Mr.  Stilwell?  A.  He  was  formerly  a  member  of  Congress  from  Indiana,  and  was 
appointed  minister  to  Venezuela. 

Q.  Was  he  minister  to  Venezuela  pending  the  sitting  of  the  mixed  commission  at  Caracas? 
A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Who  was  Mr.  Talmage?    A.  He  was  the  commissioner  on  behalf  of  the  United  States. 

Q.  Did  you  receive  compensation  from  Stilwell  as  well  as  from  Talmage?  A.  Yes;  from  both 
of  them. 

Q.  Was  any  portion  of  the  compensation  that  you  received  paid  to  you  m  these  certificates  ?  A. 
Yes;  I  think  I  probably  got  seven  of  these  thousand  dollars. 

Q.  Did  those  certificates  come  through  Talmage  or  through  Stilwell  ?  A.  They  came  thtvugh 
both  of  them. 

Q,  Which  furnished  the  greater  part  ?    A.  I  think  that  Talmage  furnished  the  greater  part. 

Q.  At  what  time  did  you  receive  those  certificates  ?  A.  1  received  probably  some  of  them  in 
1871,  some  in  1872,  some  in  1873. 

The  foregoing  from  Mr.  Orth's  own  lips  establishes  his  close  identification  with 
this  swindle.  He  earned  his  money  well.  Through  his  influence  Secretary  Fish 
paid  an  instalment  of  7  per  cent,  on  the  fraudulent  certificates,  $121,000  of  which 
Talmage  had  possession,  but  which  were  claimed  by  Seth  C.  Driggs,  who  had 
notified  the  State  Department  that  this  amount  of  certificates  belonged  to  him, 
and  were  fraudulently  withheld  from  him,  the  lawful  owner,  by  Talmage. 
Through  his  influence  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  43d  Congress  passed 
the  following  bill : 

HOW  ORTH  EARNED  HIS  MONEY. 

Mr.  Ortli  earned  his  money,  for  through  his  influence  Mr.  Fish,  Secretary  of 
State,  paid  an  instalment  of  seven  per  cent,  on  the  fraudulent  certificates.  He 
also  secured  the  passage  of  the  following  bill : 

Section  1.  That  the  adjudication  of  claims  by  the  convention  with  Venezuela  of  April  25,  1866, 
pursuant  to  the  terms  of  said  convention,  is  hereby  recognized  as  final  and  conclusive,  and  to  be 
held  as  valid  and  subsisting  against  the  Republic  of  Venezuela;  and  that  the  President  of  the 
United  States  be,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  and  directed  to  adopt  such  measures  as  he  may  deem 
expedient  to  enforce  the  claims  of  citizens  of  the  United  States,  adjudicated  by  the  mixed  com- 
mission organized  under  the  treaty  of  the  25th  of  April,  1866,  and  made  payable  by  the  Republic  of 
Venezuela  to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  said  treaty. 

Sec.  2.  That  he  be  authorized  and  directed,  in  like  manner  to  collect  such  claims  of  the  citizens 
of  the  United  States  as  were  acknowledged  by  Venezuela  to  be  due  prior  to  the  sitting  of  the  said 
mixed  commission. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Sumner,  however,  the  fore  part  of  the  bill  was  stricken  out. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC  WAY  OF  DEALING  WITH  FRAUD. 

The  following  is  the  conclusion  of  the  unanimous  report  of  the  Committee  on 
Foreign  Affairs  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress. 

Now  that  a  careful  inquirv  has  been  made  by  your  committee  in  reference  to  the  conduct  of  our 
officials,  and  also  to  the  fraudulent  character  of  the  claim  awarded  by  the  commission— which  in- 
vestigation, in  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  had  demonstrated  the  truth  and  reasonableness  of 
the  allegations  of  Venezuela— a  further  and  continued  refusal  on  the  part  of  our  government  to 
respond  to  the  appeals  of  that  government  cannot  be  justified  on  principles  of  international  honor 
ana  comity.  If  Venezuela  were  the  equal  of  this  government  in  area,  population  and  resources, 
she  would  have  long  since  ceased  to  address  our  government  by  appeals  to  our  magnanimity  and 
sense  of  justice,  and  would  have  terminated  all  diplomatic  intercourse  and  assumed  toward  us  the 
attitude  which  we  now  bear  toward  her.  In  order,  therefore,  to  vindicate  the  proud  position 
■which  our  government  has  always  assumed  toward  other  nations  of  the  world,  and  to  preserve 
Intact  the  peaceful  means  of  national  arbitrament  for  the  settlement  of  all  differences  arising 
between  nations,  we  should  at  once  proceed  to  do  full  justice  in  the  premises.  We  can  afford  to 
respond  to  the  appeals  of  Venezuela,  in  this  case,  and  by  so  doiujg  will  honor  ourselves  and  vindi- 
cate the  old  precept,  that  "  righteousness  exalteth  a  nation,  but  sin  is  a  reproach  to  any  people." 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  this  session  of  Congress  will  soon  adjourn,  and  that  definite  and  final 
legislation  on  this  subject  cannot  be  effected  at  this  session,  your  committee  recommend  the 
passage  of  the  following  joint  resolution  suspending  all  further  payments  by  the  Secretary  of  State 
to  holders  of  Venezuelan  certificates,  and  withholding  further  demands  upon  Venezuela  for  future 
payments  until  the  4th  day  of  March  next,  or  until  further  legislation  by  Congress. 

The  following  joint  resolution  was  passed: 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  The  United  States  of  America,  in  Con- 
gres,  assembled.  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  is  hereby  requested  to  withhold  further 
demands  upon  the  government  of  Venezuela  on  account  of  the  awards  of  the  mixed  commission 
under  the  convention  of  April  25,  1866,  until  the  4th  of  March,  1877,  and  the  Secretary  of  State  is 
authorized  and  directed  to  suspend  all  further  payments  to  holders  of  certificates  awarded  by  said 
mixed  commission  until  said  time,  unless  Congress  shall  otherwise  direct.  The  committee  unani- 
mously concur  in  recommending  the  passage  of  the  foregoing  joint  resolution. 

The  result  of  this  investigation,  among  other  things,  was  the  withdrawal  of 
Godlove  S.  Orth  as  a  candidate  for  governor  of  Indiana  after  he  had  been  nom- 
inated by  the  Republican  party  of  that  state,  and  after  the  canvass  had  begun. 


THE   SAN   DOMINGO   JOB.  415 


THE  SAN  DOMOGO  JOB: 

ITS  INCEPTION,  PROSECUTION  AND  FINAL  FAILURE. 


I.    . 

"GENERAL   GRANT   IS  IN  IT. 


If  Gen.  Grant,  Gen.  Babcock  and  others  hi, 
with  the  real  value  of  our 


;ock  and  others  high  in  office  in  Washington  are  so  well  satisfied 
prospects  and  feelsafe  in  lending  their  names  and  influence  to  carry 
them  out,  I  cannot  for  the  life  of  me  see  why  you  should  hesitate.  It  was  our  intention  to  have 
sent  1,200  shares  of  the  stock  of  the  San  Domingo  Copper  Company  to  you,  as  eoon  as  Knapp 
shall  have  signed  the  certificates,  to  be  distributed  among  officials  of  influence  iu  Washington . 
But  from  the  tone  of  your  letters  I  suppose  we  shall  have  to  do  our  business  through  some  other 
party. 

These  words,  which  seem  like  the  idle  boast  of  a  confidence  operator,  are  in  re- 
ality the  statement  of  a  scandalous  fact.  They  were  written  on  the  21st  of  De- 
cember, 1866,  by  Joseph  W.  Currier,  then  of  New  York,  to  a  friend  in  Washing- 
ton, who  hesitated  to  embark  in  a  scheme  which  looked  to  the  raising  of  a  million 
of  dollars  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  mining  copper  in  the  island  of  San  Domingo. 
Currier  had  been  a  quartermaster  in  the  Union  army.  He  was  speculative  by  na- 
ture, and  circumstances  made  him  impecunious.  He  was  enthusiastic  and  cred- 
ulous, but  perhaps  not  deliberately  dishonest.  At  this  time,  however,  he  was  in 
the  clutches  of  two  unscrupulous  knaves  who,  years  before,  had  gone  from  Mas- 
sachusetts to  the  West  Indies  to  teach  the  Dominicans  tricks  of  which  they  never 
dreamt  before.  These  were  Joseph  W.  Fabens  and  William  L.  Cazneau.  They 
were  both  natives  of  the  Bay  state.  In  1863,  Fabens,  Cazneau  and  Currier  estab- 
lished the  Great  American  West  India  Company,  with  an  office  at  5  Pine  street, 
New  York.  Their  rooms  were  fitted  up  in  sumptuous  style,  and  by  the  free  use 
of  printers'  ink  they  succeeded  in  disposing  of  their  worthless  stock  to  the  amount 
of  $160,000.  Then  they  closed  their  doors  and  disappeared.  But  they  came 
again  in  1866,  scattering  far  and  wide  their  prospectus  of  the  Great  San  Domingo 
Copper  Company.  They  were  accompanied  this  time  by  Buenaventura  Baez,  the 
deposed  president  of  the  Dominican  republic,  who  had  been  driven  from  the 
island  and  was  ready  for  any  sort  of  a  job  which  promised  him  a  good  living 
without  work.  These  conspirators  explained  that  Cabral's  revolution  had  de- 
stroyed the  Great  American  West  India  Company,  but  that  the  present  corpora- 
tion rested  on  a  secure  basis.  To  all  doubting  inquirers  they  whispered,  "Gen. 
Grant  is  in  it !"  On  the  strength  of  his  name  they  raised  money  from  investors. 
Fabens  took  $30,000  and  started  for  Africa  to  buy  camels  for  the  copper  mines. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Baez.  The  1,200  shares  of  stock  were  duly  distributed 
among  "officials  of  influence  in  Washington,"  and  $200,000  was  raised  by  the  sale 
of  shares.  Then  the  doors  of  the  office  were  closed  again,  and  the  adventurers 
sought  safety  in  flight.  They  returned  to  San  Domingo,  where  Baez  re-estab- 
lished himself  in  the  presidency.  There  they  remained  till  President  Grant  was 
inaugurated,  and  then  they  began  once  more  their  swindling  operations  in  good 
earnest. 


416  THE    SAN    DOMINGO    JOB. 

n. 

GENERAL  BABCOCK  GOES  TO  SAN  DOMINGO. 

When  Buenaventura  Baez  resumed  control  of  affairs  in  the  Dominican  repub- 
lic, he  seems  to  have  had  a  premonition  that  his  stay  would  be  short,  and  that  it 
behooved  him  to  fill  his  purse  while  the  opportunity  lasted.  He  made  a  conces- 
sion to  Edward  H.  Houtmont  for  the  working  of  the  coal  mines  of  Samana,  for 
which  he  was  to  receive  a  loan  of  £420,000  from  Lawson  &  Co.,  of  London.  This 
was  in  May,  1869  ;  but  in  July,  1868,  the  notorious  Fabens  had  received  a  sort  of 
general  geological  and  mineralogical  concession,  under  which  he  was  to  have  one- 
fifth  of  all  the  public  lands.  Cazneau  had  received  a  concession  for  the  National 
Bank  of  San  Domingo,  and  also  for  the  copper  mines  and  the  wharf  frontage  on 
the  Bay  of  Samana.  Having  sold  most  of  the  franchises  at  his  disposal  and  given 
away  the  rest,  the  idea  quietly  dawned  on  the  mind  of  Buenaventura  Baez 
that  he  would  sell  out  all  his  right,  title  and  interest — the  right  of  a  traitor,  the 
title  of  a  usurper,  and  the  interest  of  a  plunderer — in  the  island  of  San  Do- 
mingo to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  for  a  good  round  sum  in  cash, 
while  he  sought  a  home  in  some  distant  clime.  Through  Cazneau  and  Fabens  he 
communicated  his  plans  to  the  Washington  authorities,  where  they  were  received 
with  great  favor. 

On  the  13th  of  July,  1869,  President  Grant  addressed  a  letter  to  his  "great  and 
good  friend,"  as  he  called  Baez,  in  which  he  said:  "Deeming  it  desirable  to 
satisfy  my  curiosity  in  respect  to  your  interesting  country  by  obtaining  informa- 
tion from  a  source  upon  which  I  rely,  I  have  for  this  purpose  appointed  Brevet 
Brig,  Gen.  Orville  E.  Babcock,  of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  to  proceed  to 
the  Dominican  republic  in  the  character  of  a  special  agent.  Having  been  one  of 
my  aides-de-camp  while  I  commanded  the  armies  of  the  United  States,  and  hav- 
ing since  been  intrusted  by  me  with  confidential  business  of  importance,  I  have 
entire  confidence  in  his  integrity  and  intelligence,  and  I  commend  him  to  your 
Excellency  accordingly." 

Armed  with  this  document,  Babcock  set  out  for  San  Domingo.  He  also  took 
with  him  an  order  from  Robeson,  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  placing  at  his  disposal 
the  United  States  ship-of-war  Seminole,  and  directing  her  commander  to  seize  the 
Telegraph,  a  little  vessel  belonging  to  Cabral,  which  was  to  be  brought  as  a  prize 
into  the  port  of  Baltimore.  She  was  to  be  seized  as  a  pirate,  but  an  examination 
before  the  British  consul  showed  that  the  charge  of  piracy  could  not  be  sustained. 
But  even  after  this  decision  Robeson  directed  Commander  Queen  to  sail  in  the 
Tuscarora  to  San  Domingo  and  place  himself  under  Babcock's  orders,  that  he 
might  help  to  capture  the  Telegraph.  All  this  gratuitous  service  was  rendered  to 
Baez  against  his  enemy  Cabral,  that  the  annexation  scheme  might  not  fall 
though. 

Babcock  remained  in  San  Domingo  till  August,  when  he  returned  to  Washing- 
ton, received  further  instructions  from  Grant,  and  departed  almost  immediately 
to  complete  his  arrangements  with  Baez. 

m. 

THE  IMPRISONMENT  OF  AN  OBSTRUCTING  AMERICAN  CITIZEN. 

Davis  Hatch  was  a  citizen  of  Connecticut  who  went  to  San  Domingo  in  1863 
to  act  as  agent  of  a  New  York  company  organized  to  work  a  salt  mine  in  that 
island.  The  required  concessions  were  made  by  the  Spanish  government  in  1864, 
but  in  1865  Spain  abandoned  the  country,  and  Baez,  who  set  up  as  president,  an- 


THE    SAX    DOMINGO    JOB.  41 77 

nulled  the  grants.  But  when  Cabral  overthrew  and  succeeded  Baez  in  1866,  he 
reconfirmed  the  concessions  of  Spain  to  the  salt  company.  In  1868  Baez  defeated 
Cabral,  through  an  insurrection,  and  returned  to  power.  In  May,  1869,  the  city 
of  Barahona,  where  Hatch  resided,  was  deserted  by  Baez,  and  taken  possession 
of  by  Cabral's  forces.  It  was  retaken  in  the  following  August  by  Baez,  who 
thereupon  caused  the  arrest  of  Hatch  on  the  ground  that  he  had  sided  with  Ca- 
bral. He  was  condemned  to  death  by  a  court-martial,  and  was  then  pardoned  by 
Baez  on  condition  that  he  should  immediately  leave  the  island.  He  was  quite 
willing  to  go,  but  was  not  permitted  to  do  so.  He  was  kept  a  close  prisoner  from 
the  29th  of  August,  1869,  till  the  15th  of  March,  1870,  in  flagrant  violation  of  his. 
rights  as  an  American  citizen.  During  the  period  of  his  unlawful  imprisonment 
Babcock  visited  the  island.  J.  Somers  Smith  was  at  that  time  the  government's 
commercial  agent  at  San  Domingo,  and  in  the  following  despatch  to  the  State. 
Department  he  tells  what  happened : 

On  the  31st  of  August  the  United  States  ship  Tuscarwa  arrived  from  Key  West,  when  Com- 
mander Queen  called  on  me.  I  handed  him  a  memorandum  regarding  Mr.  Hatch,  and  expressed 
my  desire  that  he  would  proceed  to  Barahona  to  see  Mr.  Hatch  and  learn  the  particulars  of  his  case. 
The  commander  informed  me  that,  notwithstanding  his  willingness  to  comply  with  my  request,  he 
was  powerless  to  act  in  the  matter,  as  his  instructions  placed  the  ship  at  the  disposal  of  General ' 
Babcock.  On  my  communicating  with  General  Babcock,  he  did  not  seem  disposed  to  co-operate» 
appearing  not  to  regard  the  case  m  as  serious  a  light  as  I  do,  from  my  knowledge  of  the  Dominican 
character.  It  is  unfortunate  for  Mr.  Hatch  that  since  General  Babcock  has  been  here  he  has  been- 
In  close  companionship  with  Mr.  Cazneau,  who  is  an  enemy  of  Mr.  Hatch,  as  he  (Mr.  Hatch)  fur- 
nished the  information  which  caused  the  rejection  of  Cazneau  by  the  Senate,  some  three  years  ago,, , 
when  his  name  was  sent  in  for  a  position  in  this  country. 

When  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  sent  for  a  copy  of  the  correspondence 
between  Mr.  Smith  and  the  State  Department,  the  alleged  communications  were 
transmitted,  but  the  foregoing  paragraph,  and  all  others  relating  to  Babcock, 
were  carefully  stricken  out.  This  garbling  of  official  papers  for  the  protection  of 
an  executive  favorite  aroused  the  indignation  of  Mr,  Sumner  and  other  Senators. 

Mr.  Hatch,  an  American  citizen,  was  kept  in  a  dungeon  for  six  months,  under- 
no  process  of  law,  because  Baez,  Fabens,  Cazneau,  Babcock  and  Ingalls,  whoi 
were  in  league  with  the  President  of  the  United  States,  were  afraid  of  him. 
He  knew  more  about  the  annexation  scheme  than  they  could  safely  allow  to  be 
told.  He  was  a  ready  writer,  and  had  corresponded  occasionally  for  the  New 
York  Times.  If  he  should  unfold  the  facts — the  double  sale  of  valuable  fran- 
chises, the  jobbery  and  fraud  which  characterized  the  whole  proceeding — the  ne- 
gotiations would  come  to  a  sudden  end.  Knowing  this,  the  conspirators,  safe  in 
the  protection  of  Grant's  favor,  locked  him  up.  For  his  boldness  in  calling-  the: 
attention  of  the  State  Department  to  this  inexcusable  outrage,  J.  Somers  Smith 
was  removed,  and  Raymond  H.  Perry  was  sent  to  San  Domingo  in  his  place  asi 
commercial  agent. 

BABCOCK,  AIDE-DE-CAMP  TO  U.  S.  GRANT,  MAKES  A  TREATY. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  September,  1869,  the  bases  of  a  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  the  Dominican  Republic  were  reduced  to  writing  as  agreed  upon — so 
runs  the  official  document— "by  General  Orville  E.  Babcock,  Aide-de-camp  to 
his  Excellency,  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  President  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  his  special  agent  to  the  Dominican  Republic,  and  Mr.  Manuel  Maria 
Gautier,"  Secretary  of  State,  etc.,  of  the  Dominican  Republic,'^, ;,(  j,(  :. 
The  first  article  of  this  protocol  will  bear  careful  reading  :  |  .  \,n^.^{\ 
1.  His  Excellency,  General  Grant,  President  of  the  United  States,  promises,  privately,  to  use  all 
his  influence,  in  order  that  the  idea  of  annexing  the  Dominican  Republic  to  the  United  States  may 
acquirp  such  a  degree  of  popularity  among  members  of  Congrcs?  as  will.bp  n,ece^8aa-y  for  its  aecom- 
pliehment ;  and  he  offers,  to  ma^e  no  commanication  tq  that  ^bojiy  on  the  iiabject  until  he  shall  be 


418  THE    SAN    DOMINGO    JOB. 

certain  that  it  will  be  approved  by  a  majority.  The  acceptance  of  annexation  will  oblige  the  United 
States  to  pay  the  Dominican  Republic  the  feum  of  $1,500,000  in  coin,  in  order  that  the  republic  may, 
as  a  ptate,  pay  its  public  debt,  which  is  estimated  at, the  sum  of  $1,500,000  in  coin  ;  and  the  Domini- 
can Republic,  on  its  part,  agrees  to  conform  its  constitution  to  those  of  other  states  of  the  Union. 
In  the  event  that  the  Dominican  Republic's  debt  should  exceed $1,500,000  in  coin,  the  excess  shall 
be  charged  to  the  Dominican  State. 

In  commenting  on  this  in  the  Senate,  Charles  Sumner  spoke  as  follows  : 
Here  you  see  how  this  young  officer,  undertaking  to  represent  the  United  States  of  America, 
entitles  himself  Aide-de-camp  to  his  Excellency,  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  his  special  agent  to  the  Dominican  Republic.  Do  you  know  any  such  officer 
in  our  government  as  Aide-de-camp  to  his  Excellency,  the  President  of  the  United  States  ?  Does 
his  name  appear  in  the  constitution,  in  any  statute,  in  the  history  of  this  republic  anywhere.  If  it 
does,  jour  information,  sir,  is  much  beyond  mine.  I  have  never  before  met  any  such  instance.  I 
believe  this  young  officer  stands  alone  in  using  this  lofty  dei^ignation.  I  believe  still  further  that 
he  stands  alone  in  the  history  of  free  governments.  I  doubt  whether  you  can  find  a  diplomatic 
paper  anywhere  in  which  any  person  undertaking  to  represent  his  government  has  entitled  liiinself 
aide-dt'-camp  to  the  chief  of  the  state.  The  two  duties  are  incompatible,  according  to  all  the  ex- 
perience of  history.  No  aide-de-camp  would  be  commissioned  as  a  commissioner,  and  the  assump- 
tion of  this  exalted  and  exceptional  character  by  this  young  officer  shows  at  least  his  inexperience 
in  diplomacy.  However,  he  assumed  it,  and  it  doubtless  produced  a  great  effect  with  Baez,  Caz- 
neau  and  Fabens,  the  three  confederates. 

By  the  other  articles  of  this  protocol  (2)  the  price  of  Samana  was  fixed  at 
$2,000,000.  (3)  Grant  agreed  to  pay  $150,000  down.  (4)  The  United  States  Gov- 
ernment agreed  to  protect  Baez  during  the  negotiations.  (5)  Absolute  secrecy 
was  enjoined.    (6)  Baez  agreed  to  solicit  his  Senate  to  sell  Samana. 

With  this  basis  for  a  treaty  Babcock  returned  to  Washington  and  left  poor 
Hatch  in  prison. 


KAYMOND  H.  PERRY  INTERFERES  AND   GETS  INTO  TROUBLE. 

Raymond  H.  Perry,  the  newly-appointed  commercial  agent,  sailed  for  San 
Domingo  on  the  3d  of  November,  1869.  He  found  on  the  steamer  "  Colonel " 
Fabens,  to  whom  Babcock  had  given  him  a  letter  of  introduction.  Perry  was  ig- 
norant of  diplomacy,  and  was  a  stranger  in  San  Domingo.  He  was  a  native  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  a  relative  of  the  famous  commodore.  He  had  served  in  the 
war,  winning  distinction  by  his  courage,  but  involving  himself  in  several  serious 
quarrels.  After  the  war  he  went  to  Mexico  to  fight  against  Maximilian.  When 
the  empire  was  overthrown  he  returned  to  the  United  States  and  was  employed 
on  special  duty  by  Gen.  Sheridan,  in  Louisiana.  He  then  drifted  into  Texas,  and 
served  for  a  time  as  chief  of  police  at  Galveston.  In  October,  1869,  he  applied 
for  the  office  of  United  States  Marshal  for  the  Western  District  of  Texas.  The 
conspirators  in  Washington,  judging  from  his  antecedents  that  he  must  be  an  ad- 
venturer, thought  they  could  use  him,  and  therefore  resolved  to  send  him  to  San 
Domingo.     They  discovered  in  due  time  that  they  had  caught  a  Tartar. 

On  the  outward  voyage  Fabens  filled  Perry  with  false  accounts  of  the  state  of 
affairs.  He  warned  him  against  Hatch,  who,  he  said,  was  a  dangerous  and 
wicked  man.  He  told  him  that  Cazneau  was  a  person  of  great  wealth  and  influ- 
ence in  San  Domingo,  and  that  he  was  in  regular  correspondence  with  the  White 
House.  He  urged  him  to  seek  Cazneau's  friendship,  as  the  surest  way  of  making 
a  fortune  for  himself. 

BABCOCK  TRIES  TO   COACH  PERRY. 

Mr.  Peny  relieved  Mr.  Smith  on  the  16th  of  November,  and  learned  from  him 
that  Cazneau  was  a  swindler,  but  that  he  was  running  the  Dominican  govern, 
ment ;  that  he  had  been  a  bitter  Confederate  during  the  war,  but  was  then  a  pro- 
nounced friend  of  Grant.  Perry  also  learned  the  facts  in  the  case  of  Davis 
Hatch,  and  immediately  resolved  to  seek  his  release.  Two  days  after  his  arrival, 
Perry  was  told  by  Fabens  that  a  man-of-war  would  arrive  that  morning  with 
Gen.  Babcock  on  board.     Babcock  came,  accompanied  by  Gen.  Rufus  Ingalls, 


THE    SAN    DOMINGO    JOB.  419 

bearing  with  liim  a  commission  authorizing  Perry  to  sign  on  behalf  of  the  United 
States  the  treaty  which  he  brouglit  with  him,  and  which  was  substantially  the 
same  as  the  protocol.  They  went  ashore  and  visited  Buenaventura  Baez.  Caz 
neau  and  Fabens  were  present  at  this  and  all  subsequent  interviews.  When  the 
treaty  was  read,  Cazneau  coolly  proposed  to  draw  up  two  separate  papers,  one  to 
place  before  the  people  of  San  Domingo,  to  influence  the  election,  and  the  other 
before  the  United  States  government,  to  keep  them  quiet.  Against  this  crime 
Perry  sturdily  protested,  though  Baez  argued  that- if  the  elections  went  against 
him  he  should  lose  his  life.  Finally  this  part  of  the  scheme  was  abandoned,  but 
Babcock,  before  leaving  the  island,  told  Perry  that  he  must  trust  implicitly  to 
Cazneau  and  Fabens  ;  that  they  represented  large  interests,  and  that  he  had  large 
interests  with  them.  Cazneau  also  told  him  (this  is  all  sworn  testimony)  that 
Babcock  and  Ingalls  had  interests  in  real  estate  with  him,  and  that  he  (Fabens) 
and  their  friends  in  New  York  had  originated  the  idea  of  annexation. 

PERRY   TOLD   BABCOCK  IT   WAS   A  JOB. 

Perry  bluntly  told  Babcock  that  this  whole  business  looked  to  him  like  foul 
play  ;  that  Cazneau  appeared  to  him  dishonest,  and  that  Hatch  ought  to  be  re- 
leased. Babcock  told  him  not  to  release  Hatch ;  told  him  he  was  a  dangerous 
man,  and  that  his  imprisonment  was  necessary  to  the  treaty's  success. 

After  the  departure  of  Babcock,  Perry  tried,  in  good  faith,  to  carry  out  the  in- 
structions he  had  received  from  Washington.  He  placed  no  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  annexation,  but  sought  to  promote  the  project.  He  saw  that  the  election  by 
which  the  Dominicans  were  made  to  approve  the  plot  was  carried  by  force  and 
fraud.  But  he  permitted  Cazneau  and  Fabens  to  dictate  his  dispatches  on  that 
subject.  Presently,  however,  the  indications  of  foul  play  multiplied  around 
him,  and  he  resolved  to  reveal  the  truth  to  the  government.  He  wrote  at  first 
private  letters  to  the  Secretary  of  State  and  to  Babcock.  The  secretary  did  not 
reply.  But  Babcock  and  Ingalls  hastened  to  write,  telling  him  to  leave  all  per- 
sonal matter  out  of  his  official  communications,  and  to  speak  encouragingly  of  an- 
nexation. When  Perry  found  that  Cazneau  was  about  to  secure,  through  the 
Dominican  Senate,  a  large  tract  of  public  land  in  violation  of  the  treaty,  he  ad- 
dressed a  communication  to  that  body  warning  it  not  to  make  the  grant.  By  the 
rules  of  diplomacy  he  should  have  sent  the  communication  through  our  govern- 
ment, but  he  was  not  versed  in  court  etiquette,  and  his  indignation  would  not 
brook  delay.  Cazneau  was  inclined  to  call  him  to  sharp  account  for  this  inter- 
ference, and,  as  usual,  was  backed  by  the  Washington  authorities.  He  gave 
Perry  to  understand  that  he  knew  more  about  the  policy  of  the  United  States  than 
its  accredited  representative. 

When  the  success  of  the  treaty  was  supposed  to  be  assured,  and  not  before,  Da- 
vis Hatch  was  released.  On  the  13th  of  May,  1870,  he  addressed  from  the  Island 
of  St.  Thomas  a  memorial  to  Congress  claiming  damages  in  the  sum  of  $50,000 
and  asking  the  intervention  of  aur  government  to  help  him  in  obtaining  it.  A 
committee,  consisting  of  James  W.  Nye,  J.  M.  Howard,  George  H.  Williams, 
Willard  Warner,  Carl  Schurz,  O.  S.  Ferry,  and  George  Vickers,  was  appointed 
to  inquire  into  the  matter.  Raymond  H.  Perry  appeared  before  this  committee 
on  the  9th  of  June,  and  testified  to  some  of  the  facts  herein  set  forth.  His  evi- 
dence astonished  the  country  and  brought  the  San  Domingo  scheme  into  disrepute. 
Grant,  Babcock,  Baez,  and  the  others  found  it  necessary  to  postpone  their 
operations. 


420  THE    SAN   DOMINGO    JOB. 

THE   ATTEMPT  TO  KIDNAP  MAJOR  PERRY. 

In  December,  1870,  President  Grant,  in  his  annual  message,  asked  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  commission  to  visit  San  Domingo.  The  commission  was  accordingly 
appointed,  and  after  spending  nearly  $100,000  of  the  public  money,  its  members 
returned  and  made  a  glowing  report  to  Congress,  earnestly  urging  annexation. 
But  in  spite  of  the  glowing  picture  which  these  enthusiasts  painted.  Perry's 
testimony  was  fresh  in  the  public  mind.  Thereupon  the  conspirators  resolved  to 
destroy  this  objectionable  witness. 

In  February,  1871,  W.  B.  Moore,  who  subsequently  figured  in  the  whisky 
frauds,  came  up  from  Texas,  where  he  had  been  serving  as  a  carpet-bag  assessor 
of  internal  revenue,  with  a  requisition  from  E.  J.  Davis,  the  carpet-bag  governor, 
for  the  arrest  of  Raymond  H.  Perry,  for  murder.  This  atrocious  charge  was  based 
on  the  affidavit  of  one  ignorant  and  irresponsible  man,  who  swore  that  about  the 
middle  of  December,  1865,  he  heard  that  a  murder  had  been  committed  at  a  cer- 
tain place,  and  on  approaching  the  river  bank  he  saw  signs  which  satisfied  him 
that  the  body  of  the  murdered  man  had  been  thrown  in.  But  he  did  not  see  the 
body,  and  he  saw  no  one  who  had  seen  it.  Nor  was  any  one  missing.  But  a 
band  of  marauders  had  been  through  that  region  a  few  days  previous,  and  they 
were  said  to  be  under  the  command  of  one  Raymond  H.  Perry.  On  such  testi- 
mony as  that  Grant  and  Babcock  proposed  to  try  an  innocent  man  for  murder. 

BABCOCK  FAVORS  KIDNAPPING. 

Babcock  gave  Moore  a  letter  of  introduction  to  Col.  Whitley,  chief  of  the^ 

secret  service,  and  Moore  addressed  Whitley  in  these  written  words : 

I  have  a  requisition  from  the  Governor  of  Texas  for  the  arrest  of  Raymond  H.  Perry,  the  ex- 
commercial  agent  for  San  Domingo,  who  is  charged  with  murder,  highway  robbery,  burglary,  and 
horse  stealing.  As  the  inte§;rity  of  the  President  is  questioned,  through  the  misrepresentations 
of  this  fugitive  from  justice,  it  is  highly  important  that  his  real  character  should  be  exposed  at 
once,  and  I  depend  upon  you  to  learn  his  whereabouts  and  bring  him  to  justice. 

Whitley  soon  discovered  that  Perry  was  in  Rhode  Island,  and  that  to  secure 

his  arrest  certain  papers  would  have  to  accompany  the  requisition.     Moore 

then  wrote : 

The  requisition  upon  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  has  no  papers  attached,  but  those  accom- 
panying the  requisition  on  the  Chief  Justice  of  this  district  can  be  carefully  detached  and  attached 
to  the  former,  if  it  is  necessary  to  make  the  arrest  in  Rhode  Island.    *  *  *     It  is  im- 

portant that  the  arrest  be  made  before  the  San  Domingo  matter  comes  up  again  in  Congress,  that 
the  integrity  of  the  President  may  be  fully  vindicated. 

Nettleship,  who  figured  in  the  safe  burglary  conspiracy,  was  sent  on  to  Rhodo 
Island,  and  found  Perry  at  his  home,  near  Bristol.  He  reported  to  his  chief  : 
"  Perry  is  nobody's  fool.  There  is  no  danger  of  his  going  away;  but  he  is  not 
the  man  to  be  taken  by  force  without  the  papers  are  all  right." 

The  papers  were  all  wrong,  as  the  conspirators  well  knew,  and  Nettleship's 
discovery  of  Perry's  courageous  character  frustrated  the  plot  for  kidnapping  him. 
While  he  remained  at  large,  and  was  the  custodian  of  so  many  dangerous  secrets, 
it  was  not  safe  to  prosecute  the  annexation  scheme.  It  was  abandoned  for  the 
time  being,  with  a  view  of  renewing  it  at  no  distant  day.  But  Buenaventura, 
Baez  was  shortly  deposed,  and  the  foul  partnership  between  him  and  the  Wash- 
ington authorities  was  thus  permanently  terminated. 

So  ended  Grant's  attempt  to  annex  San  Domingo  to  the  United  States. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT.  421 


THE   HISTORY   OF   A   CARPET-BAG 
GOVERNMENT. 


HOW    SOUTH    CAROLINA    WAS    SHAMELESSLY    ROBBED. 

The  elections  of  1876  swept  from  power  the  infamous  Republican  carpet-bag 
government  which  had  for  years  dominated  several  of  the  Southern  states.  On 
the  4th  of  March,  1879,  the  representatives  of  those  governments,  with  one  ex- 
ception, departed  from  the  Senate  forever.  That  solitary  exception,  Wm.  Pitt 
KeUogg  of  Louisiana,  is  convicted  of  having  obtained  his  election  by  fraud,  per- 
jury and  bribery,  and  he  will  probably  be  expelled  from  the  Senate  at  the  next 
session  of  Congress.  Although  the  cormorants  have  been  driven  from  the  states 
which  they  plundered,  the  memory  of  their  deeds  remains  fresh  in  the  minds  of 
the  people.  Their  acts  will  not  be  forgotten  so  long  as  the  taxpayers  continue 
to  groan  under  the  burden  of  indebtedness  created  to  line  their  pockets. 

These  carpet-bag  governments  are  responsible  not  only  for  the  millions  of 
dollars  of  debt  imposed  upon  an  impoverished  people,  but  for  the  utter  stag- 
nation of  the  business  interests  of  the  states  which  they  controlled  and  the  pros- 
tration of  all  the  rich  material  resources  of  an  immense  section  of  the  Union. 
Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  North  Carolina,  South  Caro- 
lina, Arkansas  and  Virginia  all  suffered  from  the  invasion  of  these  pests,  but 
South  Carolina  alone  has  been  able  to  make  a  record  which  shows  in  its  clearest 
light  the  manner  in  which  these  adventurers  administered  the  affairs  of  a  great 
commonwealth. 

THE   SOUTH   CAROLINA  INVESTIGATION. 

At  the  regular  session  of  the  general  assembly  of  South  Carolina  in  1877-78 
an  investigation  of  the  frauds  perpetrated  in  that  state  under  Senator  J.  J.  Pat- 
terson's regime  was  ordered.  The  report  of  this  committee  fills  a  volume  of  937 
pages.  It  became  apparent  to  the  thieves  who  had  plundered  the  state  as  soon 
tis  Hampton  was  elected  governor  that  an  investigation  of  their  misdeeds  would 
be  made.  An  exposure  was  certain  to  follow  the  investigation,  which  would 
make  every  member  of  the  Ring  amenable  to  the  laws  of  the  state.  Prison  doors 
yawned  before  them,  and  their  only  security  lay  in  immediate  flight.  The  ex- 
odus of  carpet-baggers  from  South  Carolina  in  1877  will  long  be  memorable. 
John  Patterson  remained  in  close  cover  at  Washington  pleading  his  privilege  as 
United  States  Senator.  Chamberlain,  Cardozo,  Scott,  Parker,  Niles,  in  fact,  all 
the  old  administrators  of  the  government  and  robbers  of  the  treasury,  fled  from 
the  state.  Some  were  arrested.  Others  were  persuaded  to  return  and  give  their 
testimony  under  promises  of  immunity. 

It  was  not  difficult  to  obtain  a  true  history  of  the  frauds  committed  by  the 
iSouth  Carolina  Ring,        State  officers,    members  of    the  legislature  and  sub- 


422  THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT. 

ordinate  oflficials  came  before  the  committee  and  unblushingly  avowed  their  par- 
ticipation in  the  frauds.  There  was  no  concealment  of  the  crimes  at  the  time 
they  were  committed.  The  entire  judiciary  of  the  state  was  controlled  by  the 
King.  The  judges  were  as  coiTupt  as  the  legislators,  and  as  long  as  the  Republi- 
cans were  in  power,  the  thieves  scoffed  at  the  idea  of  punishment.  A  majority  of 
the  members  of  the  legislature  were  ignorant  negroes.  The  white  men  at  the 
head  of  the  machine  manipulated  the  negroes  as  they  pleased,  and  dictated  the 
laws  of  the  state. 

HOW  PATTERSON  W^AS  MADE   SENATOR. 

In  1872  there  were  three  candidates  in  South  Carolina  for  election  to  the  Senate.. 
They  were  R.  B.  Elliott,  the  especial  champion  of  the  negroes,  ex- Gov.  R.  K. 
Scott,  and  John  J.  Patterson,  president  of  the  notorious  Blue  Ridge  Railroad 
Company  and  a  prominent  member  of  the  Greenville  Railroad  Syndicate.  In 
the  general  state  election  of  1872  there  had  been  a  spirited  campaign,  from  which 
the  victorious  candidates  came  out  with  exhausted  means.  For  the  four  years- 
preceding  there  had  been  a  carnival  of  corruption  in  the  state.  Many  of  the  new 
legislators  came  fresh  from  the  cornfields  and  log  cabins  of  the  rural  districts,  clad 
in  the  homely  garb  of  labor,  but,  unfortunately,  yearning  to  exchange  the  raiment 
of  honest  poverty  for  "fine  clothes,"  such  as  decked  the  persons  of  their  prede- 
cessors returning  from  previous  sessions  of  the  general  assembly. 

Patterson  established  headquarters  over  a  bar-room  in  Columbia,  and  his  strikers 
announced  that  he  proposed  to  be  elected  to  the  Senate,  and  was  willing  to  pay^ 
for  it.  The  evidence  taken  by  the  committee  showed  that  Patterson  bought  the 
votes  of  scores  of  assemblymen,  paying  from  $200  to  $1,500  apiece,  according  to 
the  estimated  value  of  the  men.  Patterson's  election  cost  him  between  $50,000 
and  $60,000  more,  as  he  expressed  it,  "than  the  d — d  thing  was  worth."  The 
committee,  in  its  report,  says : 

In  conclu8i«n,  the  undersigned  respectfnlly  report  that  the  election  of  Hon.  J.  J.  Patterson  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  on  December  10,  1872,  was  procured  by  corruption  and  bribery. 

They  would  further  remark  that  the  legislature  of  1872-3  was  largely  composed  of  new  mem- 
bers, and  that  they  were  most  solemnly  pledged  to  a  correction  of  past  abuses  and  to  the  inaugura- 
tion of  real  reforms.  Some  of  the  members,  who  may  have  been  unfit  for  the  discharge  of  the  im- 
portant duties  of  legislation  by  reason  of  ignorance,  yet  came  to  Columbia  with  a  desire,  in  an 
humble  way,  to  do  wnat  was  right.  John  J.  Patterson  enjoys  the  unenviable  distinction  of  having 
been  the  first  to  place  before  them  the  poisoned  chalice  of  temptation,  and  to  corrupt  them  with  its 
enticing  draughts.  Need  we  wonder  that  they  were  intoxicated  and  fell  ?  Then  followed  a  wild 
saturnalia  of  public  plunder,  the  record  of  which  furnishes  nothing  which  is  at  all  pleasant  to  inves- 
tigate or  to  perpetuate  in  history.  But  it  is  due  to  the  cause  of  good  government  that  the  story  of 
the  crimes  and  disasters  of  the  past  few  years  should  be  written  in  the  journals  of  our  courts  of 
justice  in  order  that  it  may  be  a  warning  to  all  servants  of  the  people  of  all  political  parties  of  the 
present  and  of  the  future  not  to  prove  recreant  to  high  or  humble  trusts  of  the  republic.  Let  it  also 
expose  the  dangers  menacing  a  government  resting  on  any  other  foundations  thau  those  of  educa- 
tion and  good  morals. 

PATTERSON'S   SUBSECiUENT   HISTORY   AS  TOLD   BY   HIMSELF. 

The  following  letters  were  written  by  John  J.  Patterson  to  Gen.  H.  C.  Worth- 
ington,  collector  of  the  Port  of  Charleston,  S.  C. ,  during  the  last  four  years  of 
Grant's  administration.  They  partially  tell  the  story  of  Patterson's  infamous 
career.  The  letters  begin  just  after  Patterson's  election  to  the  United  States  Senate, 
when  he  was  in  fear  of  an  indictment  for  bribery,  and  shed  light  on  various  local 
frauds,  and  give  an  insight  as  to  the  employment  of  troops  in  1876. 

WATCH  THE  GRAND  JURY. 

Ukited  States  Senate  Chamber,  | 
Washington,  January  3,  1873.  f 
Jdy  Dear  General :  I  am  terrible  hard  up  and  run  down  to  less  than  a  hundred  dollars.  I  have- 
drawn  a  draft  on  you  at  30  days  for  $500,  on  which  Sawyer  got  me  the  money.  Please  accept  it, 
and  by  that  time  we  can  provide  for  it.  Perhaps  we  can  get  Gurney  to  help  us  a  little  then,  as  the 
taxes  will  be  partly  paid  m  then,  and  money  will  be  in  the  hands  of  our  friends.  I  will  return  to 
Columbia  about  the  20th,  and  we  must  then  make  a  bold  push  to  pass  some  bill.    Get  Bowen  [an 


THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPP:T-BAG    GOVERNMENT.  423 

ex-CougresBuienl  to  talk  to  Jerry,  and  if  he  will  take  hold  I  want  him  to  introduce  our  bill.    I  see 
Neagle  tried  to  kill  Moses.    How  lucky  for  the  state  he  did  not  succeed. 

I  find  a  good  feelinir  here  toward  me,  as  the  result  of  the  investigation  we  had  at  Columbia.  I 
feci  easier  tiian  I  ever  did,  tmd  don't  tliink  we  have  anything  to  fear  from  an  investigation,  even  if 
the  Senate  should  order  one,  whicli  is  very  improbable.  I  hope  you  will  watch  the  jury  matter  at 
Columbia.  Dennis  is  our  friend,  and  will  act  in  our  behalf.  Grt  him  to  let  you  know  wlien  the 
names  will  be  made  out,  and,  wh<n  drawn,  you  had  better,  if  pos^■ible,  be  there.  As  soon  as  a  vote 
ia  taken  on  Williams'  case  and  the  Civil  Rights  Bill,  I  will  be  ready  to  go  home.  I  would  also  like 
to  be  here  to  vote  on  Shepherd's  appropriation  for  the  District.  Let  me  hear  what  Bowen  can  do 
with  Jerry,  and  if  you  have  t^een  Moses,  and  how  matters  are  generally.  1  am  happy,  only  infer- 
nally poor,  but  getting  used  to  it. 

I  saw  Jane.  She  swears  at  yon,  and  then  long^  to  see  you.  She  says  she  is  after  some  rich  fel- 
low. I  am  not  in  that  list,  and  still  feel  weak  on  the  charity  fellow.  Tom  Scott  will  try  to  pass 
his  bill.    If  I  can  only  bridge  over  the  bloody  chasm  for  two  or  three  months  I  will  be  all  right. 

Yours  truly,  JOHN.  J.  PATTERSON. 

P.  S.— Send  on  the  two  notes  I  sent  yon  from  Columbia,  as  I  will  fill  them  up  and  renew  the 
notes  in  the  Juniata  Valley  Bank  and  put  them  off  until  April. 

NEARLY  BROKE,    AND   THAT  GRAND  JURY   TO   BE   SEEN. 

United  States  Senate  Chamber,  | 
Washington,  January  16,  1873.       ) 

My  Bear  General:  I  have  been  in  such  an  uncertain  frame  of  mind  I  have  delayed  writing  you. 
I  saw  Scott  [Col.  Tom]  last  Sunday  a  week  ago,  and  he  promised  me  lo  raise  what  1  needed  to  pay 
my  debts,  but  has  not  done  it  yet,  and  says  money  is  to  tight  he  can't  do  it  now.  It  is  true  money 
ia  awful  tight  at  the  North,  but  I  don't  believe  him,  and  I  think  the  trouble  about  my  seat,  or 
rather,  fear  that  there  will  be  a  contest,  deters  him  from  advancing.  I  am  going  over  to  Phila- 
delphia this  evening  to  see  him,  and  liope  to  get  some,  as  I  am  nearly  broke,  and  must  raise  some  to 
pay  some  of  my  pressiiii;  loans.    All  this,  of  course,  is  strictly  conlidential. 

The  case  of  Caldwell  [a  Kansas  Senator  undercharges  of  bribery,  and  a  fellow  Pennsylvanian  of 
the  Kemble  school]  frighiens  them.  It  looks  ugly;  but  he  says  he  will  clear  it  all  up,  and  if  he  has 
half  a  case  the  Senate  will  keep  him  in.  I  am  very  auxious  for  him  to  succeed,  as  it  will  help  me 
by  discouraging  any  attempt  in  my  case. 

I  can  hear  or  no  effort  to  b  ;  made  here.  Elliott  [colored  Congressman]  is  here,  but  I  can  hear  of 
no  action  on  his  part.  The  Senators  of  both  parties  greet  me  ver/  cordially  and  seem  glad  I  beat 
Elliott,  and  I  am  satislied  they  will  give  me  a  fair  chance.  Now,  I  do  not  wish  to  return  to 
Columbia  as  long  as  tiie  legislature  is  in  h-ession,  as  I  do  not  want  to  see  some  of  those  fellows. 
There  is  no  use  of  my  going  unlei?s  something  turns  up  at  the  court.  Can  you  manage  tiiat  through 
Rankle  and  Dunbar,  if  I  stay  away,  if  any  attempt  should  be  made  ?  Carpenter  was  here  and  is 
all  right,  and  you  can  confer  fully  with  him.  If  I  am  away  and  it  is  done  it  would  look  better, 
but  of  course  I  will  go  if  it  is  necessary.  If  I  could  have  raised  money  I  would  have  telegraphed 
you  to  come  on,  but  I  was  too  poor,  and  thougtit  we  could  not  enjoy  ourselves  when  both  were 
broke. 

I  saw  Mrs.  B.  [the  seal-lock  lobbyist]  in  New  York.  She  is  happy  and  salubrious.  The  other 
fellow  [Gen.  Roddy]  has  not  returned  from  Europe. 

It  is  evident  that  Ryan  and  McAdden  want  to  sell  the  N.  and  P.  R.  R.,  as  by  the  terms  payment 
can  be  made  in  bonds  and  coupons.  They  will  buy  it  and  hold  it  themselves.  It  is  impossible  to 
get  Scott  [Col.  Tom],  or  any  one  else,  to  go  into  New  Railroad  schemes  now,  as  money  is  too 
scarce. 

Now,  as  to  the  scrip  [Blue  Ridge  Railroad].  If  it  fails  I  will  be  in  a  bad  way;  and  it  is  ail 
Neagle' 3  fault.  He  is  so  bull-headed  and  nearly  always  wrong  that  he  ruins  every  one  connected 
with  him.  I  still  have  hopes  that  !^ome  good  may  come  of  his  plan.  Robertson  [then  United  States 
Senator  from  South  Carolina]  has  been  active  for  me  in  setting  things  right,  and  done  me  great 
good.  He  will  act  in  harmony  with  me  in  regard  to  the  appointments,  and  seems  very  kind  and 
cordial  and  accommodating. 

I  want  badly  to  see  you.  but  think  it  better  for  you  to  remain  there  until  I  return,  or  until  after 
the  February  court.  You  should  see  about  the  grand  jury  and  the  right  man  for  foreman,  as  he 
will  have  power  to  help  us.  After  it  is  all  over,  and  if  I  can  raise  some  money  to  keep  us  both 
going,  I  want  you  to  come  here,  and  we  will  remain  here  until  I  am  sworn  in.  There  will  be  an 
executive  session  cf  the  Senate  for  a  few  days. 

I  have  written  Jacobs  to-day  fully,  and  am  sorry  I  have  to  write  3'ou  so  much  bad  news,  and 
hoped  to  wait  for  better.  However,  we  should  not  complain.  Even  after  a  victory  it  requires  time 
to  repair  damages,  and  we  mu::'t  be  economical  and  virtuous  until  we  repair  damages.  The  future 
looks  very  promising,  and  we  will  flourish. 

Good-by,  old  fellow,  and  may  God  bless  yon  and  keep  you  from  temptation  1  Tell  Miles  [Parker] 
his  old  friend  Whiiney  is  at  the  Arlington,  and  is  known  as  the  rich  and  gay  Southern  widow. 
Such  is  life  in  Washington.  I  have  been  nearly  tempted  several  times,  but  I  have  lesolved  to  fear 
God  and  eschew  evil,  and  you  should  do  likewise.  I  will  keep  you  posted  as  to  my  whereabouts  so 
you  can  write  or  telegraph  me.  Yours  truly,  JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 

HEART  BOWED  DOWN — THAT   GRAND  JURY  MUST   BE   WATCHED. 

J.  J.  Patterson,  President.        F.  S.  Jacobs,  Sec.  and  Treas. 

[Cut  of  train  of  cars.] 

Office  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Railroad  Co., 
Columbia,  S.  C,  Dec.  25,  1873.  j 

My  Dear  General:  I  have  no  heart  to  write  or  do  anything.  It  is  a  sad  Christmas.  You  of 
course  have  heard  of  our  being  completely  cleaned  out.  The  secret  history  I  wid  tell  you  when  I 
see  you.  Frank  [Gov.  Moses]  did  not  sell  us  out,  only  he  h;id  not  the  courage  to  make  a  fight  for 
us  when  it  was  necessary.  He  is  not  so  much  to  blame  as  some  others.  Old  Wesley  and  Neagle, 
the  one  through  stupidity,  the  other  through  worse,  did  more  to  defeat  us  than,  any  one  el.>^e.  It  is 
a  long  story,  and  I  want  to  forget  it.  The  only  hope  is  to  jiass  a  bill  when  they  meet  again  to  pay 
gcrip  m  bonds  at  par.    This  we  can  do.    Cardozo  [state  treasurer]  assures  me  he  will  nelp.    Per- 


424  THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CAEPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT. 

haps  we  may  get  them  to  allow  interest  on  the  scrip.  I  have  given  it  two  months'  hard  work,  and 
am  feeling  very  badly.  Can  Bo  wen  do  anything  with  Jerry  to  make  him  go  right?  They  seem 
cross  at  iis  both  [I  mean  Gilleon  and  Jerry]. 

I  must  go  to  Washington,  and  would  like  very  much  to  see  you.  I  can  neither  sell  or  rent  my 
house,  and  will  wait  until  February.  I  will  return  here  after  the  legislature  meets  to  try  it  again, 
as  it  is  my  only  hope.  My  great  trouble  is  how  to  bridge  over  the  next  two  months.  Can  you  or 
Gurney  help  me  in  any  way?  I  need  five  hundred  dollars  very  badly.  It  seems  very  strange,  the 
warehouse  and  drayage  all  at  once  turns  out  nothing  when  there  is  so  much  business  in  port  and 
when  other  years  it  paid  so  well.  Shepherd  got  no  appropriation  before  the  recess,  and  you  can 
get  nothing  there.     Curse  the  luck.     Everything  goes  wrong. 

I  hear  no  more  stories  of  bribery,  except  that  I  paid  Coleman  $8,000  to  dismiss  the  case.  I  wish 
1  had  half  that  much.  Jones  was  arrested  and  gave  bail.  Moses  agrees  to  appoint  Dennis  jury 
commissioner.  The  jury  matter  must  be  watched  closely,  or  it  may  lead  to  trouble.  I  must  go 
to  Washington,  as  it  will  not  do  to  stay  away  any  longer.  Could  you  come  to-morrow  night  and 
let  us  look  over  matters?  I  forgot  to  send  you  Mounce's  name,  although  I  presume  you  got  it  from 
the  newspapers.  It  is  W.  H.  Mounce,  but  I  can't  find  out  what  the  W.  stands  for.  You  had  better 
write  to  him  and  inquire.    I  will  start  on  Sunday  or  Monday. 

Telegraph  me  if  you  can  come  up  Friday  night.  Wishing  you  had  more  pleasure  to-day  than  I 
have  had,  I  remain.  Yours  truly,  JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 

DEAD  BROKE,  AND  BOSS  SHEPHERD'S  APPROPRIATION  NOT  MADE. 

Columbia,  Dec.  27,  1873. 
Dear  General:  I  enclose  you  note  indorsed,  which  you  can  fill  up.  For  God's  sake  try  to  get  it, 
•or  I  can^t  go  to  Washington,  as  I  am  dead  broke  and  can't  raise  any  money.  I  loaned  some  money 
around  and  now  can't  get  a  dollar  in  return.  Try  early  Monday  morning  and  telegraph  me.  If 
you  fail  I  don't  know  what  in  the  hell  to  do.  If  you  get  it,  telegraph  me  here,  and  get  a  draft  pay- 
able to  my  order  and  forward  it  at  once  to  me  at  Washington. 

Be  sure  to  give  Mounce  a  place  or  he  may  ^o  back  on  us.  After  you  see  the  appropriation  made 
■for  Shepherd  you  should  come  on,  and  we  will  try  to  get  something  out  of  him.  That  will  not  be 
until  February.    Hoping  to  hear  from  ^ou  favorably,  I  am  yours  truly, 

JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 
I  inclosed  two  [notes],  thinking  it  might  be  easier  to  get  two  discounted  for  $250  each  at  differ- 
'.ent  banks. 

IF  DENNIS  IS  JURY  COMMISSIONER  ALL   WILL  BE  WELL. 

Columbia,  Dec.  29,  1873. 
My  Bear  General:  Your  despatch  received,  and  was  more  bad  news.  I  start  to-morrow,  and 
what  I  am  to  do  is  a  mystery.  If  you  possibly  can  get  $250,  do  it,  and  send  it  to  me.  Moses  will, 
he  says,  appoint  Dennis  [jury  commissioner],  and  ir  he  does  Dennis  will  be  all  right.  See  him 
when  he  goes  to  Charleston  on  1st  January.  I  make  Frank  [Gov.  Moses]  believe  we  do  not  blame 
him,  and  put  it  all  on  Cardozo;  and  when  you  meet  him  be  friendly  with  him,  and  say  that  we  do 
not  "blame  him,  and  that  I  have  written  you  that  way.  We  must  keep  in  with  him,  and,  if  possible, 
get  something  for  our  scrip,  so  we  will  have  it  out  of  the  next  campaign. 

Try,  if  possible,  to  raise  me  $250  on  one  of  those  notes.  Write  me  to  Washington.  Be  sure  to 
attend  to  the  drawing  of  the  jury.  Gen.  Robertson  is  here,  and  says  I  have  trouble  ahead  in  Wash- 
ington—that them  attacks  have  done  me  harm.    Good-by. 

Yours  truly,  JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 

READY  FOR  A  HELL  OF   A  FIGHT. 

United  States  Senate  Chamber,  I 
Washington,  Dec.  11,  1874.         j 

My  Dear  General:  Yours  received.  I  am  not  despairing  of  the  party  or  the  Republic,  and  am 
ready  for  a  hell  of  a  fight,  and  only  regret  we  must  wait  so  long  ;  but  I  feel  hurt  that  Chamberlain 
should  go  out  of  his  way  to  insult  me  by  appointing  such  a  fellow  as  Jones,  who  is  no  one's  friend, 
only  Cardozo' 8  spy,  and  who  abuses  me  on  all  occasions.  Puffer,  Solomon,  Judge  Carpenter  and 
myself  went  to  lum  and  asked  it  should  not  be  done,  and  he  assured  us  he  had  made  no  such 
promise.  It  was  a  deliberate  lie,  and  a  mean  one,  and  he  should  be  ashamed  of  himself.  When  I 
think  you  and  I,  Puffer,  Carpenter,  and  only  a  few  were  his  friends  over  a  year  ago,  and  deter- 
mined to  make  him  governor  before  Melton  or  Cardozo  believed  he  had  any  chance,  it  seems  very 
nnkind  in  him  to  disregard  our  wishes.  As  he,  Cardozo  and  Elliott  offer  us  no  share  of  their  patron- 
age, I  propose  that  we  use  our  patronage  entirely  for  our  own  benefit,  but  not  now,  as  it  is  time 
enough. 

No  doubt  Chamberlain  thought  it  would  soothe  us  by  writing  to  you  that  he  would  stand  by  us. 
I  do  not  know  that  we  need  his  help,  and  let  him  show  his  gratitude  by  refusing  to  give  our  enemies 
places.  Rainey  is  very  much  excited  because  I  will  not  help  to  remove  Sam  Lee,  and  he  can't  do  it 
without  me.  There  is  no  use  in  our  quarrelling  with  these  enemies  when  they  feed  us.  We  made 
ourselves  odious  to  the  people  of  the  state  by  fighting  the  battles  for  Elliott  and  Chamberlain,  and 
now  they  are  willing  to  see  us  cursed  if  they  can  be  praised.  We  hold  the  cards  and  I  propose  to 
play  them  in  future  for  our  benefit.    When  you  come  up  we  will  talk  the  whole  matter  over. 

I  trust  Bowen  and  Puffer  will  get  their  jud;^e,  but  Chamberlain  told  me  he  was  opposed  to 
Baker  because  he  was  a  carpet-bagger,  and  it  would  not  do  to  run  that  question  too  strong.  I  felt 
cross  then,  and  told  him  he  had  oetter  not  talk  that  way  or  it  would  ruin  him.  From  that  time 
I  gave  up  my  confidence  in  him.  I  know  he  will  cheat  all  our  friends  in  the  state.  Like  Moses, 
he  will  think  it  best  to  break  us  all  down,  and,  like  him,  he  will  fail.  I  am  in  good  spirits  and 
having  a  good  time,  and  do  not  want  to  change  my  luck.    Yours  truly,  J.  J.  P. 

HELL  AND  THE  POORHOUSK  NOT  FAR  OFF. 

United  States  Senate  Chamber,  ) 
Washington,  Jan.  23,  1876.         \ 
Dear  General:    I  have  delayed  writing,  intending  to  go  South  if  necessary.    I  do  not  think  it  is 
at  this  time.    The  grand  jury  will  be  drawn  this  week,  and  as  soon  as  we  know  the  complexion  of 


thp:  history  of  a  carpet-bag  government.  425 

« 

it  we  can  tell  where  we  are.  I  look  for  the  worst  kind  of  jurors,  as  the  Chairman  of  County  Com- 
missioners is  George  Davis,  a  Democrat,  but  I  guess  Nash  can  do  something  with  him.  After  the 
grand  jury  is  announced  it  will  be  time  enough  for  me  to  go  down. 

Baldwm  writes  me  that  Warner  told  him  that  owing  to  the  reduction  nothing  had  been  paid  up, 
and  the  matter  was  dropped.  When  Cunningham  [Mayor  of  Charleston]  taxes  his  policemen  $20 
per  month  for  three  months,  on  a  salary  of  $60,  to  raise  money,  I  think  your  employees,  with  sal- 
aries ranging  from  $750  to  $2,500,  should  help  to  carry  the  load.  To-day  they  all  hold  their  places 
through  me,  for,  if  I  would  join  in  the  effort  to  turn  you  out,  there  would  be  no  one  to  oppose  it, 
and  they  would  all  be  turned  out,  and  would  soon  find  their  present  salaries  three  times  what  they 
could  make  outside.  However,  I  am  glad  they  did  not  give  anything,  as  it  might  be  brought  up 
against  you  and  me  in  the  fight  against  you.  I  will  stand  by  you,  but  hereafter  hope  you  will  not 
hesitate  to  turn  any  of  them  out  to  make  room  for  some  one  who  can  help  us  politically.  These 
fellows  do  not  thank  us,  and  I  propose  to  disregard  their  interests  hereafter.  As  I  said,  it  is  well 
nothing  has  been  paid,  and  I  ask  that  nothing  shall  be,  as  it  will  only  be  used  against  us. 

No  matter  how  much  I  do  for  other  people,  no  one  is  ready  or  able  to  help  me.  You  are  the 
only  one  who  tries  to  help  me,  and  I  certainly  appreciate  it.  If  I  would  consent,  every  Federal 
officer  would  be  removed  except  Corbin  and  Bowman.  I  confirmed  Corbin  [U.  S.  district  attor- 
ney] to  show  him  I  would  keep  my  promise,  and  if  he  breaks  his  to  me  I  can't  help  it.  You  and 
Bowman  made  me  go  for  him. 

I  see  no  way  now  to  hold  my  house.  If  I  had  not  relied  upon  the  money  yon  expected  to  raise, 
I  would  have  brought  my  furniture  here,  but  it  is  sold,  and  Baldwin  got  the  pay,  and  I  suppose  now 
I  am  to  lose  house,  furniture  and  all.  Well,  every  day  things  get  worse.  Hell  and  the  poorhouse 
can't  be  far  off  ! 

Of  course,  we  could  not  tell  about  the  reduction,  but  where  there  is  a  will  there  is  always  a  way. 
Now,  let  it  go,  and  do  say,  or  do  nothing  but  tell  the  committee  to  drop  it  finally.  I  can't  raise  the 
money  to  furnish  this  house,  and,  with  a  prospect  of  indictments  ahead  and  lawyers'  expenses,  I 
do  not  wish  to  go  in  debt.  I  am  so  much  troubled  sometimes  I  get  perfectly  desperate.  What  a 
fool  I  was  to  impoverish  my  family  and  myself,  and  to  render  myself  liable  to  prosecutions,  in 
order  to  secure  and  hold  an  office  to  benefit  every  one  but  myself.  Hereafter  I  propose  to  only  help 
them  who  help  me.  I  am  getting  very  poor  at  the  generosity  game.  Spencer  [Republican  Senator 
from  Alabama]  told  me  his  Federal  officers  raised  him  ten  thousand  dollars  in  one  year,  and  he  hag 
not  as  many  as  we  have,  I  don't  believe. 

I  talk  thus  freely  to  you,  as  we  understand  each  other.  We  have  been  too  easy  and  too  free 
with  our  former  favors  and  patronage.  It  may  be  too  late,  but  let  us  help  ourselves.  Cass  Car- 
penter is  here,  and  gives  me  all  the  news.  I  have  read  Whipper's  speech.  It  is  heavy,  but  true 
and  just. 

Everything  here  is  all  right.  Everbody  is  getting  Radical,  and  the  whole  North  is  waking  up  to 
understand  the  Southern  question,  A  unitea  Democratic  South  has  alarmed  the  North  !  You  are 
all  right,  and  I  do  not  fear  any  danger.  All  our  friends  will  stand  by  us.  After  we  hear  about  the 
grand  jury  we  can  determine  about  my  going  down  or  your  coming  up.  I  will  write  Dennis 
(jury  commissioner]  to  write  me  as  soon  as  it  is  announced.    Cass  will  also  write  me. 

I  am  very  well.  Willie  is  here  from  school.  I  really  could  not  afford  to  send  him.  He  is  young 
yet,  and  may  go  hereafter.    He  is  my  clerk.  Your  friend, 

J.  J.  PATTERSON. 

A  HELL   OF   A  TIME,    BUT  BOSS   SHEPHERD  A  TRUMP. 

United  States  Senate  Chambeb,  | 
Washington,  May  8,  1876.     \ 

Dear  General:  I  have  had  a  hell  of  a  time  with  your  bond.  Park,  the  agent,  reported  against 
its  sufficiency,  owin^  to  the  condition  of  Solomon  and  Dunn,  and  the  fact  that  McKenley  and  Tom 
Johnson  were  on  other  bonds.  He  did  all  he  could  to  damage  the  bond,  and  Bluford  Wilson  [So- 
licitor of  the  United  States  Treasury]  decided  it  not  good.  11.  C.  Johnson  [Commissioner  of  Cus- 
toms] said  he  would  overrule  Wilson  if  I  could  get  a  strong  man  on  here.  I  went  to  Gov.  Shepherd 
and  told  him  how  you  were  being  persecuted,  and  asked  him  to  go  on,  and  this  morning,  like  a  man, 
he  went  up  and  went  on  the  bond  and  justified  in  $50,000— thus  taking  the  whole  bond  upon  him- 
self if  your  other  sureties  are  not  good.  The  agent  reports  Gurney  and  Bart  good;  McKenley  and 
Johnson  and  Sanborn  and  Howard  only  probable,  and  Solomon  and  Dunn  not  good. 

As  soon  as  Shepherd  signed  the  bond,  Commissioner  of  Customs  Johnson  at  once  approved  the 
bond,  so  it  is  all  fixed.  I  want  you  write  Shepherd,  thanking  him  for  his  kindness.  Mr.  Rawlins 
was  present  and  told  Shepherd  the  condition  of  the  office  and  accounts.  Johnson  told  him  it  was 
one  of  the  best  offices  in  the  country.  Now  say  nothing  to  any  one,  only  keep  quiet  and  your  own 
counsels.    You  have  triumphed,  and  that  is  enough. 

Butts  has  injured  his  case  by  rushing  into  the  newspapers,  and  I  think  the  result  now  will  be 
that  Mackey  will  be  ousted  and  a  new  election  ordered.  I  wrote  that  Bowen  and  friends  would 
consult  with  Elliott  and  others  and  agree  upon  a  candidate  and  a  programme.  Whoever  is  the  can- 
didate must  agree  to  raise  money,  and  if  he  can't  he  should  not  ask  us  to  support  him.  Grant 
seems  unwilling  to  remove  Bowman  now  without  cause.  Jewell  [Postmaster-General]  seems  will- 
ing to  do  it,  but  Grant,  as  usual,  hesitates  to  do  what  is  decent.  I  have  kept  it  very  quiet,  and  want 
you  to  say  that  no  effort  is  being  made  to  remove  Bowman.  I  will  get  him  out  after  a  while,  only 
I  do  not  wish  to  make  a  losing  fight. 

I  am  awful  poor  and  do  not  know  what  to  do.  Is  there  any  possible  chance  for  you  to  take  care 
of  a  draft  for  $500  ?  I  go  to  the  Centennial  to-morrow  with  my  wife,  but  we  only  remain  there  on 
Wednesday  and  return  on  Thursday,  and  go  by  special  train  to  York,  so  that  I  have  not  written 
Mrs.  W.,  as  she  would  not  desire  to  go  over  for  one  day.  We  go  over  because  we  are  to  go  as  dead- 
heads. Mrs.  P.  and  the  boys  will  go  over  again  in  June,  and  I  think  Mrs.  W.  had  better  go  then 
with  us,  and  you  will  be  here  and  can  go  along. 

We  had  the  Emperor  [Dora  Pedro]  m  the  Senate  gallery  to-day.  He  is  a  good-looking  man  and 
travels  quietly,  and  goes  about  like  a  private  gentleman. 

I  am  glad  Stone  was  appointed.  It  will  show  Elliott  how  Chamberlain  feels.  I  had  a  letter  from 
Judge  Carpenter,  who  is  still  for  fight.  I  am  anxious  to  see  you  all,  but  will  wait  until  we  get  to- 
gether in  June.  I  am  afraid  Cass  Carpenter  will  fail  in  his  bond.  Corbin  has  it  now.  I  thihk  Don 
Cameron  will  go  into  the  Cabinet  in  a  few  days,  but  I  do  not  know  in  whose  place.  Say  not  a  word 
about  it.    Glad  Jo  Cain  beat  Mackey.  Your  friend, 

JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 


426  THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT. 

DON   CAMERON   WILL   RESPOND   FREELY. 

Unitkb  States  Senate  Chamber,  > 
Was-hington,  July  30,  1876,      j" 

J/w  Dmr  General:  Your  letters  have  all  been  received  and  read  with  pleasure.  I  have  not 
answered  becauee  I  hate  to  write  letters  and  have  little  to  say.  We  are  waiting,  bat  everything  i» 
uncertain,  and  no  one  can  tell  when  we  will  adjourn.  We  will  stand  out,  and  if  the  House  insists, 
we  may  not  adjourn  unless  Grant  sends  us  home  by  cause  of  disagreement  on  adjournment.  I  have 
been  at  Morrill  [Secretary  of  the  Treasury]  to  approve  of  Shine's  removal,  and  he  has  agreed  to  do 
it.  Yesterday  I  was  there,  and  Conant  [Assitant  Secretary  of  the  Treasury]  sent  for  the  papers  and 
promised  me  to  attend  to  it,  and  I  guess  he  will.  I  will  see  him  to-morrow  again.  I  am  watching 
things  at  home  with  great  interest  and  am  very  anxious  to  go  and  will  be  there  by  the  15th,  if  not 
sooner,    I  will  give  up  Congress,  as  I  want  to  be  at  home  and  take  a  hand. 

I  have  much  to  tell  you,  but  can't  write  it,  and  will  wait  until  I  get  home.  Don  Cameron  is  all 
right,  and  we  can  get  all  the  help  we  want.  I  go  to  New  York  Tuesday,  to  attend  meeting  of  exec- 
utive committee  [National  Republican]  on  2d  August,  as  I  am  on  it.  Potter  goes  out  as  architect. 
That  is  good.    Gov.  C.  was  very  anxious  while  here,  and  I  told  him  I  guess  we  would  be  all  right. 

I  hope  the  Dems.  will  nominate  on  15,  and  then  we  can  throw  Gov.  C.  overboard,  and  there  i< 
no  one  that  can  offer  him  belter  terms  than  I  can.  He  will  trust  us  before  those  other  fellows. 
However,  it  will  be  time  enougli  when  I  get  down.  Smalls  is  very  bitter  against  Gov.  C.  You  get 
all  the  news  in  the  papers,  while  I  can  tell  nothing  of  S.  C.  affairs  from  the  papers. 

Yours  truly,  J.  J.  PATTERSON. 

MODEIi    LETTER   FROM   A    UNITED    STATES    SENATOR, 

United  States  Senate  Chamber,     \ 
Washington,  July  22,  1877.  j 

Dear  General :  Yours  received  and  of  course  gave  me  great  anxiety.  I  have  emploi^ed  Colonel 
Cook,  one  of  our  shrewdest  lawyers,  and  he  says  they  can  only  require  me  to  give  bail  here,  and 
that  I  can  demand  a  hearing,  and  the}^  must  prove  their  case,  and  that  I  can  offer  proof  of  my 
innocence,  and  if  the  commissioner  thinks  proper  he  can  dit^charge  me.  He  says  I  can  resist  even 
if  I  am  indicted,  which  cannot  be  until  October.  Judge  Carrier  would  grant  the  requisition,  and 
he  is  all  right.  It  will  be  so  apparent  an  effort  to  get  me  out  of  the  Senate  that  every  one  will 
understand  it,  and  make  me  friends  and  create  sympathy  for  me.  I  will  keep  a  sharp  lookout,  but 
in  no  event  shall  I  be  taken  back  to  S.  C. 

Dennis  is  staying  here,  and  seems  very  uneasy.  I  have  seen  Scott  to-day.  He  is  uneasy,  but 
pretends  otherwise.  I  can't  think  they  will  attempt  to  send  for  any  of  us  without  an  indictment. 
I  will  telegraph  you  if  they  come  for  me,  and  I  may  need  your  testimony  in  my  behalf,  and  vou 
will  understand  if  I  telegraph  you  to  come  here.    Now  to  pleasure: 

One  day  last  week  I  saw  a  splendid  looking  girl  in  the  Ninth  street  car.  I  was  bad  struck.  I 
saw  her  another  day  in  a  store.  On  Friday  I  wrote  a  note  to  your  friend  Miss  Van  Buren  to  meet 
me  at  Crosby's  on  Saturday,  but  she  did  not  come.  I  sent  her  a  note  that  I  would  like  to  see  and 
say  where  I  "could  see  her,  and  she  sent  me  word  to  come  and  see  her  at  her  rooms  yesterday  at  4, 
and  when  I  went,  found  her  to  be  my  street  car  lady.  She  is  gorgeous.  She  put  on  airs,  and  was 
very  stiff,  and  I  made  an  excuse  that  you  wanted  me  to  help  her  to  get  an  ottlce,  and  had  asked  me 
to  call,  but  I  had  forgotten  her  address  and  had  written  you  for  it.  She  seemed  afraid  of  me,  was 
engaged  last  evening,  said  she  would  go  away  to-day  for  a  few  days.  I  asked  her  to  let  me  know 
when  she  returned,  and  she  only  half  promised.  She  said  she  was  going  to  write  you,  and  if  she 
does,  tell  her  I  will  befriend  her.  We  must  not  let  that  go  out  of  the  family.  Keep  up  heart;  keep 
me  posted.    Your  friend,  PATTERSON. 

DON  CAMERON'S   ORDER  MEANS    "BIZ." 

United  States  Senate  Chamber,     I 
Washington,  Aug.  18,  1876.  j" 

Dear  General :  I  enclose  you  Bemy's  appointment.  Have  him  make  up  a  strong  bond,  as 
Senator  Robertson  will  strike  at  it.  Have  it  approved  by.Corbin,  if  possible.  Say  nothing,  and 
keep  it  quiet  if  you  can.  Sheer's  removal  was  ordered  to-day.  I  am  getting  things  ready  so  I  can 
go  down,  and  expect  to  start  on  Monday  or  Tuesday. 

Hampton's  nomination  will  unite  our  party  and  prevent  any  bolt,  and  if  we  throw  Gov.  C.  off 
he  must  still  support  the  ticket.  Don  Cameron's  order  [sending  troops  to  South  Carolina),  means 
"  biz."  We  will  »et  all  the  troops  we  want.  I  had  them  ordered  to  Laurens,  Edgefield  and  Black- 
ville,  and  we  will  have  other  places  filled. 

I  have  very  much  to  tell  you,  but  will  Avait  until  I  see  you.  Everything  looks  well  and  our 
friends  are  very  confident.    Yours  truly,  JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 

BLAINE,    HALE   AND  FRYE   WANT  ME  IN   MAINE, 

United  States  Senate  Chamber,  { 
Washington,  Aug.  26,  1876.     f 

My  Dear  General  .•  Your  letters  all  received,  I  can't  leave  here  until  after  next  Wednesday,  and 
I  hope  by  that  time  Bemy's  bond  will  be  received,  I  would  like  to  be  here  to  help  it  through,  as 
Tom  Robertson  may  object  to  it,  I  guess  it  is  as  well  for  me  to  be  away  from  S.  C.  just,  now.  Lei 
Dunn  and  D.  H.  C.  fight,  and  let  us  be  friendly  to  both,  and  when  the  Convention  meets  we  will 
know  what  to  do.  I  do  not  know  what  is  best  to  do  even  if  I  can  be  nominated  [for  governor] , 
but  you  and  Bowen  and  I  will  talk  it  over. 

Shine's  removal  has  been  ordered,  and  I  presume  you  have  the  secretary's  letter.  Hiram  goes 
out  and  StoUtsund  takes  his  place.  I  found  Grant  wanted  to  give  him  some  place,  and  proposed  - 
this.  He  is  our  friend,  and  will  do  what  you  waut.  But  don't  say  I  had  it  done.  I  could  not  get 
it  for  Dennis,  and  when  I  found  I  could  use  (name  illegible),  thought  it  would  be  wise  to  do  it. 

1  guess  I  am  doing  as  well  here  as  if  I  was  at  home.  Blaine,  Hale  and  Frye  want  me  to  go  tc» 
Maine  and  repeat  my  speech  there.  I  would  like  to  go  on  Thursday  next,  and  stay  so  I  could 
reach  Columbia  on  the  11th.  If  you  think  I  could  stay  away  telegraph  me.  My  speech  is  univer- 
sally commended,  and  is  highly  spoken  of.  I  guess  it  was  a  success.  Keep  me  posted.  I  hope 
Bowen  will  succeed  in  his  matters.  In  the  meantime,  I  have  a  little  good  (rye).  Don't  you  take 
water,  old  fellow.    It  is  good  to  sec  the  Reps  snub  D.  H.  C. 

Your  friend,  JOHN  J.  PATTERSON. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT.  427 

TELL   AS  LITTLE   AS  POSSIBLE. 

United  States  Senate  Chambeh,  I 
Washington,  July  28,  '77.  f 
Deaf  General:  Just  returned  ;  have  seen  Jake.  He  is  all  right,  and  will  do  what  is  wanted.  I 
have  received  year  letters,  and  also  your  despatch  saying  you  are  enmmoned.  I  would  go,  and 
refuse  to  answer  anything,  especially  on  the  ground  of  your  being  counsel  for  Parker  and  Scott  and 
Moses.  You  can  prove  that  by  Jacobs  and  me.  Tell  them  you  only  knew  of  the  Mooney  and  Leg- 
gett  warrants  as  counsel.  The  story  of  Moses  about  those  certificates  is  all  t'tuff.  If  ever  I  bought 
any  it  was  on  the  street.  He  can't  substantiate  this  story,  and  Jacobs  and  I  know  it  is  not  true,  but 
don't  say  anything  about  it.  Tell  the  committee  as  little  as  possible.  In  regard  to  my  election, 
decline  to  answer  on  the  ground  that  you  were  my  counsel  and  acted  as  such,  and  all  you  know  was 
obtained  in  that  confidence.  They  can't  commit  you  for  contempt  until  the  legislature  meets,  and 
by  that  time  I  think  we  can  h'lve  it  stop'd,  or  you  out  of  their  reach.  Write  me  after  you  testify. 
I  send  this  to  Columbia.  I  still  do  not  think  they  will  find  anything  against  you  and  me  except  in 
regard  to  my  election,  and  I  do  not  believe  they  will  press  that.  I  still  think  they  will  let  you  and 
me  alone.  I  am  anxiously  looking  for  Butler.  If  he  is  in  Columbia  let  me  (know),  and  find  out 
when  he  is  coming.  1  care  nothing  for  what  Moses  may  tell  or  say.  I  will  write  you  to-morrow 
again.    I  will  keep  Jake  posted. 

Yours  truly,  J.J.PATTERSON. 

A  MODEL  CARPET-BAG  LEGISLATURE. 

"A  state  has  no  right  to  be  a  state  unless  she  can  pay  and  take  care  of  her  states- 
men," said  the  Hon.  C.  P.  Leslie,  a  carpet-bag  State  Senator  of  South  Carolina. 
This  opinion  met  with  the  unanimous  approval  of  every  other  Republican  in  both 
branches  of  the  assembly.  Right  nobly  did  South  Carolina  take  care  of  her 
"statesmen"  under  the  carpet-bag  regime.  The  supplies  purchased  during  one 
session  of  the  legislature,  under  the  head  of  ' '  legislative  expenses,  sundries  and 
stationery,"  cost  $350,000,  of  which  sum  not  less  than  $125,000  was  paid  for  "re- 
freshments," "wines,"  "liquors"  and  "cigars."  The  legislative  duties  of  the 
South  Carolina  statesmen  were  extremely  fatiguing.  The  climate  of  the  country 
being  naturally  enervating,  it  became  necessary  for  the  assemblymen  to  provide 
some  place  where  needful  repose  might  be  obtained.  'A  large  room  in  the  State 
House  was  fitted  up  in  the  most  elaborate  manner.  The  walls  were  magnificently 
decorated,  furniture  the  most  costly  was  purchased,  and  every  luxurious  appli- 
ance necessary  for  the  bodily  comfort  of  the  members  and  pleasing  to  their  artistic 
tastes,  so  surprisingly  developed,  was  obtained  regardless  of  cost.  Nor  were 
their  grosser  natures  neglected  in  this  legislative  retreat.  Westphalia  hams,  Bo- 
logna sausages,  imported  cheeses,  gilt-edge  butter,  sardines,  smoked  and  canned 
salmon,  beef,  buffalo  tongues,  fresh  oysters,  mushrooms,  guava  jelly,  pickles, 
brandy  cherries  and  peaches,  French  chocolate  and  other  refreshments  filled  the 
larder.  Bottles  of  various  brands  of  champagne.  Moselle,  Catawba,  Chateau  la 
Rose,  La  Fitte,  sherry,  Madeira,  cognac,  rye  and  bourbon  whiskies,  gin,  rum  and 
bitters  were  on  hand  to  promote  digestion.  Negroes  whose  only  acquaintance 
with  tobacco  previously  had  been  the  mastication  of  horse-leg  plug  and  manufac- 
tured leaf,  smoked  imported  brevas,  partagas,  espanolas,  conchas  and  other  brands 
of  choice  cigars.  The  champagnes  cost  $40  per  case,  port  wine  $40  per  dozen, 
brandy  $20  per  gallon  and  other  articles  in  the  same  proportion,  all  paid  for  by 
the  state. 

A  WONDERFUL   BAR-ROOM. 

The  State  House  bar-room  was  kept  open  from  8  A.  M.  to  3  A.  M.  There  the 
state  officials,  judges,  Senators,  members  of  the  House,  citizens  generally  and  in- 
vited guests  assembled  and  discussed  affairs  of  state.  The  legislators  of  South 
Carolina  developed  a  fertility  of  resource,  a  knowledge  of  mankind  and  a  true 
insight  into  the  needs  of  the  commonwealth  under  these  circumstances  which  is 
unequalled  in  the  history  of  legislation.  The  investigating  committee  examined 
the  barkeeper  of  the  State  House  restaurant.  Although  familiar  with  social  resorts 
of  large  cities,  the  barkeeper  said  that  "he  never  saw  a  bar-room  equal  to  the 
State  House  restaurant  for  drinking,  smoking  and  talking."    The  amount  of 


430  THK    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT. 

ex-Senator  Patterson  were  the  bright  liglits  of  the  pay  certiiicatc  li'-.w-j:.  Th<>  for- 
mer issued  ♦-^le  c«Ttifieates  »nd  the  liitter  purchased  them. 

cient  cigars  to  supply  the  demanu  lOi^.v.  ^i,^-„^A  ^.j,^*  u  .^n.^  •>  -t^"n.,rio  hptween 
always  filled  their  pockets  when  they  put  their  hands  in  thelK)x.  The  state,  more- 
over, paid  for  large  quantities  of  liquors  and  cigars  furnished  members  at  their 
boarding  houses.  On  March  4th,  1872,  one  dealer  furnished  the  Senate  with 
$1,631  worth  of  wine  and  liquors,  and  on  the  7th,  three  days  later,  he  sent  to  the 
Senate  $1,852.75  worth,  aggregating  $3,483.75  in  that  brief  space  of  time.  The 
liquor  bills  were  always  promptly  paid,  while  the  free  schools  were  closed,  teach- 
ers unpaid  and  the  inmates  of  the  lunatic  asylum  were  suffering  from  lack  of 
proper  clothing  and  food.  Thte  following  is  a  literal  copy  of  one  of  the  bills  found 
among  the  vouchers  of  the  clerk  of  the  Senate : 

Columbia  Feb  22th  1872 
Gov.  A.  J.  Ransiekb  Dr. 

To  Joe  Taylob 
for  licours  and  segara  and  other  Articulars $280  00 

Recuieved  paymen 

Job  Tatlob. 

During  watermelon  time  the  negro  legislators  revelled  in  the  delicious  fruit,  as  a 

bill  of  $1,080  presented  by  a  fruiterer  shows. 

FURNITURE  BOUGHT  BY  THE  STATE. 

Not  in  the  purchase  of  wine,  liquors,  cigars  and  watermelons  alone  did  South 
Carolina  show  her  liberality  toward  her  "statesmen."  The  state  bought  furni- 
ture for  the  members  of  the  legislature.  Over  $400,000  was  paid  for  furniture 
within  four  years,  and  at  the  expiration  of  that  time  there  was  by  appraisement 
$17,715  worth  of  furniture  in  the  State  House.  Members  who  had  rarely  enjoyed 
the  luxury  of  sleeping  on  anything  softer  than  a  husk  mattress  or  bundles  of  straw 
came  to  Columbia  and  furnished  their  beds  with  sponge  mattresses  as  naturally  as 
though  they  had  lived  lives  of  voluptuous  ease.  When  the  pattern  of  the  Wilton 
carpets  upon  the  floor  of  their  apartments  failed  to  please  the  eye,  or  the  color  of 
the  satin  upholstery  became  tiresome,  the  colored  gentlemen  shipped  it  off  to 
their  log  cabins  in  the  countrj'  and  ordered  a  new  outfit.  Rooms  were  re- 
furnished as  often  as  three  times  in  the  course  of  two  years.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  a  session  of  the  legislature  the  furniture  would  be  removed  to  the  homes 
of  the  members,  never  to  be  returned.  A  house  of  ill-fame  in  Columbia  was 
furnished  at  the  expense  of  the  state.  Musical  instruments  were  bought  with  the 
public  funds,  and  the  sweet  strains  of  the  melodeon  and  accordeon  helped  the 
members  to  wile  away  their  leisure  hours.  Bills  for  carpets  aggregating  thousands 
of  dollars  were  paid;  $68,000  was  paid  for  stationery  in  one  session.  Gold  pens, 
jack-knives  and  bronze  inkstands  were  consumed  with  great  avidity;  every  mem- 
ber (even  those  who  could  not  write)  was  supplied  with  a  Webster  Dictionary 
unabridged. 

Diamonds  were  as  plentiful  in  the  South  Carolina  legislature  as  in  the  mines  of 

Golconda.     Huge  stones  flashed  from  the  white  bosoms  of  the  legislators  with 

dazzling  radiance.     Huge  watch  chains,  from  which  depended  expensive  gold 

watches,  w^ere  hung  about  the  necks  of  these  "statesmen.  "     South  Carolina  paid 

for  these  adornments.     Mr.  Woodruff,  clerk  of  the  Senate,  kept  a  diary  during 

the  era  of  this  extravagance,  and  a  glance  at  his  memoranda  now  and  then  is 

interesting.     Here  is  one : 

Wednksday,  January  15th,  1873. 
Collected  certificate  for  $945,  and  paid  Hay  den  for  Whittemore's  watch.     Gracious  goodneee  ! 
Whittemore  will  have  somewhere  about  ten  thousand  dollars  this  session.     That  ought  to  be  satis- 
factory.   He  is  always,  though,  after  one  more. 

Whittemore  was  a  state  Senator.     The  prudent  statesmen  stole  the  coal  and 


THK    HISTORY    OF    A.    CARPET-BAG    G0VERNMP:NT.  431 

Speaker  Moses  testified  : 

Some  time  diirine:  the  session  of  1871-72,  Jolin  J.  Patterson  came  to  me  and  proposed  that  if  I 
would  turn  over  to  him  blanlc  pay  certiflcates  he  would  have  them  filled  up  with  fictitious  names 
to  the  amount  of  S-^0,000,  and  if  I  would  sign  them  as  Speaker,  and  have  Jones  attest  them  as 
clerk,  he  would  pay  me  $10,000,  he  to  keep  the  certificates.  I  accepted  the  proposition,  delivered 
to  him  a  batch  of  blank  pay  certiflcates,  and  he  returned  them  to  me  filled  out,  I  think  in  the  hand- 
writing of  F.  S.  Jacobs,  cashier  of  the  South  Carolina  Bank  and  Trust  Company,  to  the  amount 
above  stated. 

The  evidence  further  shows  that  they  were  duly  signed,  and  that  Patterson  paid  Moses  in  cash 
$7,000  at  one  time  and  $3,000  at  another. 

Woodruff,  clerk  of  the  Senate,  kept  a  diary,  iu  which  he  entered  liis  opinions 
of  what  was  going  on  with  great  freedom.     This  is  a  sample  entry : 

Tuesday,  March  17,  1874. 
Signed  and  jjave  out  certiflcates  to  a  great  number  to-day.    Almost  signed  the  state  away.    I 
did  hope  that  Gleaves  and  Lee  would  be  able  to  stand  the  pressure.    It's  just  awful ! 

LEGISLATIVE  EXPENSES. 

The  total  legislative  expenses  'of  the  South  Carolina  General  Assembly   under 

Eepublican  administration,  were  as  follows  : 

For  1870-71 ' $822,608  83 

For  1871-'72 1,533,574  78 

Forl872-'73 908,855  00 

For  1873-74. 922,536  00 

The  legislative  expenses  in  1876-'77,  under  Democratic  administration,  were 
$84,096.  The  surplusage  over  this  sum  represent  the  amount  stolen  by  the  Re- 
publicans at  each  preceding  session  of  the  legislature. 

THE  PRINTING   SWINDLE. 

The  Republicans  of  South  Carolina  were  not  content  with  the  proceeds  of  their 
robbery  of  the  people  by  the  issue  of  fraudulent  certificates.  Every  institution 
of  the  state  was  laid  under  contribution  and  every  scheme  that  rascally  ingenuity 
could  devise  to  bleed  the  taxpayers  was  put  in  operation.  The  division  of  spoils 
extended  from  the  highest  officers  of  the  state  to  the  lowest  members  of  the  as- 
sembly. The  only  difference  between  the  operations  of  the  Republican  Ring  iu 
Pennsylvania  was  that  the  matter  of  the  latter  w^as  "addition,  division  and  si- 
lence,"  while  the  former  only  looked  to  "addition  and  division  "and  did  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  maintain  silence.  The  carpet-baggers  thought  it  necessary 
to  have  the  support  of  the  press,  and  as  all  of  the  established  organs  were  Demo- 
cratic they  used  the  funds  of  the  state  to  start  various  Republican  newspapers, 
daily  and  weekly,  throughout  the  state.  Their  principal  organs  were  the  Charles- 
ton Daily  Repuhlican,  the  Columbia  Daily  Union  and  the  Columbia  Union- Herald. 
A  large  amount  of  money  was  expended  annually  for  their  maintenance.  Bills 
purporting  to  be  presented  by  virtue  of  law  were  illegally  and  fraudulently  in- 
creased in  amount  to  many  thousands  of  dollars,  and  paid  year  after  year  from 
the  state  treasury. 

At  first  the  division  of  the  money  thus  obtained  was  confined  to  a  few  leading 
members  of  the  assembly,  but  as  the.  demands  for  money  increased  the  scope  of 
operations  was  widened  and  the  Carolina  Printing  Company,  a  firm  composed  of 
state  officials  and  the  editors  of  the  Republican  and  Union,  was  formed.  Pay  cer- 
tificates for  public  printing  were  issued  right  and  left,  and  thousands  of  dollars 
were  stolen  annually  in  this  manner.  Claims  for  current  and  permanent  printing 
w^ere  raised  in  many  cases  three  times  the  original  amount  and  the  proceeds  di- 
vided among  the  Ring. 

From  1868  to  1876  the  amount  appropriated  and  paid  for  printing,  including 
the  publication  of  the  general  laws  and  claims  for  printing,  was  $1,326,589,  a 
sum  largely  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  public  printing  from  the .  establishment  of 
the  state  government  up  to  1868,  including  all  payments  made  during  the  war  in 


432  THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT. 

confederate  currency.  In  1873  the  public  printing  in  South  Carolina  cost  $450,* 
000,  exceedip'^  the  cost  of  like  work  in  Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  New  York, 
Ohio  and  Maryland  for  that  year  by  $123,932.13.  Ohio,  with  nearly  four  times 
the  population  of  South  Carolina  and  over  nine  times  the  capacity  to  pay,  ob- 
tained  her  public  printing  for  $63,000. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  PRINTING  COMPANY. 

The  South  Carolina  Printing  Company  was  organized  in  1870  by  J.  W.  Denny, 
R.  K.  Scott,  N.  G.  Parker,  D.  H.  Chamberlain,  J.  W.  Morris  and  L.  Cass  Carpen- 
ter.    The  committee  say : 

Senator  Leslie  told  Woodruff  that  "  the  friends  "  in  the  Senate  thought  that  as  this  was  a  matter 
of  Senate  patronage  they  should  have  a  percentage  of  the  profits  from  the  printing.  In  order  to 
carry  out  the  wishes  of  "  the  friends,"  Mr.  Leslie  proposed  that  pay  certificates  for  various  amounts, 
ranging  from  three  to  five  thousand  dollars,  for  current  printing  be  drawn,  and  one-third  or  one- 
fourth  of  the  amount  realized  be  given  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Printing  for  division 
among  "  the  friends,"  including  some  fifteen  or  sixteen  Senators.  This  system  was  carried  out  as 
long  as  moneys  could  be  paid  out  of  any  sums  in  the  treasury,  not  otherwise  appropriated,  and  was 
onlj"-  checked  and  stopped  when  the  law  for  specific  appropriations  and  payments  was  enacted. 
Besides  this.  Woodruff  testifies  that  a  vast  deal  of  unofticial  work  was  done  by  the  company  for 
State  officials,  friends  and  members  of  the  general  assembly;  that  the  certificates  were  usually 
discounted  at  the  South  Carolina  Bank  and  Trust  Company,  of  which  bank  Governor  R.  K.  Scott, 
Treasurer  Niles  G.  Parker  and  Attorney-General  Chamberlain  were  stockholders.  The  checks  in 
the  hands  of  the  committee  are  but  a  portion  of  the  amounts  paid  during  the  time  of  the  above 
arrangements.  The  money  was  deposited  to  the  credit  of  the  Printing  Company,  and  sometimes, 
according  to  the  witness,  division  or  gratification  checks  were  drawn  against  deposits  in  the 
Carolina  National  Bank  and  Central  National  Bank,  which  checks  he  supposes  are  still  held  by 
these  banks. 

SCOTT,  PARKER  AND  NEAGLE,    MOSES  AND   CARDOZO. 

Gov.  Scott,  Treasurer  Parker  and  Comptroller  Neagle  formed  a  combination 

whereby  $45,000  of  printing  accounts  were  sold  to  Neagle,  afterwards  raised  and 

receipted  for  on  the  treasurer's  books  at  $90,000,  thus  defrauding  the  state  out  of 

$45,000  at  one  stroke.     This  sum  was  divided  equally  among  the  conspirators. 

Out  of  the  appropriation  of  $280,000,  approved  December  21,  1872,  $98,500  was 

paid  at  one  session  as  bribes  and  "gratifications."     Gov.  Moses,  Treasurer  Car- 

dozo  and  twenty-two  out  of  thirtj-'-three  Senators  participated  in  this  steal.    Every 

session  money  was  appropriated  and  stolen  in  this  way.     Here  is  an  extract  from 

Woodruff's  diary  appropos  of  the  printing  steal. 

Thursday,  January  16,  1873. 
Cardozo  gave  us  checks  for  $100,000.    I  propose  to  give  Cardozo  $12,000  out  of  this.    That  will 
be  a  big  thing  for  him.    If  we  had  Parker  we  would  probably  have  had  to  pay  hall  of  it  and  then 
not  get  it.    Jones  and  self  will  come  out  clear  about  thirty  thousand  dollars  between  us,  or  $15,000 
each. 

In  comparison  with  the  usual  record  of  payments  made  by  Woodruff,  the  fol- 
lowing entry  seems  amusing  : 

Tuesday,  February  4,  1873. 
Gave  Mr.  White  a  check  for  $25,  and  we  agreed  to  stand  by  each  other  to  the  last. 

Out  of  an  appropriation  of  $230,000  made  for  printing  in  1873,  $41,269  was 
paid  to  seventy-seven  members  of  the  House  out  of  a  total  membership  of  124. 
The  instances  above  given,  selected  from  a  multitude  of  similar  ones,  will  illus- 
trate how  tenderly  South  Carolina  cared  for  her  Republican  "  statesmen."  Under 
Democratic  administration,  in  1877,  the  public  printing  of  the  state  cost  $5,222. 

THE  GREENVILLE  AND  COLUMBIA  RAILROAD  SWINDLE. 

When  John  J.  Patterson  entered  Soiith  Carolina,  his  first  manoeuvre  was  to 
become  identified  with  the  material  interests  of  the  land  of  his  adoption.  It  was 
rough  on  the  material  interests  of  the  state,  but  a  good  thing  for  Patterson, 
"  Honest  John  "  set  himself  up  in  business  by  obtaining  a  contract  for  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Blue  Ridge  Railroad,  which  contract  was  annulled  by  the  payment 
of  $80,000  to  him  out  of  the  treasury  of  the  state.  Out  of  his  share  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  this  robbery  he  organized  a  Ring  composed  of  public  officials  to  obtain 
possession  of  the  Greenville  and  Columbia  Railroad.     In  this  Ring  were  included 


TllK    HISTOHY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT.  433 

Patterson,  George  W.  Waterman,  representing  the  interests  of  Gov.  Scott,  Trea- 
surer Niles  G.  Parker,  State  Auditor  Tomlinson,  Comptroller  General  Neagle, 
Attorney-General  Chamberlain,  Secretary  of  State  Cardozo,  Land  Commissioner 
Leslie,  Financial  Agent  Kimpton,  Joseph  Crews,  Chairman  of  the  Committe  on 
Railroads,  and  Representative  Tim  Hurley.  The  state  at  that  time  owned  large 
amounts  of  stock  in  various  railroads,  which  had  been  acquired  in  consideration 
of  bounties  conferred  upon  those  corporations. 

THE    BEGINNING. 

An  act  was  passed  by  the  Ring  creating  a  sinking  fund  commission  which 
was  empowered  to  sell  all  the  unproductive  property  of  the  state.  The  commis- 
sioners appointed  under  the  act  were  the  members  of  the  Ring  organized  by  Pat- 
terson, The  ostensible  purpose  of  the  act  was  to  enable  the  state  to  sell  dam- 
aged granite,  marble  and  other  materials  laying  about  the  State  House.  The  real 
purpose  was  consummated  by  the  sale  to  the  Ring  of  21,698  shares  of  the  Colum- 
bia and  Greenville  Railroad  stock,  bought  by  the  state  at  $20  per  share,  aggre- 
gating $438,960,  for  $2.75  per  share,  aggregating  $59,969.50.  The  stock  of  the 
state  in  other  railroad  corporations  was  also  sold  and  the  fund  transferred  to  the 
financial  agent,  from  whom  it  was  stolen  by  the  thieves  who  concocted  the 
scheme. 

WHOLESALE   BRIBERY. 

The  act  authorizing  the  creation  of  the  commission  was  passed  by  bribery,  the 
means  being  furnished  by  Financial  Agent  Kimpton.  After  the  Ring  had  ob- 
tained possession  of  a  majority  of  the  stock  of  the  road  another  act  was  carried 
through  the  legislature  by  bribery,  authorizing  a  further  issue  of  bonds  of  the 
road  and  its  consolidation  with  the  Blue  Ridge  road.  A  well-devised  scheme  was 
concealed  underneath  the  wordy  sections  of  this  voluminous  act.  The  state  held 
a  lien  for  indemnity  against  her  indorsement  upon  $1,500,000  of  guaranteed 
bonds  of  this  company,  so  that  subsequent  bonds  would  be  of  little  or  no  value 
and  could  not  be  sold  by  the  Ring.  The  Ring  devised  a  section  in  the  bill  by 
which  the  lien  was  postponed  to  bonds  to  be  issued  under  a  second  mortgage, 
thus  enabling  the  Ring  to  divide  and  put  their  bonds  upon  the  market,  the  only 
security  held  by  the  state  being  swept  away  and  a  contingent  debt  of  $1,500,000 
fixed  upon  her.  Although  the  Ring  obtained  the  stock  owned  by  the  state  by 
fraud,  it  became  necessary  for  them  to  buy  of  private  holders  in  order  to  secure 
control  of  the  management.  Financial  Agent  Kimpton  was  applied  to  for  funds. 
He  had  in  his  possession  many  millions  of  bonds  of  the  state  for  sale  or  hypothe- 
cation, and  although  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  the  bonds  were  only  applicable 
to  the  purposes  of  the  state,  Kimpton  raised  by  the  sale  of  state  ])onds  enough 
money  to  buy  about  $173,000  worth  of  stock  par  value. 

THE   IMPEACHMENT   SWINDLE. 

During  the  Republican  carpet-bag  administration  of  South  Carolina,  the  le^aders 
were  constantly  waging  a  secret  warfare  against  each  other.  The  state  officials  and 
members  of  the  legislature  were  aware  of  the  extent  of  the  plundering  conspiracy 
and  knew  about  the  share  that  each  man  received.  The  principle  of  "honor  among 
thieves,"  which  is  supposed  to  apply  in  the  select  circle  composed  of  pickpockets, 
burglars  and  thugs,  in  the  larger  cities,  was  unknown  in  Columbia.  "When  the 
state's  money  gave  out  these  worthies  would  fall  to  robbing  each  other.  Among 
such  expert  thieves  the  task  was  a  diflicult  one. 

An  investigation  of  the  state  debt  showed  beyond  peradventure  that  the 
Financial  Board.,  composed  of  Governor  Scott,  Treasurer  Parker  and  Attorney- 


434  THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT. 

General  Chamberlain  liad  illegally  issued  several  millions  of  state  bonds.  On  the 
18th  of  December,  1871,  C.  C.  Bowen,  a  member  of  Charleston,  introduced  a 
resolution  to  impeach  Governor  Scott  and  Treasurer  Parker  for  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors.  John  J.  Patterson  saw  a  brilliant  opportunity  to  make  a  strike. 
The  legislature  was  overwhelmingly  Republican,  the  members  generally  had 
participated  in  the  numerous  frauds  originated  by  the  men  it  was  sought  to  im- 
peach, and  there  was  no  prospect  of  the  passage  of  the  impeachment  resolution. 
Patterson  wanted  money,  however,  and  he  began  operations  on  Scott, 

Assisted  by  his  tool,  H.  G.  Worthington,  Patterson  set  about  frightening  Scott. 
He  informed  the  governor  that  impeachment  was  certain  to  follow  the  result  of 
Ms  misdeeds  unless  something  was  done  to  prevent  it.  That  "  something  "  was 
to  bribe  the  members  to  vote  against  the  resolution,  and  Patterson  said  that  he 
alone  could  insure  Scott's  safety.  For  a  long  time  Scott  held  out  against  Patter- 
son's threatening  talk,  but  at  last  he  was  persuaded  that  he  would  be  impeached, 
unless  the  members  of  the  House  were  bribed.  Scott  signed  in  blank  three 
warrants  or  orders  upon  what  was  known  as  the  "Armed  Force  Fund  "  and 
gave  them  to  Patterson.  Scott  told  Treasurer  Parker  that  the  warrants  should 
be  paid  when  presented,  remarking:  "  I  don't  know  what  amount  he  will  want; 
I  hope  not  a  very  large  amount,  but  I  suppose  the  scoundrel  will  make  it  as  large 
as  he  can. " 

The  warrants  were  filled  out  by  Patterson  in  fictitious  names — one  to  John 
Mooney  for  $25,545,  another  to  Jolm  Leggett  for  $10,600  and  the  third  to  David 
H.  Wilson  for  $13,500,  making  in  all  $48,645.  The  money  was  collected  by  P. 
S.  Jacobs  and  Hardy  Solomons,  both  trusted  friends  of  Patterson ,  a  day  or  two 
before  the  vote  on  the  impeachment  resolution  was  taken.  In  addition  to  this 
Speaker  Moses  received  $15,000  of  state  money  from  Governor  Scott  for  making 
a  parliamentary  decision  in  the  House,  which  prevented  the  report  of  the  joint 
investigating  committee  (which  fully  established  Scott's  guilt)  from  being  pre- 
sented. How  much  of  this  money  Patterson  used  to  bribe  members  is  not  known, 
but  the  resolution  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  63  to  27,  and  two  of  the  members  of 
the  Ring  went  unpunished  for  their  crimes. 

THE   BLUE   RIDGE   RAILROAD   SCRIP   FRAUDS. 

A  plausible  scheme  to  relieve  South  Carolina  from  its  guarantee  of  the  sum  of 
$4,000,000  of  the  bonds  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Railroad  was  introduced  in  the  shape 
of  a  bill  in  the  House  on  the  3d  of  February,  1872,  by  A.  L.  Singleton.  The 
state  was  to  obtain  this  relief  ostensibly  by  the  issue  of  scrip  to  pay  the  honest 
debt  of  the  company,  but  in  reality  the  object  of  this  scheme  was  to  convert  this 
scrip  into  a  corruption  fund  for  the  benefit  of  the  Ring.  The  plan  of  the  con- 
spirators succeeded  admirably  for  a  time.  They  bribed  members  to  pass  the  bill 
through  the  legislature.  The  governor  vetoed  it.  He  was  not  interested  in  this 
steal.  The  bill  was  passed  by  bribing  over  his  veto  and  scrip  was  issued.  The 
Supreme  Court  decided  the  issue  of  the  scrip  to  be  unconstitutional,  and  the 
scheme  was  then  dropped. 

THE  VALIDATING  ACT    AND    FINANCIAL  SETTLEMENT. 

On  the  8th  of  February,  1872,  a  bill  "relating  to  the  bonds  of  the  state  of  South 
Carolina  "  was  introduced  in  the  House  by  John  B.  Dennis.  It  apppeared  to  be 
an  act  to  validate  the  irregular  issue  of  certain  bonds,  but  it  was  a  bill  to  validate 
the  illegal  use  and  disposition  of  $6,000,000  of  state  bonds  by  H.  H.  Kimpton, 
the  financial  agent,  and  fasten  that  debt  upon  the  state. 

At  the  same  time  Dennis  introduced  another  bill  entitled  "  a  bill  relating  to  the 


THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT.  435 

financial  agent  of  the  state  in  the  city  of  New  York."  This  measure  empowered 
the  notorious  financial  board  to  make  a  settlement  with  Kimpton,  and  afforded 
the  desired  opportunity  of  covering  up  and  cancelling  the  large  amounts  paid  out 
hy  Kimpton  from  sales  of  bonds  illegally  made,  to  be  divided  in  commissions 
among  the  Ring,  and  in  carrying  the  purchase  of  the  Greenville  and  Columbia 
Railroad  for  the  same  Ring.  The  following  simple  and  concise  agreement 
made  between  the  thieves,  who  doubted  the  honesty  of  each  other,  explains  the 
purposes  of  the  Ring  in  securing  the  passage  of  these  bills : 

THE  thieves'   AGREEMENT. 

Vice-President's  Office,  1 

Greenville  and  Columbia  Railroad  Company,  v 
Columbia,  S.  C,  March  4,  1872.         ) 
Hon.  NiLES  Q.  Parker.  State  Treasurer,  South  Carolina: 

Please  deliver  to  H.  H.  Kimpton  "  revenue  bond  scrip  "  due  the  Blue  Ridge  Railroad  Company, 
according  to  act  passed  March  2,  1872,  amounting  to  one  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand,  two  hun- 
-dred  and  fifty  dollars,  at  par,  upon  the  following  conditions:  That  forty-two  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  lif ty-seven  dollars  of  said  scrip,  at  par,  is  to  be  used  for  paying  the  expenses  or  passing 
through  the  House  of  Representatives  bills  styled  "  A  bill  relating  to  the  bonds  of  the  state  of 
South  Carolina,  and  "  Bill  to  authorize  the  financial  board  to  settle  the  accounts  of  the  financial 
agent."  Now,  if  these  above-named  bills  are  passed  and  become  laws,  this  order  for  forty-two 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty  seven  dollars  in  scrip,  at  par,  is  to  be  paid  to  said  Kimpton; 
and  if  not  passed,  then  this  order  for  that  amount  to  be  void  and  the  scrip  is  not  to  be  delivered. 
Also  that  seventy-one  thousand  four  hundred  and  fourteen  dollars  of  scrip,  at  par,  you 
«hall  deliver  to  said  Kimpton  if  said  bills  become  laws,  and  provided  that  he  shall  pay  the 
«um  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  the  proceeds  of  said  scrip  at  seventy  cents  on  the 
dollar,  in  paying  the  expenses  already  incurred  in  passing  through  the  Senate  the  bill  known 
as  "  A  bill  to  relieve  the  state  of  all  liability  on  account  of  guaranty  of  Blue  Ridge  Railroad 
bonds,  etc.,"  passed  March  2,  1872.  which  said  expense  said  Kimpton  has  contracted  to  pay;  if  said 
Kimpton  fails  or  refuses  to  pay  said  amounts  in  aefra3'ing  said  expenses  (when  required  by  me), 
then  this  order  to  be  void.  If  said  conditions  are  complied  with  and  the  amount  of  scrip  delivered 
to  said  Kimpton,  he  is  not  to  be  held  liable  for  or  to  account  for  its  value.  The  above  two  sums  of 
$42,859  and  $71,414  in  scrip,  at  par,  make  up  the  amount  of  scrip  first  mentioned  in  this  order. 

JOHN  J.  PATTERSON, 
President  Blue  Ridge  Railroad  Company  in  S.  C. 
Witness:  R.  B.  Elliott. 

These  bills  became  laws.  Three  drafts,  one  for  $25,000,  another  for  |35,000, 
and  a  ihird  for  $13,500,  were  cashed  on  Blue  Ridge  Railroad  scrip  as  collateral 
security,  and  the  money  was  used  to  bribe  Senators  and  assemblymen  to  vote 
for  the  bills.  Treasurer  Parker  was  compelled  to  take  up  the  drafts  when  they 
came  due,  he  paying  all  but  $10,000,  which  was  contributed  by  Gov.  Scott. 
These  schemes  put  thousands  of  dollars  into  the  pockets  of  the  originators  of 
them. 

THE   KU-KLUX   REWARDS. 

On  the  28tli  of  July,  1871,  Gov.  Scott  issued  a  proclamation  offering  a  reward 
■of  $200  for  each  person  arrested  with  proof  to  convict  of  the  charge  under  the 
•enforcement  act  commonly  known  as  the  Ku-Klux  Act.  The  legislature  appro- 
priated $35,000  to  pay  these  rewards.  The  governor,  instead  of  paying  the  re- 
wards himself,  appointed  a  commission  composed  of  Attorney-General  Cham- 
berlain, C.  D.  Melton,  J.  D.  Pope,  R.  B.  Elliott  and  James  A.  Dunbar,  for  the 
distribution  of  the  rewards.  The  commissioners  paid  themselves  $500  apiece  for 
their  services.  The  record  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  South  Carolina 
shows  that  109  persons  were  convicted  under  the  Ku-Klux  Act.  A  reward  of 
$200  for  each  of  these  convictions  would  have  amounted  to  $21,800.  No  portion 
of  the  appropriation  of  $35,000  was  returned  to  the  treasury.  Before  the  appro- 
priation was  made  a  government  officer  named  Hester  presented  a  bill  to  Gov. 
Scott  of  $18,600  for  the  arrest  and  conviction  of  93  persons  under  the  act. 
Scott  at  first  refused  to  pay  the  bill,  but  on  an  illegal  opinion  from  Attorney- 
General  Chamberlain  that  the  money  might  be  paid  out  of  the  "Armed  Force 
Fund,"  Scott  gave  Hester  $9,000. 

THE   PHOSPHATE   STEAL. 

The  natural  resources  of  South  Carolina  were  laid  under  contribution  by  the 


436  THE    HISTOEY    OF    A    CAEPET-BAG    GOVEENMENT;. 

Republicans  to  filch  money  from  the  people.  The  phosphates  were  a  source  of 
wealth  belonging  to  the  farming  interests  of  the  state,  and  which  should  hava 
been  jealously  guarded  for  the  benefit  of  the  agricultural  population.  The  Ring 
formed  a  Marine  and  River  Phosphate  Company.  A  bill  was  prepared  entitled  r 
"An  act  to  grant  to  certain  persons  therein  named,  and  their  associates,  the  right 
to  dig  and  mine  in  the  beds  of  the  navigable  streams  and  waters  of  South  Caro- 
lina for  phosphate  rocks  and  phosphatic  deposits."  The  bill  was  passed.  R.  R. 
Rivers,  a  member  of  the  assembly,  told  the  investigation  committee  how.  He 
said: 

Tim.  Hurley  made  arrangements  with  myself  and  Rush,  of  Darlington,  John  Mead,  Wade  Perrin, 
Harry  Daniels,  an  l  one  or  two  others,  at  $300  a  vote  for  such  members  as  voted  for  the  charter.  We 
were  the  committee  of  arrangements  chosen  to  confirm  the  arrangements  with  Hurley.  The  way 
it  happened  was  this:  Hurley  wanted  to  give  some  members  $50  and  some  $100,  and  so  on,  and  the 
members  found  it  out  and  had  a  caucus,.and  appointed  this  committee.  The  committee  met  him 
and  stated  that  they  were  authorized  to  state  that  if  he  did  not  pay  them  all  equally  they  would  not 
vote  for  the  bill,  and  that  he  must  also  put  the  amount  in  an  envelope,  subject  to  the  committee, 
where  they  agreed  to  make  the  deposit.  Hurley  agreed  to  it,  and  we  selected  Governor  Moses,  then 
Speaker  of  the  House,  to  hold  the  money,  and  after  Hurley  agreed  to  meet  the  committee  in  the 
Speaker's  room  when  the  House  was  in  session,  and  we  did  so,  and  Hurley  brought  the  money,  the 
committee  counted  it  and  sealed  it  up.  After  we  did  this  we  sent  for  the  Speaker  (the  House  was 
in  session),  and  the  Speaker  came,  and  I  handed  him  the  envelope,  and  I  asked  him  to  put  it  in  hi» 
safe  until  I  called  for  it.  No  one  told  him  what  it  was.  He  opened  the  safe  and  put  it  iu  there,  and 
after  the  bill  passed  that  evening  I  took  the  committee  wth  me  and  asked  the  Speaker  for  the  en- 
velope that  I  gave  him;  he  handed  it  to  me,  and  the  committee  went  off,  and  we  divided  it  accord- 
ing to  the  agreement,  and  each  man  got  his  part.  Hurley  was  not  then  a  member  of  the  House,  but 
was  a  lobbyist.  There  was  a  Ring  ahead  of  this.  The  committee  paid  about  twenty -five  members 
$300  apiece.  The  other  was  of  down-country  members,  and  I  turned  in  with  the  up-country  mem- 
bers, and  we  found  that  with  the  Democratic  vote  we  could  defeat  any  measure  of  the  down-country 
Republicans.  They  used  to  control  matters,  and  gave  us  no  showing  until  we  found  it  out,  and  by 
our  combining  together  we  then  had  our  showing,  too.  We  didn't  find  out  for  some  time  that  the 
down-country  members  were  using  us,  and  getting  paid  themselves  for  their  own  and  our  votes,, 
and  when  we  found  it  out  we  combined  against  it  so  as  to  secure  our  share  of  the  pay  as  well  as  the: 
others. 

ORGANIZING  THE  MILITIA. 

The  Republicans  of  South  Carolina  wanted  some  money  for  election  expenses 
prior  to  the  election  of  1870,  and  they  concluded  to  organize  the  militia  of  the 
state.  Local  agents  were  employed  in  almost  every  county  of  the  state  to  enroll, 
organize  and  inspect  the  state  militia.  It  cost  $200,000  of  the  public  funds  to  da 
this,  and  as  the  agents  were  generally  candidates  for  ofl&ce  they  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  valuable  campaign  fund  in  this  manner.  Rev.  William  Thomas,  a 
member  of  the  Ring,  found  time  between  sermons  to  organize  Co.  F,  4th  Regi- 
ment, N.  G.  S.  S.  C,  for  which  he  demanded  and  was  paid  $135.  Mr.  Thomas 
was  elected  to  the  legislature,  and  he  figures  prominently  as  a  receiver  of  bribes 
from  the  state  officials.  State  guards  were  organized  and  they  drew  full  pay  and 
rations  until  after  the  election.  Contracts  for  the  purchase  of  arms  were  made 
to  the  amount  of  $180,750,  and  Speaker  Moses  testified  he  received  a  royalty  of 
$1  for  each  musket,  or  $10,000  in  all.  The  expenses  of  enrollment  were  $100,- 
000,  and  of  equipment  $250,000,  making  a  total  of  $350,000  wasted  in  this  man- 
ner. 

AEMED  FORCE  AND  CONSTABULARY. 

In  1869  a  joint  resolution  was  passed  by  the  legislature  authorizing  Gov.  Scott 
to  employ  an  armed  force  for  the  preservation  of  the  peace.  The  state  was 
apparentlj-  peaceful  enough  until  election  time,  when  scores  of  "constables" 
were  marched  into  the  close  districts  to  make  Republican  campaign  speeches  and 
intimidate  white  voters.  The  "Armed  Force  "  was  used,  not  to  preserve  peace, 
but  to  carry  elections  for  the  party  and  intimidate  and  demoralize  Democratic 
voters.  There  were  appointed  151  deputy  constables  and  500  specials  on  full  pay 
and  mileage,  to  do  duty  just  prior  to  and  during  the  elections.  These  men  made 
regular  reports  of  the  condition  of  the  parties,  attended  political  meetings  and  in 
many  cases  had  themselves  elected  to  legislative  and  county  offices.     Over  twenty 


THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BAG    GOVERNMENT.  437 

"horses  and  equipments  were  bought  for  the  mounted  men.  When  their  term  of 
service  ended  the  horses  were  sold  and  the  proceeds  pocketed  by  the  governor. 
The  armed  force  fund  was  depleted  on  forged  certificates,  and  the  Republican 
candidates  were  elected  to  ofl9.ce. 


PETTY  PILFERING. 

To  enumerate  all  of  the  frauds  perpetrated  by  the  Republican  Ring  and  to 
-explain  the  scores  of  small  schemes  which  were  hatched  by  the  conspirators  to 
rob  the  taxpayers  of  the  state  would  occupy  the  greater  part  of  the  Text  Book. 
The  Ring  managed  to  secure  something  from  almost  every  appropriation  made. 
JVIembers  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  and  Contingent  Fund  were 
bribed  to  recommend  a  large  appropriation  for  the  contingent  fund.  The  funds 
of  the  state  were  used  to  pay  the  bribes,  and  state  officials  then  robbed  the  con- 
tingent fund.  Moses  bought  a  newspaper  from  this  fund.  The  treasurer  of  the 
state  was  authorized  to  borrow  money  for  legislative  expenses.  Treasurer's  notes 
were  issued  without  money  being  borrowed  or  vouchers  turned  into  the  treasurer's 
oflBce.  Political  tramps,  broken  down  party  hacks  and  prostitutes  were  paid 
from  the  transient  sick  and  poor  fund.  On  one  occasion  three  warrants  for 
^5,000  each,  issued  originally  for  the  penitentiary  account,  were  returned  by 
Hardy  Solomons  to  F.  J.  Moses,  then  governor,  there  being  no  money  in  the 
treasury  to  pay  the  warrants.  Ex-Grovernor  Chamberlain  consulted  with  Moses 
and  informed  him,  as  Moses  swears,  that  he  could  get  a  loan  on  those  warrants 
from  the  Receiver  of  the  Bank  of  the  State.  Moses  obtained  $7,000  on  the  war- 
rants, gave  Chamberlain  $1,000  and  pocketed  the  balance.  Money  was  paid  to 
judges  of  the  courts  for  favorable  decisions  in  certain  cases.  Fraudulent  claims 
were  paid,  and  hundreds  of  honest  claims  were  raised  double  and  treble  their 
original  amounts.  In  the  construction  of  a  penitentiary  the  state  was  robbed  of 
thousands  of  dollars.  The  legislature  made  extravagant  appropriations,  for 
doing  which  the  members  were  paid.  Frauds,  perjuries,  embezzlements  and 
larcenies  of  the  party  in  power  covered  every  transaction  and  article,  from  the 
cradle  of  the  infant  to  the  coflln  of  the  dead.  The  orphan  children  dependent 
upon  the  state  for  care  were  robbed  and  defrauded.  The  children  fared  poorly, 
"but  the  grown  orphans  in  the  institution  must  have  fared  better,  as  the  following 
list  of  some  of  the  articles  purchased  will  show : 

Carpeting,  laces,  swiss,  damask,  ladies'  linen  handkerchiefs,  kid  gloves,  corsets,  ladies'  collars, 
pique,  tarletan,  ribbon,  vases,  umbrellas,  writing  desks,  satin,  satinette,  water-proof  cloth,  under- 
vests,  ear-rings,  needles,  pocket  books,  toilet  pm-cushions,  walking  canes,  whips,  sundries,  which 
covered  almost  every  article  of  woman's  wear. 

HARDY  SOLOMONS'    CLAIM. 

The  South  Carolina  Bank  and  Trust  Company  was  a  Republican  institution. 
The  principal  members  of  the  Ring,  Chamberlain,  Scott,  Parker  and  others,  were 
at  the  head  of  it.  Hardy  Solomons,  a  notorious  character,  who  grew  rich  in  fur- 
nishing the  legislature  with  supplies,  was  president  of  the  concern.  In  October, 
1873,  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  legislature  to  pay  claims  of  the  bank  amounting 
tto  $125,000.  Only  $103,865.71  were  due  the  bank  according  to  the  schedule  pre- 
pared by  Solomons,  but  the  other  $21,134.29  was  thrown  into  the  claim  "just  to 
dignify  its  proportions."  At  the  time  this  fraudulent  claim  was  presented  the 
salaries  of  school  teachers,  judges  of  courts,  county  auditors  and  clerks  of  the 
4iflferent  departments  of  the  state  government  were  unpaid,*and  $200,000  of  the 
Appropriation  for  schools  of  the  year  previous  remained  unpaid.  The  Ring 
wanted  more  money,  however.  Their  insatiable  maws  were  never  satisfied.  The 
|)roceeds  of  their  multifarious  robberies  were  expended  as  soon  as  received.  It 
was  well  understood  that  the  time  for  a  profitable  failure  of  the  "bank  had  not 


438  THE    HISTORY    OF    A    CARPET-BA(i    GOVERNMENT. 

arrived.  The  payment  of  these  claims  would  give  the  institution  at  least  two 
years  more  of  life.  The  members  of  the  legislature  had  become  experts  in  th& 
art  of  bleeding  the  Ring  of  state  officials  by  this  time.  Whenever  a  bill  was  in- 
troduced calculated  to  benefit  the  Ring,  the  legislators  would  not  vote  for  it  with- 
out being  paid.  Mr.  Solomons  was  aware  of  this  fact,  and  he  wasted  no  time  in 
talking.  The  cashier  of  the  bank  was  instructed  to  open  an  account  on  his  books 
for  "legislative  expenses."  Negotiations  were  opened  with  the  assembly.  The: 
bill  was  promptly  passed,  and  Solomons  divided  $81,105.34  among  the  members 
as  a  small  return  for  their  kindness.  The  bank  suspended  two  years  later  witk 
$300,000  of  state  money  and  a  large  amount  of  school  and  county  funds  on  de- 
posit, with  as  worthless  a  lot  of  assets  as  ever  were  rendered  in  a  court  of  insol- 
vency. A  special  tax  was  levied  to  meet  the  claim  presented  by  Solomons. 
Only  a  small  portion  of  these  claims  were  valid  demands  against  the  state,  and 
these  were  in  large  measure  abstracted  from  the  bill  and  paid  by  the  state  treas- 
urer out  of  other  funds  in  order  to  give  place  to  over  $20,000  of  fraudulent  pay 
certificates  manufactured  for  the  occasion,  so  that  certain  state  officials  might  re- 
ceive their  share  of  "gratification." 

THE   PLUNDERERS  DEPOSED. 

A  history  of  corruption,  misrule  and  brigandage  similar  to  that  which  pre- 
vailed in  South  Carolina  might  be  written  of  the  Republican  carpet-bag  adminis- 
trations in  every  Southern  state.  The  state  of  affairs  in  Louisiana  was  even 
worse  than  in  South  Carolina.  The  day  of  justice  for  these  rogues  at  last. 
arrived.  It  was  long  in  coming.  The  Republican  party  maintained  itself  in 
power  as  long  as  a  dollar  could  be  stolen  from  the  people.  When  the  funds  gave 
out  speedy  disruption  followed.  The  people  of  those  violated  states  in  1876, 
under  the  banner  of  Tilden  and  Hendricks,  by  a  desperate  effort,  freed  themselves 
from  the  yoke.  The  conspirators  fled.  They  had  spent  the  proceeds  of  their 
crimes  with  knavish  extravagance,  and  the  incarceration  of  their  impecuni- 
ous bodies  in  the  jails  of  the  state  would  only  have  been  a  further  burden 
to  the  people.  They  were  allowed  to  go  unpunished,  merely  being  required  to 
testify  to  the  record  of  their  own  perjuries,  frauds  and  robberies  as  a  monument 
of  everlasting  shame  to  the  American  people  and  a  warning  to  future  generations. 
The  states  were  glad  to  be  well  rid  of  them.  With  the  coming  into  power  of  the 
Democrats  honesty  succeeded  dishonesty,  economy  deposed  extravagance.  The 
people  set  about  paying  their  debts.  In  every  instance  but  one  the  common- 
wealths undertook  to  pay  the  obligations  created  by  these  mercenaries.  Efforts; 
to  compromise  were  made,  but  in  no  case,  with  the  single  exception  of  Louisiana, 
did  the  state  repudiate  its  debt  or  any  portion  of  it.  What  temptation  to  re- 
pudiation there  must  have  been  one  can  imagine  by  perusing  the  record  above 
printed. 


PLUNDERING    THE    SOUTH.  43ft 


PLUNDERING  THE  SOUTH. 


WHAT   RADICAL   MISRULE  HAS   COST   THE   PEOPLE   OF  ELEVEN 

STATES. 


One  of  the  darkest  chapters  in  the  history  of  Republican  misrule  is  that  de- 
scription of  the  plundering  of  the  Southern  states  by  carpet-bag  governments. 

The  history  of  the  outrages  committed  in  the  name  of  laW — of  the  crimes  com- 
mitted without  color  of  law — are  familiar  to  the  American  people.  The  effect  of 
this  robbery  of  the  Southern  states  have  been  keenly  felt  at  the  North.  The  im- 
paired credit  of  one  section  of  the  country  has  retarded  the  prosperity  of  the  other 
sections. 

The  statements  given  below  are  compiled  from  the  report  of  the  Joint  Commit- 
tee of  both  Houses  of  Congress,  appointed  March  20, 1871,  to  investigate  the  con- 
dition of  the  Southern  states.  It  shows,  1st,  the  debt  of  these  states  in  1865  and 
1871-2  ;  2d,  the  prospective  and  contingent  debt. 

ALABAMA. 

ACTUAL,  AND  ADJUSTED   DEBT. 

In  1865 $6,221,186 

In  1872 9,306,781 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $3,085,595 

CONTLNGENT  AND  PKOSPECTIVE  DEBT. 

This  debt  represents  the  indorsement  by  the  state  of  the  bonds  of 
railroads,  the  bulk  of  which  are  in  default,  and  many  of  them 
worthless.     It  had  reached  in  1872  the  sum  of $29,620,000 

Total  debt  and  contingent  liabilities  in  1872 $32,705,595 

Total  increase  under  carpet-bag  rule,  $26,484,409. 

In  1837  Alabama's  debt  was  $15,400,000  and  reduced  to  $3,445,000  in  1860. 

ARKANSAS. 

ACTUAL  AND  ADJUSTED  DEBT. 

In  1865 --- ---     $4,527,879 

In  1871 - 5,361,265 

Increase  under-  carpet-bag  rule _ $833,386 

PROSPECTIVE   AND  CONTINGENT  DEBT. 

This  debt  consists  of  liabilities  assumed  by  the  state  in  guaranteeing 
the  payment  of  railroad  and  levee  bonds,  and  amounted  in  1871 

to - $14,390,000 

Total  debt  and  contingent  liabilities  in  1871 .      19,751,265 

Total  increase  under  carpet-bag  rule,  $15,223,386. 


440  PLUNDEKING    THE    SOUTH. 

FLORIDA. 

ACTUAL  AND  ADJUSTED  DEBT. 

In  1865 .---     11,370,617 

In  1873 - 2,556,073 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule '. $1,185,455 

CONTINGENT   AND   PROSPECTIVE   DEBT. 

The  state  has  become  responsible  for  the  bonds  of  several  railroads 

amounting  in  1873  to $14,000,000 

The  total  debt,  actual  and  contingent,  is,  therefore,  in  1873 $16,556,073 

Being  an  increase  under  carpet-bag  rule  of  $15,185,455. 

GEORGIA. 

ACTUAL  AND  ADJUSTED  DEBT. 

In  1865. $5,706,500 

In  1873 ---- - 8,618,750 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $3,913,250 

CONTINGENT  AND  PROSPECTIVE    DEBT. 

This  debt  is  for  liabitities  assumed  in  indorsing  the  bonds  of  rail- 
roads, and  amounted,  in  1873,  in  round  figures  to $30,000,000 

The  total  debt,  actual  and  contingent,  in  1873,  was 38,618,750 

Increase  under  the  carpet-bag  government,  $33,913,250. 

Formerly  Georgia  was  not  only  the  wealthiest  and  most  prosperous  of  the 
Southern  states,  but  was  almost  free  from  both  debt,  and  lightly  taxed.  The  earn- 
ings of  a  railroad  which  she  owned  were  alone  nearly  sufficient  to  meet  the  an- 
nual expenses  of  the  state  government.  This  railroad  was  sold  by  a  carpetbag 
governor  and  a  corrupt  legislature  for  a  mere  song. 

LOUISIANA. 

ACTUAL  AND   ADJUSTED  DEBT. 

In  1865 $13,357,999 

In  1873 39,619,473 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $16,361,474 

CONTINGENT  AND  PROSPECTIVE  DEBT. 

This  debt  consists  of  bonds  indorsed  by  the  state  to  assist  miscella- 
neous, so-called,  internal  improvements,  railroads,  levees,  canals, 
etc.,  etc.,  and  in  1873  amounted  to _   $13,345,000 

Total  debt  and  contingent  liabilities  in  1879. $41,864,473 

Total  increase  under  carpet-bag  rule  $38,506,474. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

ACTUAL  AND  ADJUSTED  DEBT. 

In  1865 $919,767 

In  1871 - 2,284,316 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $1,364,449 

In  1860  the  cost  of  conducting  the  state  government  was  only  $438,000,  and  in 

1870,  $943,000. 
The  public  printing  before  the  war  cost   $10,000.     This  work  in   1873  cost 

$137,000. 
In  1874,  the  rate  of  taxation  readied  $30  per  1,000  in  several  of  the  larger  counties. 


l»kUNDHRING    THE    SOUTH.  441 

NORTH  CAROLINA. 

DEBT    AND    LIABILITIES. 

In  1868 $15,779,945 

In  1873 34,887,467 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule. $19,107,532 

SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

ACTUAL  AND  ADJUSTED  DEBT. 

In  1865 $13,038,964 

In  1871 15,768,306 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $3,739,343 

CONTINGENT  AND    PROSPECTIVE   DEBT. 

This  debt  is  for  indorsing  the  bonds  of  railroads,  and  in  1871  was.. .      $6,712,608 

Total  actual  and  contingent  debt $33,480,914 

Total  increase  under  carpet-bag  administration,  $9,441,950. 

TENNESSEE. 

ACTUAL   AND   CONTINGENT. 

In  1866 $36,777,347 

In  1873... 33,054,476 

Total  increase  carpet-baggers,  $5,377,139. 

TEXAS. 

ACTUAL   AND  ADJUSTED   DEBT. 

In  1865 $328,866 

In  1871 1,454,887 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $1,136,031 

CONTINGENT  AND    PROSPECTIVE   DEBT. 

The  state  has  incurred  prospective  and  contingent  liabilities  by  guar- 
anteeing the  bonds  of  the  Southern  Pacific  and  International 
Railroads,  to  an  extent  estimated  in  1873  at $11,500,000 

Total  contingent  and  prospective  debt _ $13,954,887 

Total  increase  under  the  carpet-baggers,  $13,636,031. 

VIRGINIA. 

In  1865 $41,061,316 

In  1871 47,390,839 

Increase  under  carpet-bag  rule $6,339,533 

RECAPITULATION. 

TOTAL   INCREASE   UNDER  CARPET-BAG   GOVERNMENT. 

Alabama $36,484,409 

Arkansas 15,333, 386 

Florida 15,185,455 

Georgia 33,913,350 

Louisiana 38,506,474 

Mississippi _ -... 1,364,449 

North  Carolina 19,107,533 

South  Carolina 9,441,950 

Tennessee 5,337,139 

Texas 13,639,031 

Virginia 6,339,533 

Granl  Total  Increase  in  the  Eleven  Southern  states $172,411,568 


442  THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS, 


THE  POSTAL  FRAUDS. 


During  the  long  years  of  Republican  administration,  every  department  of  the 
government  has  grown  corrupt.  The  mismanagement,  maladministration,  profli- 
gacy and  corruption  of  the  Post-offlce  Department  is,  and  has  been,  if  possible, 
worse  than  that  of  any  other  department  of  the  public  service.  It  was  thoroughly 
investigated  in  1875,  by  tie  Committee  on  Post-offices  and  Post-roads  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress.  That  investigation 
disclosed  not  only  suspicious  acts  on  the  part  of  the  heads  of  the  department, 
but  proof  of  the  dishonesty  and  corrupt  practices  of  the  subordinate  officials  was 
found.  It  was  shown  beyond  the  shadow  of  doubt  that  a  ring  of  contractors 
for  what  is  known  as  the  Star  Route  mail  service  controlled  the  department 
during  the  administrations  of  Postmaster-Generals  Creswell,  Jewell  and  Tyner. 
It  was  proved  that  another  ring  manipulated  the  railroad  mail  service,  and  still 
another  grew  rich  at  the  expense  of  the  government  by  the  steamboat  mail 
service. 

The  investigation  by  the  Committee  of  Appropriations  of  the  House  at  the 
last  session  of  Congress  established  the  fact  that  in  the  Star  Route  mail  service 
the  same  ring  of  contractors,  with  individual  changes  it  is  true,  but  by  the  old 
methods,  has  and  does  control  the  Post-office  Department  to-day.  The  adminis- 
tration of  that  department  by  Postmaster-General  Key  and  his  subordinates  is  no 
improvement  on  that  of  Postmaster-General  Creswell.  And  why  should  it  be  ? 
Practically,  the  subordinate  officials  are  the  same  to-day  that  they  were  then. 
There  have  been  in  the  last  twelve  years,  it  is  true,  three  second  assistant  post- 
master-generals, who  have  presided  over  and  controlled  the  contract  office — the 
important  branch  of  the  postal  service.  Two  of  these  retired  from  office  rich ; 
they  entered  their  offices  poor.  The  third,  and  the  present  occupant.  General 
Brady,  began  his  career  like  his  predecessors,  poverty-stricken,  and  now  his 
friends  boast  that  he  is  worth  a  half  million  dollars. 

Second  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Giles  A.  Smith,  Creswell's  first  chief  of 
the  contract  office,  not  only  grew  rich  himself  in  a  few  years,  but  his  brother, 
Morgan  S.  Smith,  who  blackmailed  the  contractors  and  divided  the  profits,  grew 
rich  also.  He  lived  in  regal  style  in  Washington,  and  entertained  like  a  Russian 
prince.  General  Routh,  who  succeeded  Giles  A.  Smith,  after  a  few  years'  ser- 
vice was  made  governor  of  Colorado  Territory,  and  is  now  a  millionaire.  Clerks 
who  held  offices  under  these  men  at  salaries  not  exceeding  $2,000  a  year,  are  now 
Star  Route  contractors,  with  profits  of  $20,000  and  $50,000  a  year. 

The  First  Assistant  Postmaster-General,  James  A.  Tyner,  who  was  Postmaster- 
General  after  the  forced  retirement  of  Marshall  Jewell  from  Grant's  Cabinet,  and 
who  accepted  his  present  position  under  Key  when  the  fraudulent  administration 
began,  lives  at  the  rate  of  $10,000  a  year  on  a  salary  of  $5,000  per  annum.  He 
keeps  last  horses  and  dabbles  in  mining  and  other  stocks. 


THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS.  443 

The  investigation  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  established — 

First.  Service  was  improvidently  and  inconsiderately  granted  where  no  public 
demand  existed  or  public  convenience  accrued. 

Becond.  Exorbitant  prices  were  allowed  for  services  when  needed,  and  for  the 
i'  ork  when  done. 

Third.  Services,  when  not  rendered  according  to  the  contract,  either  in  spirit 
•  >r  measure,  were  nevertheless  fully  paid  for. 

Fourth.  When  fraud  was  detected  on  the  part  of  contractors,  no  adequate 
action  was  taken  by  officials  to  either  punish  or  correct  the  fraud. 

Fyth.  When  official  dereliction,  or  corruption,  or  remissness  was  discovered^ 
the  department  took  no  sufficient  measures  to  punish  delinquents,  or  to  prevent 
a  recurrence  of  similar  official  wrong-doing;  so  that  the  government  lost  annually, 
in  violation  of  law  and  through  corrupt  practices,  millions  of  the  public  money, 
and  the  guilty  parties  in  office  and  out  of  office  have  generally  gone  free,  both  of 
prosecution  and  punishment. 

STKAW    BIDS. 

The  most  flagrant  abuse  which  has  ever  been  fastened  upon  the  Post-office  De- 
partment is  that  which  is  described  by  the  popular  designation  of  straw  bids,  a 
species  of  organized  knavery  utterly  unknown  in  our  history  before  the  postal 
administration  of  Mr.  Ores  well.  A  straw  bid  is  the  offer  of  a  person  to  render 
under  given  conditions  service  which  he  does  not  intend  to  render.  In  most 
cases  it  is  the  bid  of  an  irresponsible  person  at  a  figure  below  the  necessary  first 
cost  of  the  service  to  be  performed.  It  is  a  false  pretense,  its  immediate  object 
being  to  obtain  the  award  as  a  means  of  preventing  the  contract  from  falling  into 
the  hands  of  a  responsible  party  who  has  bid  in  good  faith.  The  names  of  stage 
drivers  and  other  insolvent  intermediates  have  commonly  been  used  for  this  pur- 
pose. Contractors,  in  order  to  defeat  the  efforts  of  the  department  in  obtaining 
a  contract  on  fair  and  reasonable  terms  for  transporting  the  mails,  form  a  ring  of 
many  bidders,  whose  bids  range  from  exorbitantly  high  figures  to  manifestly  small 
amounts.  The  contract  is  awarded  to  the  lowest  bidder,  who  fails,  in  the  interest 
of  the  ring ;  then  every  next  lower  bidder  retires  or  refuses  to  answer  when  noti- 
fied, leaving  the  department  the  alternative  between  some  bidder  higher  up  the 
list,  or  a  continuance  of  the  old  contract  in  the  nature  of  temporary  services,  the 
temporary  services  always  being  performed  by  the  old  contractor,  at  the  old  ex- 
orbitant prices,  because  no  one  else  on  the  long  mountain  routes  in  the  territories 
will  be  prepared  to  commence  immediately  temporary  service.  Where  there  are 
bidders  who  do  not  belong  to  the  ring,  these,  in  many  instances,  receive  large 
sums  to  refuse  to  answer  to  the  bids  when  notified  that  the  lowest  bidder  has 
failed  to  execute  the  contract.  The  contractor  or  confederated  contractors  by  this 
means  virtually  control  the  contract,  and  force  the  department  to  let  to  them  on 
their  own  terms.  Again,  in  many  instances  of  the  recent  practice,  the  Postmaster- 
General  has  exercised  a  suspiciously  convenient  and  absolute  discretion,  and 
overlooking  altogether  the  bidders  in  an  ascending  scale,  declared  a  temporary 
service,  to  the  advantage  of  some  favored  recipient. 

THE  MODUS   OPERANDI. 

In  operating  this  system  for  the  purposes  of  plunder  and  corruption,  there  ap- 
pears from  the  testimony  to  have  been  a  combination  of  rings : 

First,  a  ring  of  contractors. 

Second,  a  ring  of  officials,  embracing  clerks  in  the  contract  office ;  and  some- 
times an  intermediary  ring  of  brokers  or  agents,  by  which  the  two  former  com- 


444  THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 

binations  were  brought  in  contact  and  enabled  to  effect  and  perfect  their  schemes 
against  the  public  treasury.  That  many  clerks  in  the  department  were  in  the 
pay  of  some  of  these  contractors  was  fully  developed  in  the  trial  of  Hinds,  and 
the  circumstances  surrounding  that  case  force  belief  that  this  corrupt  combination 
between  those  clerks  and  contractors  pervaded  all  the  usually  denominated  ring- 
contracts  to  such  an  extent  that  the  contractor  was  enabled,  from  information 
gained  through  the  clerk  who  had  official  access  to  the  records,  to  know  positively 
who  was  the  lowest  bidder,  making  it  easy  to  underbid  him  for  the  contract.  As 
examples  of  the  range  in  the  graduated  scale  where  straw-bidding  has  been  prac- 
ticed, routes  7,587  and  8,539  may  be  adduced;  in  the  former,  from  Fort  Gibson  to 
Sherman,  205  miles  and  back,  three  times  a  week,  the  highest  among  sixty  bidders 
was  $80,049  per  annum,  and  the  lowest  (straw)  $900;  and  in  the  latter,  from  Fort 
Concho  to  El  Paso,  Texas,  475  miles  and  back,  twice  a  week,  the  highest  bid,  of  over 
fifty  bidders,  was  $150,000,  and  the  lowest,  $75.  In  the  last  instance,  the  minimum 
bid  was  summarily  set  aside  by  the  Postmaster-General  as  too  preposterous  to  be 
entertained,  and  a  straw  bid  of  $4,200  accepted,  although  it  was  equally  obvious 
that  it  was  inadequate  to  a  just,  or  any  performance  whatever,  of  the  service ;  and 
Mr.  Creswell  had  the  hardihood  to  vindicate  himself  from  the  charge  of  failing  to 
exercise  a  wholesome  discretion  in  rejecting  all  plainly  fraudulent  bids,  by 
pleading  the  letter  of  the  law  in  its  rigor  and  asserting  the  illegality  of  his  own 
act  in  refusing  to  consider  this  very  El  Paso  bid. 

CORRUPT  OUTGROWTHS. 

One  of  the  peculiarities  of  this  system  of  contract  roguery  is  its  tendency  to 
corrupt  outgrowths.  The  award  is  made  to  the  straw  man,  and  ample  time  al- 
lowed ostensibly  to  execute  the  stipulations,  but,  in  reality,  to  admit  of  ring 
handling.  Each  of  the  bidders  above  him  and  under  the  first  ring  bid  is  ap- 
proached by  one  of  the  ring,  who  says  in  substance:  "Here  are  a  thousand  (or 
more)  dollars  for  you,  if  you  will  withdraw  your  bid.  Even  if  you  allow  it  to 
remain  you  cannot  get  the  contract,  for  it  is  already  awarded  to  one  of  my  men, 
and  he  will  hold  it  unless  you  get  out  of  the  way.  As  the  cage  stands  you  won't 
make  a  dollar,  while  the  effect  of  your  withdrawal  would  be  advantageous  to 
both  of  us ;  it  would  put  this  money  in  your  pocket,  and  enable  me  to  get  a  more 
profitable  contract. "  The  bid  is  withdrawn  and  the  money  paid.  When  all  be- 
low the  first  ring  bidder  are  disposed  of,  the  route  is  awarded  to  him,  the  straw 
man  having*  notified  the  department  that  he  will  not  execute  the  contract.  The 
ring  bidder,  in  like  manner,  delays  until  those  above  him  are  purchased  out  of 
the  way,  when  he  in  turn  fails  to  execute  the  contract,  and  so  on  up  the  list. 
If  a  hitch  in  this  process  compels  the  ring  to  take  a  route  at  a  low  rate,  they  may 
still  depend  upon  an  order  from  the  Postmaster-General  increasing  or  expediting 
the  service.  When  the  object  has  been  by  means  of  straw  bidding  to  secure  an 
order  for  temporary  service,  and  a  re-advertising  of  the  route,  the  old  contractor 
has  allowed  the  use  of  his  stock  for  the  month's  running  necessary  to  save  from 
forfeit  the  percentage  check  on  the  bid  deposited  with  the  department.  Finally, 
this  business  of  straw  bidding  culminated  in  regular  corruption  pay  for  the  clerks 
in  the  contract  sections ;  the  abstraction,  for  perusal  in  midnight  councils  of  the 
ring,  of  legitimate  bids  supposed  to  be  properly  and  securely  filed ;  the  forging  of 
names  upon  bids  put  in,  and  in  counterfeit  authenticating  seals. 

WHO  IS  RESPONSIBLE  ? 

For  these  sustained  depredations  upon  the  treasury,  and  the  perversion  of  cleri- 
cal morals,  Postmaster-General  Creswell  must  be  regarded  as  eminently  responsible. 


THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS.  445 

There  is,  indeed,  reasonable  room  for  grave  suspicion  of  his  complicity;  but  even 
if  it  be  clearly  established  that  he  derived  no  pecuniary  profits  from  these  frauds, 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  he  knowingly  and  consciously  suffered  them  to  exist 
from  motives  of  either  personal  or  partisan  consideration.  To  this  end  he  solic- 
ited and  obtained  strained  constructions  of  obsolete  law  in  disregard  of  the  more 
recent  statute ;  to  this  end  he  violated  habitually  the  clear  and  conservative  pro- 
visions of  specific  law.  That,  at  least,  was  before  him  for  his  guidance ;  nor  can 
it  be  successfully  alleged  that  he  was  in  ignorance  of  the  situation  and  of  its  par- 
ticulars, with  a  departmental  force  so  organized  as  to  grasp  and  expose  them,  with 
special  reports  before  him,  in  view  of  the  notoriety  which  obtains  from  a  well- 
founded  public  clamor,  and  in  the  face  of  his  own  official  confession  of  the  reality 
of  the  evil,  and  a  pretended  desire  for  its  excision. 

THE  CASE  OP  PETERSON. 

The  case  of  Peterson,  who  sustained  an  equally  unenviable  relation  to  the  Cres- 
well  regime  as  that  of  the  Cattells  to  another  department  of  the  government,  i» 
singularly  illustrative  and  instructive.  This  man,  who  had  been  a  brigade  sur- 
geon under  General  Giles  A.  Smith,  commenced  his  career  as  a  contractor  upon 
the  appointment  of  that  gentleman  to  the  second  assistant  postmaster-generalship.. 
His  rise  as  an  influence  in  the  postal  affairs  of  the  Southwest  was  rapid  and  re- 
markable. In  the  language  of  the  facetious  Captain  Leathers,  one  of  the  wit- 
nesses, he  became  "a  big  man  in  Washington,"  "a  man  to  tie  to,"  and  "always, 
knew  how  to  sound  the  gong. "  The  innermost  portals  of  the  post-office  opened 
at  his  approach;  his  solicitations  never  fell  unheeded  upon  the  official  ear;  he  was. 
never  chided  for  tardy  settlements,  nor  inopportunely  investigated  for  defective 
service;  and  when,  in  the  course  of  a  perfunctory  routine,  fines  and  deductions^^ 
fell  to  his  share  as  the  holder  of  many  contracts,  they  vanished  magically  before 
his  protest.  However  arid  it  was  with  other  men,  the  fleece  of  this  Gideon  was 
always  wet.  His  gains  were  counted  in  the  bar-rooms  of  Washington,  and  his 
power  was  marveled  at  by  the  steamboat  men  of  the  Mississippi.  A  great  deal  of 
the  testimony  relates  to  the  fortunes  of  this  prosperous  gentleman,  who  appears 
upon  the  stage  in  several  characters,  but  is  always  easily  to  be  identified.  Not- 
withstanding the  number  and  extent  of  his  river  contracts.  Doctor  Peterson  was 
certainly  not  the  captain  of  a  steamboat,  does  not  appear  to  have  ever  owned  even 
a  portion  of  a  steamboat,  and  if  credence  is  to  be  given  to  the  conviction  of  tha 
veteran  Leathers,  did  not  even  own  "  a  wheelbarrow. "  But  it  is  incontestable 
that  in  a  certain  sense  he  owned  both  the  Postmaster  and  Second  Assistant  Post- 
master-Generals. 

PETERSON'S  METHODS. 

Peterson's  method  was  to  procure  contracts  upon  his  merits  as  an  individual 
and  a  fellow-campaigner  with  General  Smith,  and  then  sub-let  them  to  more  ordi- 
nary mortals,  who  were  content  with  the  fair  results  of  vulgar  industry.  As  one 
illustration  among  many,  the  testimony  shows  that  John  A.  Scudder,  the  owner 
of  a  steamboat,  put  in  a  bid  to  carry  the  mail  from  White  River  to  Vicksburg. 
The  lowest  bidder  having  failed,  Scudder  became  eligible,  and  was  prepared  to 
carry  it  out  in  good  faith  according  to  the  conditions  of  his  bid.  He  received  no 
notice,  as  was  supposed  to  be  the  custom  under  the  regulations,  and  the  contract 
was  awarded  to  Peterson  at  much  higher  figures.  Scudder's  bid  was  $7,000. 
Peterson  sub-let  to  Scudder  at  $10,000,  giving  Scudder  $3,000  more  than  he  bid  to 
do  the  work  for.  All  these  contracts  for  carrying  the  mail  upon  the  Mississippi 
and  its  tributaries,  it  will  be  remarked,  were  taken  by  Peterson  in  his  own  name,. 


446  THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 

and  were,  therefore,  in  direct  contravention  of  that  section  of  the  postal  laws, 
which,  as  he  was  neither  owner  nor  master  of  any  vessel  plying  upon  those  waters, 
disqualified  him  in  terms  from  becoming  a  contractor.  Several  of  the  profitable 
routes  thus  lavished  upon  Peterson  by  his  friend  Smith,  who  had  charge  officially 
of  these  contracts,  were  indisputably  superfluous;  and  the  mails  of  several  routes 
were  commonly  carried  upon  the  same  line  of  boats  under  the  agreement  of  a 
single  sub-letting.  The  work,  too,  was  often  very  improperly  performed,  some 
localities  which  by  the  contract  should  have  been  served  semi  or  tri-weekly,  getting 
not  a  single  mail  in  periods  of  twelve  to  eighteen  days,  to  the  serious  delay  and 
derangement  of  business,  and  the  confusion  of  social  intercourse.  But  Peterson 
was  too  securely  entrenched  to  be  dislodged  by  the  protests  of  angered  communi- 
ties, or  seriously  disturbed  by  the  reports  of  special  agents. 
Peterson's  influence. 
The  evidence  concerning  Peterson  and  his  intimate  relations  with  the  "high  offi- 
cials of  the  General  Post-office,  as  well  as  with  W.  W.  Belknap,  the  then  Secretary 
of  "War,  with  Collector  Casey  and  various  Senators,  as  given  by  other  witnesses 
before  the  committee,  is  always  either  inculpatory  or  suggestive.  Is  a  hitch 
threatened  in  the  usual  remitting  of  Peterson's  fines  and  deductions,  or  in  the  settle- 
ment of  his  accounts  ?  There  is  forthwith  a  peremptory  telegram  from  Senator 
West,  or  a  visit  from  Casey.  Is  there  danger  to  him  of  a  discontinuance  ?  Casey 
is  presently  at  the  front  to  remonstrate.  Does  a  Congressional  investigation 
expose  the  exorbitant  plunder  derived  by  him  from  a  river  sub-letting  ?  A  more 
remunerative  land  route  is  substituted  in  its  place ;  while  Chief  Clerk  French,  who 
also  drives  a  prosperous  private  stroke  at  life-insuring  the  contractors,  which 
makes  him  thoughtful  and  conservative  towards  them,  counts  not  among  the  least 
of  the  felicities  of  his  table  Peterson's  present  of  a  service  of  plate.  What  is  sin- 
gular about  this  ambitious  and  benevolent  personage  is  that,  notwithstanding  the 
magnitude  of  his  operations,  he  is  several  times  presented  as  a  perplexity  to  pur 
suing  sheriffs,  who  are  unable  to  find  anything  tangible  about  him  in  the  way  of 
assets  but  his  aliases.  Finally  he  disappears  from  the  scene  but  still  holding  five 
existing  and  unexpired  contracts,  not  indeed  in  a  halo  of  glory,  but  in  a  cloud  of 
profanity  at  Willard's.  He  has  been  described  here  as  a  type  of  his  class,  and 
yet  he  has  been  very  inadequately  portrayed.  There  is  an  impotence  in  mere  sci- 
entific analysis  for  such  unique  knaves  that  cannot  reach  the  height  of  their  de- 
serving. Except  for  the  probably  less-favored  advantages  of  opportunity,  such 
as  is  Peterson's  are  also  those  of  Sawyer  and  Draper,  Barlow  and  Huntley. 

BARLOW,    SANDERSON   &  CO. 

The  history  and  experiences  of  the  celebrated  firm  of  Barlow,  Sanderson  & 
Co.,  as  given  to  the  committee  by  its  senior  partner,  is  neither  less  guileless  nor 
less  curious.  Barlow  is  a  resident  of  St.  Albans,  Vt.,  now  a  member  of  Con- 
gress; and  Sanderson  is  a  resident  of  St.  Louis.  The  company  appears  to  have 
been  more  or  less  fluctuating.  The  first-named  gentleman  was  the  definable 
quantity  of  the  concern  in  the  Washington  transactions,  and  he  speaks  of  his 
sorrows  with  an  instructive  mixture  of  reticence  and  candor.  The  associates 
were  of  the  straw -bid  ring,  holding  and  operating  mail  contracts  in  Kansas, 
Colorado,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona;  they  had  abundant  capital,  and  always  had 
stock  for  carrying  the  service  on  these  remote  territorial  routes.  Sometimes  a 
cashier  was  set  up  as  the  straw-bidder;  sometimes  a  lady  relative.  At  the  end  of 
the  quarter  there  would  be  a  declared  failure  of  this  bidder;  the  contract  was 
thrown  up,   the  certified  checks  with  the  department  having  been  returned. 


THE    POSTAL   FRAUDS.  447 

and  the  Postmaster-General  was  compelled  to  employ  the  firm  which  alone 
possessed  facilities  for  transportation.  For  so  extended  a  business  as  theirs, 
there  was  probably  never  so  little  bookkeeping  as  by  the  firm  of  Barlow, 
Sanderson  &  Co.  Their  papers  were  of  a  fugitive  and  perishable  constitution, 
and,  when  preserved,  were  commonly  kept  in  a  cellar  or  a  boot-box.  Accounts 
were  rendered  in  gross.  ,  Transactions  aggregating  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  could  only  be  gathered  from  loose  sheets.  Their  affairs  largely  depended 
upon  a  class  of  agreements  that  were  never  reduced  to  writing  at  all. 

NO  RECEIPTS. 

Twenty,  thirty,  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  paid  away  to  various  serviceable 
individuals  at  Washington  without  any  recorded  acknowledgment  or  remaining 
sign,  except  in  the  feeble  and  fallible  memory  of  Mr.  Barlow,  who,  when 
speaking  of  the  results,  innocently  expresses  it  as  "a  good  deal  like  scattering 
seed;"  an  application  of  the  parable  which  Satan  himself  might  have  envied. 
Repeatedly,  when  the  particular  in  question  is  the  expenditure  of  a  large  sum 
at  a  most  anxious  crisis  of  his  affairs,  he  is  utterly  unable  to  recall  either  the 
amount,  or  the  names  of  the  persons  to  whom  it  was  paid.  Enough,  however, 
IS  produced  to  indicate  the  character  and  proportions  of  that  which  is  concealed. 
Two  different  sets  of  men  were  the  recipients  of  the  bounty  of  this  firm — the 
relatives  and  friends  of  high  officials  in  the  department,  and  the  department 
lawyers,  for  their  influence  and  vigilance,  and  outside  Assyrians,  who  would 
come  down  like  the  wolf  on  the  fold,  with  the  menaces  and  machinery  of 
investigation  and  demands  for  blackmail.  To  emasculate  the  investigation  of 
the  Republican  committee  of  the  then  Republican  House,  Barlow  admits  to  have 
paid,  through  one  Farrar,  between  forty  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  It  is  ob- 
vious that  so  large  a  sum  would  not  have  been  squandered  in  obscure  and  unin- 
fluential  quarters.  This  contractor  testifies  to  having  paid  Hood,  a  lawyer,  not 
for  professional  services,  but  for  "influence  with  the  department,"  over  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars.  Earle  was  Creswell's  law  partner  at  Elkton,  and  First 
Assistant  Postmaster- General  until  he  resigned  for  the  opportunity  of  this  pecu- 
liar and  profitable  species  of  practice — one  of  those  promoters  of  Chorpenning 
whom  Senator  Morrill,  of  Vermont,  declared  "  should  have  their  day  in  court.'' 
Mr.  Earle  was  handed  $100,  $500,  $1,000,  in  the  language  of  Barlow,  "any  time 
I  was  a  mind  to,"  as  undefined  but  current  compensation  for  "  aid  "  and  "  pro- 
tection "  in  the  department. 

CORRUPT   USE   OF  MONEY. 

Q.  Did  you  ever  make  any  presents?  A.  Oh,  now,  since  it  occurs  to  me,  I  did  let  General  Mor- 
gan L.  Smith  have  money;  he  was  the  brother  of  Mr.  Giles  A.  Smith. 

Q.  Is  he  dead?    A.  Yes,  sir,  he  is. 

Q.  How  much  money  did  you  pay  him?  A.  I  do  not  know  whether  you  call  it  payments  or  not. 
I  never  called  it  payments  at  all. 

Q.  What  did  you  give  him?  A.  I  could  not  tell  you  how  much  I  did  give  him;  I  gave  him 
money,  loaned  it  or  gave  it  to  him— it  is  all  the  same  thing— when  he  asked  me  for  it;  not  at  regu- 
lar times,  but  when  he  wanted  it. 

Q.  What  did  he  want  it  for?  A.  I  suppose  he  wanted  it  to  pay  his  expenses;  he  was  a  pretty 
expensive  man. 

Q,.  Can  you  not  remember  the  amounts?  A.  I  let  him  have  a  considerable  amount  at  one  time 
and  another. 

Q.  What  do  you  call  considerable?  A.  I  don't  know;  I  don't  know  how  much  I  did  let  him 
have. 

Q,.  As  much  as  $.30,000  ?  A.  I  should  think  not;  nor  $20,000.  I  let  him  have  considerable,  one 
time  and  another;  I  don't  know  how  much. 

Q.  What  was  the  object  in  letting  him  have  that  money?  A.  Well,  I  don't  think  there  was 
mucn  object  in  it  any  way;  I  never  thought  there  was. 

Q.  You  gave  it  to  him  whenever  he  wanted  it?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  At  the  time  you  gave  it  to  him  who  was  Second  Assistant  Postmaster-General.  A.  His  broth- 
er was;  but  I  never  thought  that  it  had  a  particle  of  influence;  I  never  gave  it  to  him  to  influence 
his  brother,  and  never  thought  that  it  did  influence  him  in  any  other  way  than  that  he  would 
think  I  was  a  clever  fellow;  that  is  all. 


448  THE    POSTAL    PBAUDS. 

Very  naturally  Mr.  Barlow's  great  expenditures  for  interest  and  protection 
within  the  Post-office  Department  were  much  more  cheerfully  made  than  his 
payments  of  levies  to  the  outside  raiders  who  from  time  to  time  were  threatening 
mischief  to  his  contracts.  Although  his  memory  is  usually  defective  when  ques- 
tioned concerning  the  details  of  his  transactions  with  these  last,  the  same  cannot 
be  said  of  his  temper  when  he  has  occasion  to  refer  to  them,  where  they  are 
either  "  devils"  to  be  suppressed  or  "hounds  "  to  be  kept  in  leash.  It  was  not 
investigation  Mr.  Barlow,  if  he  is  to  be  believed,  feared  in  the  least,  only  personal 
annoyance  and  a  jeoparding  of  the  character  of  his  good  friends  Creswell  and 
Smith. 

POSTMASTER-GENERAL   CRESWELL'S  LITTLE   GAME. 

And  just  here  may  be  profitably  recalled,  by  way  of  contrast  to  the  honest  and 
tborough  exposures  made  in  the  report  of  the  committee  of  the  present  Democratic 
House,  from  which  we  are  taking  these  particulars  of  the  gross  mismanagement 
of  postal  affairs  under  the  administration  of  President  Grant,  the  scandalous  sup- 
pressions and  perversions  which  characterize  the  report  of  the  Republican 
majority  in  the  investigation  of  1872.  That  investigation  was  compelled  by  a 
severe  and  specific  article  published  in  the  Washington  Patriot.  Postmaster- 
General  Creswell  was  arraigned  for  malfeasance,  among  other  charges,  in  award- 
ing a  contract  for  the  Oroville  and  Portland  route  in  direct  violation  of  law,  at  a 
private  letting  and  without  advertisement.  The  route  at  first  had  been  advertised 
and  should  have  been  awarded  to  the  lowest  bid  of  $96,000  per  annum.  Cres- 
well accepted  an  illegal  but  lower  bid  upon  a  pretense  of  economy.  This  bidder 
failed  to  transport,  and  the  department  procured  temporary  service  at  $700  a  day. 
Again  the  service  was  let  at  figures  far  in  excess  of  the  rejected  bid.  Another 
failure  of  service  ensued,  and  the  department  again  secured  temporary 
service  at  $420  per  diem.  Then  the  contract  was  given  without  advertisement 
to  Barlow  and  Sanderson  at  $142,000  per  annum.  The  illegal,  if  not  the  corrupt 
character  of  this  transaction  is  too  apparent  to  be  insisted  upon.  Even  Assistant 
Postmaster- General  Giles  A.  Smith  testified  that  he  knew  of  no  authority  of  law 
for  making  this  contract  as  it  was  made,  for  the  full  term.  Attorney-General 
Ackerman  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  proceeding  was  altogether  contrary  to 
law.  And  now  appears  an  important  use  in  the  disposition  of  the  money  hereto- 
fore referred  to  as  paid  to  Farrar.  These  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  adroitly 
employed  to  divert  the  investigation  of  the  House  committee  from  Barlow  to 
Sawyer,  another  notorious  and  peccant  straw-bid  contractor,  who  refused  "to 
bleed."  No  evidence  whatever  was  sought  or  taken  as  to  the  specific  charges  af- 
fecting Barlow,  and  Creswell  was  not  only  acquitted  but  extolled  by  the  Repub- 
licdii  majority  of  the  committee  as  an  upright  and  vituperated  public  function- 
ary. It  will  be  thought  that  such  a  contrast  as  is  here  presented  of  the  records 
of  the  Republican  and  the  Democratic  House  should  abash  the  utmost  effrontery 
of  cavil. 

LAVISH  USE   OF  MONEY. 

So  also  concerning  the  practice  of  lavishly  and  systematically  paying  corrup- 
tion money,  which  has  obtained  at  Washington  during  the  Republican  adminis- 
tration, to  influence  the  operations  of  the  Post-office  Department,  there  is  signifi- 
cant testimony  pertinent  to  Sawyer,  whose  routes  were  in  Texas.  A  portion  of 
the  evidence  of  George  W.  Paschal  is  as  follows: 

Q.  state  to  the  committee  whether,  in  your  examination  of  Mr.  Sawyer's  papers,  yon  found 
any  other  papers,  drafts  or  memorandum  books  that  were  not  before  the  committee  when  you 
were  last  examined?  [The  witness  produced  a  memorandum  book.]  A.  This  memorandum  book 
was  handed  to  me  by  Mr.  Taylor.  Mr.  Taylor,  in  looking  over  the  books,  happened  to  take  it  up 
and  brought  it  to  me.  It  shows  some  of  the  running  expenses,  traveling  expenses  and  other 
things. 


THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS.  449 

Q.  Is  that  Mr.  Sawyer's  handwriting  ?  A.  Yes,  sir ;  they  are  rough  notes  of  running  accounts 
\vhich  he  kept.  I  see  here  "  November,"  which  seems  to  be  November,  1872.  Judging  by  the- 
dates,  I  should  say  that  in  the  past  June  this  entry  was  made  :  "  Paid  attorneys,  mails,  $10,000."- 
On  the  same  page,  which  would  carry  it  into  the  next  year,  25th  February,  for  the  same  kind  of 
services,  "Attorneys,  $8,000."  It  is  next  to  the  last  of  the  page,  on  the  right-hand  side.  Then 
there  is  an  entry  here  which  is  a  blind  account.    It  is  as  follows  : 

Amount  paid  sharks  on  account  of  contract  after  1st  July. 

Wm.  H.  Farrar,  paid  by  L $20,000 

Captain  Hinds,  paid  by  L 7,500 

Mrs.  Stuart,  paid  b y  L 2,000 

August,  Paid  Col.  Bell 150 

Wol%'erton 2,000 

Phips 3,000 

Williamson 2,000 

Sept.,  D.  A.  F 2,000 

Oct.,  B.  &  Co 2,000 

Oct.,  Wm.  H.  Farrar 4,000 

And  again  from  the  testimony  of  Francis  C.  Taylor: 

COOKING   UP   ACCOUNTS. 

Q.  What  amount  of  those  expenses  were  not  put  upon  the  books  ?  A.  All  the  parties  interested, 
I  thmk,  were  in  Austin,  Texas,  having  a  sort  of  general  settlement,  in  November,  1872.  I  had  beea 
engaged  for  some  time  in  trying  to  finish  up  the  business  between  Ben.  Ficklln  and  Sawyer  for 
the  administrator,  and  Sawyer  came  on  there  during  the  time.  Slaughter  Ficklin  had  been  there 
all  the  time.  Sawyer  brought  with  him  his  account  for  some  $30,000  or  $40,000 paid  Abbot  for 
coaches,  for  which  he  took  credit,  and  which  was  divided  between  the  different  divisions.  There 
were  four  divisions  of  staging,  and  all  the  parties  were  there.  Sawyer  had  accounts  against  my 
division,  and,  I  think,  against  all  the  others.  After  having  various  accounts  put  on  the  books  of 
the  several  divisions,  Sawyer  said,  "  Here  I  have  an  account,"  amounting  to  considerable,  as  well 
as  I  now  remember,  from  $50,000  to  $60,000— and  said,  "  All  the  divisions  will  have  to  pay  their 
proportion  of  this."     It  was  a  memorandum  showing  that  amount. 

6.  This  November  settlement  or  charging  up  of  all  the  different  accounts  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  And  the  $50,000  or  $60,000  that  was  there  brought  in  without  vouchers,  and  whicli  had  not 

Ereviously  been  entered  upon  the  books,  is  a  separate  and  distinct  item  from  $200,000  that  you  said 
ad  been  previously  entered  upon  the  books  ?  A.  Yes,  sir  ;  that  amount  of  $200,000  was  on  a  settle- 
ment between  Ben.  Ficklin  and  Sawyer.  This  other  amount  of  $50,000  or  $60,000,  I  forget  which, 
was  for  the  year  from  July,  1871,  to  July,  1872,  and  was  lo  be  divided  among  the  different  firms 
then  in  existence  ;  and  as  Sawyer  said,  when  it  was  presented,  "Here  is  an  account  of  money  that 
I  have  expended  in  Washington  that  must  be  divided  among  the  different  companies."  Idon'^t 
think  Wright  objected.  I  tnink  Scott  said  a  little,  and  Slaughter  Ficklin  said  considerable,,  and 
intimated  that  such  blackmailing  operations  should  not  be  paid,  or  something  of  that  kind. 

O.  There  were  no  names  on  the  paper  indicating  to  whom  it  had  been  paid  ?  A.  No,  sir  ;  I  am 
satisfied  of  that.  I  remember  that  there  were  two  items  of  $10,(X)0  or  one  of  $20,000, 1  am  not 
positive  which,  and  which  Sawyer  stated  or  admitted  that  he  had  paid  to  the  same  party. 

A   LOOSE   SYSTEM. 

For  transportation  of  the  mails  the  advertisement  and  contract  specify  a  cer- 
tain number  of  trips  per  week  each  way  over  the  route.  If  at  any  time  during^ 
the  contract  term  it  properly  appears  to  the  department,  through  petitions  from 
the  people  and  from  reports  of  its  agents,  that  additional  mail  facilities  are  re- 
quired, the  Postmaster-General  is  authorized  by  law  to  order  an  increase  in  the 
number  of  trips  per  week.  Such  an  order  carries  with  it  a  corresponding  increase 
of  pay.  Where  the  contract  calls  for,  say  one  trip  a  week,  with  compensation 
at  $10,000  per  annum,  if  an  additonal  trip  be  ordered,  the  pay  is  advanced  to 
$20,000;  three  trips  would  command  $80,000,  and  so  on,  a  trip  each  day  in  the  week 
enabling  the  contractor  at  this  rate  to  draw  $70,000  per  annum.  It  will  be  readily 
perceived  what  reaches  of  corruption  are  thus  made  possible  on  territorial  routes 
traversing  remote  regions  and  subject  to  but  limited  observation. 

In  issuing  the  advertisements  for  postal  services,  proposals  are  invited  for  car- 
rying the  mail  on  a  particular  route,  say,  once  a  week.  With  the  advertisement 
is  published  the  following  notice  : 

The  Postmaster-General  has  no  power  under  the  law  to  release  bidders  and  contractors,  and  their 

fnarantors  and  sureties,  from  their  liabilities,  on  the  allegation  of  real  or  supposed  mistakes  of  any 
ind  in  making  proposals.  He  particularly  requests  that,  before  bidding,  the  fullest  inquiry  and  in- 
vestigation be  made  in  regard  to  the  route,  distance,  service,  weight  of  mails,  cost  of  stock,,  feed 
and  all, expenses,  existing  and  likely  to  occur,  during  the  contract  term  and  with  due  consideration 
of  the  consequences  imposed  by  law  on  delinquents. 

HOW  BONA  FIDE  BIDDERS   ARE   DISPOSED   OF. 

After  this  notice  a  bonajide  bidder,  in  making  his  estimates,  will  assuredly  al- 

29 


450  THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 

low  margin  for  a  fair  profit,  taking  into  account  all  the  difiiculties,  expense  and 
risks  involved  in  the  performance  of  the  service.  Having  obtained  the  contract, 
established  his  stations  along  the  route,  and  otherwise  arranged  for  one  trip  per 
week,  any  order  that  he  can  procure  for  additional  service,  carrying  with  it  pro 
rata  increase  of  pay,  gives  him  a  great  percentage  of  profit.  It  is  matter  of  com- 
mon information  among  people  advised  on  the  subject  of  postal  contracts  that 
the  amount  of  stock  ordinarily  employed  in  transporting  the  mail  once  each  way 
over  a  route  is  sufficient  also  for  an  additional  trip.  If  any  further  expense  is  in. 
curred,  it  is,  in  comparison  to  the  pay  received,  so  slight  as  hardly  to  merit  at- 
tention. 

We  will  suppose  the  route,  probably  a  sparsely-peopled  expanse  of  wilderness 
and  mountain  road,  to  have  been  procured  by  the  favorite  ring  contractor.  The 
preliminaries  have  been  ostensibly  observed — the  guarantors  have  been  certified 
to  by  Postmaster  Edmunds,  whose  vocation  it  is  to  swear  clairvoyantly  to  the 
circumstances  of  unknown  people,  and  the  signatures  to  the  bonds  have  been  at- 
tested by  some  complaisant  Washington  notary  who  can  make  a  thousand  dollars 
worth  of  realty  indefinately  available  by  administering  the  oath  in  instalments, 
and  the  service  is  begun.  Part  of  the  route  is  coached,  and  on  parts  of  it  where 
there  is  no  passenger  travel,  the  "mails" — sometimes  a  mere  pocketful  of  letters 
. — are  carried  on  horseback  or  on  a  buckboard.  Presently — within  a  month  or  a 
week,  it  may  be — interest  having  been  previously  made  with  the  Postmaster-Gene- 
ral, an  increase  of  service  is  ordered,  and  the  contractor's  pay  doubled.  In  some 
instances,  when  the  necessity  for  the  route  itself  was  altogether  doubtful,  it  has 
been  thus  trebled.  Penalties  for  default  on  the  favorite  contractor,  when  default 
is  reported  at  all,  in  the  shape  of  fines  and  deductions,  are  seldom  visited ;  and 
when  visited  speedily  remitted,  except  in  perhaps  a  nominal  sum  for  the  sake  of 
appearances,  while  the  honest  contractor  is  held  to  a  rigorous  accountability. 
The  ring  contractor's  accounts  are  marked  ' '  special, "  and  take  precedence  in  set- 
tlement ;  while  the  required  certificates  of  service  from  the  postmasters  at  the 
termini  are  often  forged  in  Washington  and  presented  as  from  New  Mexico  or 
Colorado  with  the  ink  upon  them  scarcely  dry.  It  was  one  of  Peterson's  tricks 
to  run  the  service  regularly  on  long  routes  a  few  miles  to  and  from  each  terminus, 
that  he  might  spare  the  tender  Republican  consciences  of  the  oflacials  in  making 
their  reports,  while  he  was  neglecting  the  whole  intermediate  for  weeks  together. 
This  prevalent,  if  not  collusive,  knavery  under  his  predecessor,  by  which  the 
treasury  was  Inordinately  plundered,  was  refused  investigation  by  Postmaster- 
General  Jewell,  upon  the  principle  so  appropriately  recognized,  it  may  be  sup- 
posed, by  a  military  administration,  that  dead  men  should  tell  no  tales. 

GLARING  FRAUDS. 

The  orders  made  by  Postmaster-General  Creswell  within  a  single  year  for  in- 
crease of  service  on  route  No.  43,127,  considered  in  connection  vrith  the  popula- 
tion of  the  country  through  which  it  runs,  and  the  insignificant  postal  revenue 
derived  from  it,  bear  on  their  face  the  most  glaring  indications  of  fraud.  The 
route  referred  to  was  that  which  was  held  by  C.  C.  Huntley,  of  the  Northwestern 
Stage  Company,  running  from  Walla- Walla,  Washington  territory,  to  Missoula, 
Montana  territory,  a  distance  of  450  miles.  The  pay  on  this  route  was  increased 
to  $71,226  per  annum.  The  intermediate  stations,  as  entered  upon  the  depart- 
ment records,  are  Waitsburgh,  Tukannan,  Union  Flat,  Colfax,  Rosalijf,  Rock 
Creek,  Pine  Grove,  Spokane  Bridge,  Horse  Plains,  St.  Ignatius  and  Agency. 
Here  is  quite  a  suggestion  of  populous  geography,  but  with  one  or  two  exceptions 


THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS.  451 

the  places  are  scarcely  entitled  to  be  called  hamlets,  while  Walla-Walla  itself,  the 
largest  of  them  all,  is  but  a  small  settlement.  So  far  as  the  report  of  the  last  cen- 
sus indicates,  the  sum  of  their  population  is  a  little  over  three  thousand  souls. 
But,  to  avoid  cavil,  we  will  take  the  population  of  the  counties  in  which  these 
places  are  supposed  to  be  situated,  which  is  8,588.  So  the  department  pays  out 
for  postal  facilities  for  each  and  every  man,  woman  and  child  about  the  sum  of 
nine  dollars.  Now  the  postal  receipts  from  all  the  sixty-three  routes  of  these  two 
territories  w^as  at  the  time  but  $44,113,  or  over  $27,000  less  than  was  paid  Huntley 
for  running  this  almost  superfluous  route.  But  if  it  be  contended  that  such  a 
route  is  in  the  nature  of  necessity  and  the  interests  of  civilization,  we  will  pursue 
the  inquiry  a  little  further.  Of  the  3,341  inhabitants  of  the  places  before  enumer- 
ated, 3,194  reside  at  or  near  the  termini  of  the  route,  leaving  only  147  as  living 
along  this  barren  reach  of  four  hundred  miles.  Again,  the  above  population  was 
otherwise  provided  with  mail  facilities.  Missoula  had  a  mail  outlet  to  civiliza- 
tion, and  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  by  a  route  running  to  Helena,  Montana,  over 
which  postal  communications  was  had  three  times  a  week.  On  the  other  hand, 
Walla  taps  the  railroad  seven  times  a  week  by  the  stage  route,  and  it  is  in  addition 
supplied  with  mails  seven  times  a  week  from  Portland,  Oregon. 

Huntley  was  the  first  contractor  on  this  route,  and  his  contract  called  for  one 
trip  per  week,  with  pay  at  $23,000  per  annum.  This  service  was  increased  to 
three  trips,  and  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1869,  he  received  $68,967.39. 
Owing  to  the  persistent  protests  of  postmasters,  special  agents  and  an  officer  of 
internal  revenue,  the  number  of  trips  was,  about  the  close  of  1869,  reduced  to 
one  per  week.  But  the  complaints  in  behalf  of  honesty  of  these  faithful  public 
servants  brought  the  axe  to  their  necks.     Huntley  boasted  of  their  dismissal. 

On  the  30th  of  September,  1869,  advertisements  were  issued  for  service  in  the 
territories  for  four  years,  to  commence  July  1, 1870.  As  to  the  Walla- Walla  route, 
proposals  were  invited  for  one  trip  per  week,  including  side  supply  to  Stevensville 
and  Fort  Owen.  L.  L.  Blake  was  the  accepted  straw  bidder  at  $15,100,  and  con- 
tract was  made  with  Huntley  at  $22,900.  Now,  holding  in  view  the  history  and 
character  of  this  route — the  fraud  by  which  the  route  was  established  and  the 
contracts  obtained,  the  ridiculously  few  people  to  be  supplied  with  postal  facili- 
ties, the  abundance  of  supply  through  other  channels,  the  trifling  revenue  to  be 
derived  by  the  department,  and  the  great  preponderance  of  expenditures  over  re- 
ceipts, all  of  which  was  fully  proven  to  Mr.  Creswell — observe  his  action  imme- 
diately following  the  commencement  of  service  under  Huntley's  renewed  contract, 
which  went  into  operation  July  1,  1870.' 

Huntley's  allowance. 

First. — On  that  very  day  he  made  an  extra  allowance.  In  June,  1868,  a  post- 
office  called  Tukannan  was  established  in  Walla- Walla  county,  Washington  terri- 
tory, about  ten  miles  off  the  main  route,  w^hich  at  that  time  was  numbered  15,422, 
and  the  salary  of  the  postmaster  thei;e  stationed  was  fixed  at  $12  per  annum.  Up 
to  the  30th  of  June,  1873,  no  change  had  been  made  in  the  salary  of  this  officer, 
showing  that  little  or  no  business  was  transacted  by  him  for  the  department;  and, 
moreover,  the  agent  of  the  Census  Bureau,  if  he  happened  to  find  the  place,  dis- 
regarded it,  for  there  is  no  enumeration.  Nevertheless,  on  the  1st  day  of  July, 
1870,  Mr.  Creswell  made  an  order  allowing  Huntley  $2,130  for  pretended  supply 
of  this  office  from  June  17,  1868,  to  June  30,  1870,  under  his  old  contract. 

Second. — Within  the  same  month,  to  wit,  on  the  29th  thereof,  he  issued  an  or- 
der for  one  additional  trip  a  week  on  side  supply  from  Missoula  to  Stevensville, 
forty  miles,  with  additional  allowance  of  $2,022  per  annum. 


452  THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 

Third.— By  the  23d  of  the  following  month  Mr.  Huntley  had  made  interest 
with  him  for  a  yet  greater  favor  ;  for  on  that  day  was  promulgated  his  order  for 
service  on  side  supply  extended  from  Stevensville  to  Gird's  Creek,  forty-five 
miles,  with  additional  allowance  of  $4,550  per  annum.  The  office  of  Gird's  Creek 
was  of  so  little  importance  that  no  person  could  be  found  to  act  as  postmaster, 
and  in  the  following  December  it  was  discontinued  and  has  not  been  re-estab- 
lished ;  and  the  astonishing  fact  is  to  be  told  that  the  additional  pay  of  $4,550  was, 
notwithstanding,  continued  until  the  end  of  the  contract  term,  a  period  of  three 
years  and  six  months. 

Fourth. — Only  four  months  later  he  presented  Mr,  Huntley  with  the  equiva- 
lent of  a  large  fortune  in  the  shape  of  an  order,  dated  Dec.  22,  1870,  for  two  ad- 
ditional trips  a  week  between  Walla- Walla  and  Missoula,  with  an  additional  al- 
lowance of  $41,754  per  annum  ! 

HOW   THE  ADVERTISING   OP   ROUTES  IS  MANIPULATED. 

In  a  general  way,  the  manner  and  effect  of  "  increasing  the  service" — a  power 
vested  in  the  Postmaster-General — has  been  explained  ;  and  it  will  now  be  shown 
how  the  Ring  has,  by  directing  the  preparation  of  advertisements  in  the  depart- 
ment, opened  the  way  for  the  exercise  of  that  power  in  their  interest. 

For  the  purposes  of  the  contract  office,  the  states  of  the  Union  are  grouped  in 
four  sections.  The  first  comprises  the  New  England  and  Middle  states,  Maryland 
and  the  Virginias  ;  the  second  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Missis- 
sippi, Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Ohio  and  Indiana  ;  the  third,  Illinois,  Michigan, 
Wisconsin,  Iowa  and  Missouri  ;  and  the  fourth  all  the  remaining  states  and  the  ter- 
ritories. The  contract  term  for  each  of  these  sections  is  four  years,  commencing 
with  the  fiscal  period,  but  the  regular  lettings  are  separated  by  equal  intervals  of 
time. 

There  are  seventeen  corresponding  or  contract  clerks,  about  equally  distrib- 
uted, each  assigned  to  the  business  of  a  particular  number  of  states  belonging  ta 
his  section.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  contract  clerk  to  keep  a  record  of  bids  and 
awards  ;  to  see  that  provision  is  made  for  supplying  his  post-offices  with  transpor- 
tation ;  to  receive  petitions  for  the  establishment  of  new  routes  and  for  increase 
of  service,  and  to  examine  as  to  the  necessity  for  what  is  asked  in  the  petitions  ;. 
to  be  familiar  with  the  character  of  the  country  through  which  his  routes  pass, 
and  to  this  end  he  is  supplied  with  maps  and  all  other  necessary  facilities  ;  to 
make  up  and  submit  cases  to  his  superiors,  and  to  prepare  advertisements  for  pro- 
posals. These  advertisements  are  published  in  a  pamphlet,  and  arranged  therein 
according  to  the  numerical  order  of  the  routes.  The  offices  on  the  route  are  given, 
as  are  also  the  distance,  time  of  arrival  and  departure,  and  the  number  of  trips 
per  week.  This  last  is  the  item  which  invites  attention.  It  was  the  object  of  the 
Ring  to  have  the  number  of  trips  on  any  given  route  reduced  in  the  advertisement 
to  one  trip  per  week  in  order  to  ward  off  competition,  well  knowing  that  having 
once  obtained  the  contract  they  could,  by  the  mere  scratch  of  Mr.  Creswell's  pen„ 
have  the  service  increased  and  the  pay  doubled  or  trebled. 

Outside  bidders,  ignorant  of  the  country  and  not  in  the  secrets  of  the  Ring,  were 
not  disposed  to  risk  their  capital  under  a  contract  for  but  one  trip  a  week,  except 
at  a  rate  which  carried  them  above  competition  with  the  Ring.  But  suppose  an 
outside  bidder  should  assume  the  risk  and  obtain  the  contract  at  one  trip  per 
week,  then  indeed  would  he  feel  the  power  of  the  monopoly.  He  would  in  vain 
attempt  to  procure  an  increase  of  service.  The  performance  of  his  contract  would 
be  watched  with  the  untiring  vigilance  of  cupidity  and  malice,  and  he  would  be 


THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS.  453 

subjected  upon  every  pretext  to  fines  and  deductions.  Reduced  to  a  condition  of 
despondency,  he  would  be  approadjed  by  an  emissary  of  the  Ring  with  a  proposal 
to  sell  his  contract,  and  this  he  would  gladly  accept.  But  such  a  contract  is  not 
assignable.  This,  however,  is  only  an  apparent  difficulty,  readily  overcome  by 
the  execution  of  a  power  of  attorney,  which  carries  with  it  the  control  of  route 
pay.  All  that  remains  to  him  is  the  percentage  the  Ring  may  consent  to  bestow. 
The  bargain  concluded,  the  department  at  once  relaxes,  and  an  increase  of  service 
is  ordered  for  the  account  of  the  Ring. 

Sometimes  less  service  has  been  advertised  for  than  was  actually  needed,  and 
in  such  cases  the  public  have  suffered  great  inconvenience.  This  was  done  with 
^  full  knowledge  by  the  department  of  existing  necessities  in  the  territorial  let- 
tings  of  1869.  The  wants  of  the  people,  as  was  foreseen,  compelled  an  almost 
immediate  increase.  Take,  for  example,  route  No.  7,587,  from  Fort  Gibson, 
Ark. ,  to  Sherman,  Texas,  and  the  direct  line  of  communication  between  St.  Louis 
to  that  state.  There  was  need  of  daily  service,  and  of  this  fact  the  department 
was  fully  aware.  Such,  indeed,  was  the  importance  of  the  route  that  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  of  St.  Louis  petitioned  for  that  amount  of  service.  Yet  in  the 
advertisement  but  three  trips  were  called  for.  The  award  was  made  to  a  straw 
bidder  at  $900,  upon  whose  failure  the  petition  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  was 
granted,  the  service  was  increased  to  six  trips  a  week,  and  a  contract  was  made 
with  F.  P.  Sawyer  for  the  temporary  service  at  $34,396  per  annum,  the  old  rate 
of  pay. 

ANOTHER  INVESTIGATION. 

The  investigation  at  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress  originated 
in  this  way  :  The  Postmaster-General,  in  his  annual  report  to  Congress,  made  no 
allusion  whatever  to  a  possible  deficiency  for  the  Star  Route  mail  service.  At  the 
time  he  wrote  his  report  he  knew  that  there  must  be  for  that  fiscal  year,  1879-80, 
a  deficiency  in  that  service  for  more  than  $1,000,000.  Congress  had  not  been  in 
session  two  weeks  before  Postmaster-General  Key,  enclosing  a  letter  from  his 
second  assistant.  Gen.  Brady,  sent  a  letter  to  the  Senate  and  the  House  asking  for 
an  appropriation  of  $2,000,000  to  meet  a  deficiency  in  the  Star  mail  service. 
Thereupon  the  House  referred  the  letter  to  the  Committee  of  Appropriations. 
That  committee  considered  the  matter,  and  unanimously  agreed  to  ask  the  House 
for  authority  to  inquire  into  the  whole  subject.  That  power  was  granted  by  the 
House  without  dissent. 

The  investigation  began.  Second  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Brady  was 
<;alled  upon  to  account  for  the  money  he  had  expended.  The  appropriation  made 
by  Congress  for  the  Star  Mail  service  for  the  fiscal  year  1879-'80  was  $5,900, 000 — 
-every  dollar  the  department  estimated  would  be  required,  and  every  dollar  asked 
of  Congress.  He  had  spent  the  whole  of  this  sum  in  the  first  three-quarters  of 
the  fiscal  year.  This  had  been  done  by  increasing  the  pay  of  contractors.  It  was 
the  old  system.  Contractors  bid  low  for  the  service.  The  department  had  pre- 
pared the  way  for  this,  by  advertising  for  service  less  frequently  than  it  was 
required,  and  at  a  slower  speed  than  the  mails  had  been  carried  the  previous  con- 
tract term.  Then  the  contractors  having  obtained  the  contracts  at  low  bids,  got  up 
petitions  along  the  routes  asking  for  more  frequent  deliveries  of  the  mails  and 
quicker  time.  On  these  petitions  the  increased  speed  and  additional  deliveries 
were  ordered, 

SENATOR  DORSET'S  RAKE. 

To  show  how  this  business  was  managed  we  will  instance  one  case.  Senator 
Stephen  W.  Dorsey,  while  he  was  still  in  the  United  States  Senate,  entered  into  a 


454  THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 

combination  with  his  brother,  John  W.  Dorsey,  his  brother-in-law,  John  M.  Peck, 
and  John  R  Miner,  to  obtain  as  large  a  number  of  Star  Mail  contracts  as  possible. 
They  employed  an  ex-post-office  clerk  named  Redell,  who  was  familiar  with  the 
routine  of  the  business  in  the  department.  He  prepared  the,  bids,  drew  up  the 
bonds,  which  must  be  signed  by  the  bidders,  with  the  amount  of  the  bid  inserted, 
and  then  some  postmaster  must  certify  that  he  is  well  acquainted  with  the  bonds- 
men, that  he  saw  them  execute  the  bonds,  and  that  he  knows  that  they  are  good 
for  the  amount  thereof.  Senator  Dorsey  sent  these  bonds,  without  being  signed 
by  the  bidders,  without  having  the  amount  of  the  bids  inserted,  to  the  postmaster 
at  Little  Rock,  Arkansas,  a  creature  of  his,  who  had  them  executed,  with  one  or 
two  sureties,  and  returned  them  to  Dorsey  at  the  Senate  Chamber.  The  whole 
thing  was  a  farce  and  fraud  from  the  beginning.  It  was  so  proved  before  the 
Committee  on  Post-Offices  and  Post-Roads  of  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  in  March, 
1878.  So  complete  was  the  proof  that  Mr.  Cannon,  a  Republican  member  of  the 
cemmittee,  insisted  that  the  Postmaster- General  should  be  notified  of  the  facts,  so 
that  he  might  reject  the  fraudulent  bids.  The  notice  was  given  ;  Dorsey  himself 
came  before  the  committee  and  solemnly  swore  that  he  had  no  interest,  and  ex- 
pected to  have  none,  in  any  contracts  which  might  be  obtained  on  these  bids.  The 
Postmaster-General,  Mr.  Key,  in  spite  of  the  notification  he  had  received  of  the 
character  of  the  bids  made  by  Dorsey's  Syndicate,  accepted  them  and  awarded 
more  than  100  contracts  to  the  members  of  the  Ring.  His  excuse  for  doing  this 
was  that  the  government  saved  $160,000  a  year  thereby,  as  compared  with  the 
price  paid  for  carrying  the  mails  on  the  same  routes  during  the  previous  four 
years. 

Within  a  month  after  Dorsey's  time  expired  as  Senator,  on  the  4th  March, 
1879 — the  contracts  taking  effect,  June  30,  1879 — he  himself  took  sub-con- 
tracts in  a  large  number  of  the  most  profitable  of  the  routes  the  Syndicate  had 
obtained.  A  sub-contractor  means  the  one  who  actually  performs  the  scr 
vice.  Dorsey  did  not  perform  the  service.  He  sublet  the  routes  to  Barlow, 
Sanderson  «&  Co. ,  and  other  contractors.  Now,  what  happened  with  these  con- 
tracts which  were  to  save  the  government  $160,000  a  year?  Before  service  began 
on  many  of  them,  and  before  any  of  them  were  six  months  old,  they  had  been 
raised  by  Second  Assistant  Postmaster-General  Brady,  till  they — the  100  and  odd 
routes — cost  the  government  $553,000  a  year  more  than  the  original  contract  called 
for.  These  contracts  were  for  four  years,  so  that  this  steal  will  amount  to 
$2,212,000  ! 

TWELVE   SAMPLE   COKTRACTS. 

To  show  how  the  government  was  swindled  by  allowances  by  Brady  for  addi- 
tional service  and  increased  speed,  we  append  the  following  table,  showing  what 
twelve  sample  routes  were  originally  let  for,  and  what  they  were  raised  to : 


THK    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 


455 


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CONTRACTOR   SALISBURY'S  INCREASE. 

Here  is  another  table  showing  how  one 'contractor,  Monroe  Salisbury,  had  his 
contracts  worl^ecl  up  by  Brady.  These  include  only  those  on  which  the  increase 
amounted  to  more  than  $5,000  a  year  : 


456 


THE    POSTAL    FRAUDS. 


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TIlli:    POSTAL    FRAUDS.  457 

Iq  addition  to  tliese  Salisbury  liad  58  contracts,  and  his  total  increase  on  the 
Whole  75  was  more  than  $1,000,000  a  year  or  $4,000,000  for  four  years. 

GENERAL  BRADY's  IMPOTENT  DEFENCE. 

The  following  is  the  way  General  Brady  excused  himself  for  his  acts.  The 
questions  were  put  by  General  Hawley  of  Connecticut,  one  of  the  Republican 
members  of  the  committee  : 

Bj'  Mr.  Hawley  :  These  contracts,  if  carried  out.  will  make  a  deficiency.  Were  they  in  any  proper 
sense  authorized  by  law  ?  A.  It  was  entirely  within  the  discretion  of  the  postmaster-general  to  do 
all  that  he  has  done. 

O.  Was  there  an  appropriation  (considered  in  the  language  of  the  statute)  adequate  to  the 
fulfillment  of  those  contracts  ?    A.  There  was  up  to  a  certam  time. 

Q.  My  question  admits  of  an  answer,  yes  or  no.  Was  there  an  appropriation  (considered  in  the 
language  of  the  statute)  adequate  to  the  fulfillment  of  those  contracts  as  they  stand  to-day  ?  A.  I 
answer  again  that  the  appropriation  was  adequate  up  to  a  certain  time. 

Q.  And  that  is  as  nearly  as  you  can  answer  ?  A.  What  that  time  is,  we  may  get  at  by  the 
slate. 

Q.  These  contracts  not  being  in  existence  when  the  appropriation  of  $5,9(X)!000  was  made,  could 
they  have  been  contemplated  at  that  time  ?  That  question,  however,  answers  itself.  They  could 
not  be.  How  do  you  meet  section  3679  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  which  provides  that  j'ou  shall  not 
expend  in  excess  of  appropriations  ?  A.  I  meet  it  by  saying  that  we  have  not  yet  expended  in  excess 
of  the  appropriation,  and  do  not  propose  to  do  so.  We  propose  to  bring  ourselves  within  that 
statute. 

Q,  How  do  3'on  meet  that  section  of  the  statute  which  says  that  you  shall  not  involve  the  govern- 
ment in  contracts  for  future  payments  in  excess  of  the  appropriation  ?  A.  My  former  reply  answers 
that. 

Q.  That  is  to  say,  that  you  have  a  right  to  kill  the  contracts  so  as  to  keep  within  the  appropri- 
ation, is  that  it  ?    A.  Yes. 

Q.  But  you  say  in  j'our  statement  that  the  expenditures  for  the  present  fiscal  year  up  to  the 
first  of  January  is  $3,8(X),(XX).    A.  Yes;  about  that. 

Q.  Is  that  the  rate  at  present  ?  In  other  words,  are  you  going  at  the  rate  of  $7,600.<X)0  a  year- 
or  have  3'ou  increased  the  service  so  that  for  the  next  six  months  the  expenditure  would  be  more 
than  $3,800,000  ?    A.  No  ;  I  think  not. 

Q.  You  have  but  $2,100,000  left  for  contracts  that  call  for  $3,800,000.  Is  that  true  ?  A.  I  pre- 
sume it  is  ;  I  have  not  figured  it. 

Q.  If  you  have  now  expended  $3,800,000  out  of  the  $5,900,000,  there  is  but  $2,100,000  left  ! 
A.  Something  in  that  neighborhood. 

Q.  There  is,then,  $2,100,000  left  for  contracts,that  call  for  $3,800,000.  That  is  a  little  over  one- 
half.  Must  you  not,  then  (to  saj^  nothing  about  the  month's  extra  pay),  stop  all  the  Star  routes 
absolutely,  about  the  first  of  April,  in  order  to  keep  within  your  appropriation  ?  A.I  had  calcu- 
lated that  we  could  run  the  service  exactly  as  it  is  until  about  the  middle  of  April. 

Q.  I  calculate  that  it  will  take  you  to  about  the  10th  of  April,  but  I  understand  that  you  are 
bound  for  a  month's  extra  pay  in  case  you  stop  the  contracts  ?    A.  Yes. 

Q.  So  that  ^ou  have  got  to  stop  absolutely  about  the  10th  of  March  every  single  Star  route 
within  the  United  States  in  order  to  keep  within  the  appropriation  authorized  by  law.  Is  not  that 
mathematically  correct  ?  A.  It  is  very  near  correct,  I  judge.  The  postmaster-general  was  fijjur- 
ing  on  it  the  other  day,  and  as  the  result  of  his  figuring  he  gave  me  an  order  to  commence  a  reduc- 
tion on  a  large  number  of  routes,  to  take  effect  immediately.  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  think  that 
that  would  be  good  policy,  as  I  thought  that  Congress  was  going  to  give  us  the  money. 

Q.  Then,  approximately,  on  the  10th  of  March  the  service  on  every  Star  route  in  the  country 
must  stop.  You  stated  that  failure  to  keep  up  the  service  would  be  disastrous  to  the  contractors. 
Did  they  know  that  they  took  their  contracts  under  the  risk  of  an  entire  suspension?  A,  No,  sir  ; 
they  knew  nottuDg  about  the  internal  management  of  the  office  in  that  respect. 


458  POST-OFFICE    DEPARTMENT, 


POST-OFFICE    DEPARTMENT. 


PETIT   LARCENY. 

Petty  steals  in  the  departments  have  given  the  Democratic  Congress  great 
trouble.  Amounts  ranging  from  five  hundred  dollars  to  twenty  and  thirty  thou* 
sand  dollars  have  been  smuggled  into  the  estimates  sent  to  Congress.  They  are 
so  covered  up  in  ostensible  necessities  that  it  is  hard  to  discover  them.  In  las; 
year's  appropriation  an  item  of  twenty  thousand  dollars  in  the  Post-Office  De" 
partment  estimates  was  found  to  be  of  the  character  referred  to.  The  House 
Committee  on  Appropriations  notified  Postmaster-General  Key  that  there  would 
be  no  further  use  in  sonding  in  the  request  for  this  particular  amount. 

Eight  years  ago  the  Post-Office  Department  began  Ihe  payment  of  $20,000  an- 
nually for  the  publication  of  the  official  Post-Office  Guide.  There  is  no  record 
of  its  having  been  given  out  by  bid  and  contract.  All  that  appears  is  an  appropri- 
ation of  this  amount  to  be  paid  to  the  Boston  publishing  firm  of  H.  0.  Houghton 
&  Co.  for  the  publication  of  the  Guide.  When  the  Democrats  came  into  power 
the  request  was  changed  by  omitting  the  name  of  the  publishing  firm,  making  it 
appear  that  the  department  was  publishing  the  Guide.  When  the  true  nature  of 
the  transaction  was  learned,  the  present  Postmaster- General  wms  warned  that 
thereafter  no  appropriation  would  be  made  for  the  purpose.  Mr.  Key  said  in  ex- 
planation that  it  was  a  matter  he  found  in  the  department  when  he  came  in,  and 
he  begged  as  a  personal  favor  to  have  the  appropriation  made.  The  ofiicial  Post- 
OflSce  Guide  is  a  book  known  to  every  one.  Its  sale  reaches  into  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  copies  annually.  It  is  corrected  about  every  three  months.  The 
corrections  consist  of  the  mere  insertion  of  new  post-offices  and  the  names  of  the 
new  postmasters.  All  this  data  is  furnished  to  the  publishers  by  the  department, 
thus  relieving  them  of  all  the  trouble  save  the  mere  changing  of  th^  names. 
This  being  accomplished  a  new  edition  is  brought  out  and  sold  at  50  cents  a 
copy.  The  profits  on  the  book  are  thus  made  enormous.  The  $20,000  a  year  is 
given  as  a  bounty  to  the  publishers.  The  pretense  upon  which  this  money  has 
been  handed  over  is  that  it  is  in  payment  for  copies  furnished  the  department. 

There  are  many  publishing  firms  who  would  not  only  furnish  the  department 
with  its  copies  gratis,  but  would  pay  the  department  $20,000  a  year  for  the  priv- 
ilege of  publishing  and  selling  the  Guide  ;  which  is  made  official  by  the  signa- 
ture of  the  Postmaster-General. 


GOVERNMENT   PBINTING   FRAUDS.  45^ 


GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  FRAUDS. 


The  Government  Printing  Office  was  established  in  1860.  Immediately  before 
that  the  public  printing  had  been  done  by  contract,  and  had  been  done  so  well 
and  honestly  that  its  continuance  was  advocated  by  the  ablest  men  in  both  Houses 
of  Congress,  and  by  Senators  Cameron  and  Hamlin,  then  the  only  practical  prin- 
ters in  the  Senate.  The  scheme  6f  establishing  a  public  printing  office  was  advo- 
cated chiefly  by  those  who  expected  to  profit  by  such  an  institution.  Chief  among 
these  was  Cornelius  Wendell,  the  owner  of  the  establishment  which  the  govern- 
ment bought  at  an  enormous  price.  Wendell  was  doing  the  printing  for  Con- 
gress, was  financially  embarrassed,  and  was  suspected  of  being  guilty  of  frauds. 

The  Committees  on  Printing  of  the  two  Houses  had  many  conferences  on  the 
subject,  and  listened  to  the  testimony  of  many  expert  witnesses  as  to  the  feas- 
ability  of  establishing  a  government  printing  office.  All  whose  opinions  were 
worth  anything  expressed  adverse  opinions,  Mr.  Rives  Saying  Ihat  the  printing 
would  cost  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent,  more  if  it  was  done  by  the  govern- 
ment itself.  Those  who  recommended  the  plan  were  Wendell  (who  owned  the 
building  in  which  the  printing  office  is  located),  English,  Larcomb,  Powers,  and 
Defrees,  the  present  public  printer.  The  other  three  were  clerks  of  Wendell. 
The  plan  was  adopted,  notwithstanding  the  character  of  the  opposition,  and  the 
superintendent  of  public  printing  was  authorized  to  contract  for  the  erection  of  a 
government  printing  office  by  joint  resolution  of  June  30th,  1860.  The  office  of 
Congressional  Printer  was  established  February  22d,  1867.  John  D.  Defrees  was 
the  first  printer,  A.  M.  Clapp  the  second,  and  now  Defrees  is  at  the  head  again. 

In  1873  the  Congressional  Globe  was  discontinued  and  tlic  Congressional  Record 
established.  The  former  had  been  printed  by  Mr.  Rives,  the  latter  is  printed  at 
the  Government  Printing  Office. 

No  sooner  was  this  great  machine  set  in  motion,  than  suspicion  of  fraud  began 
to  attach  to  it.  So  loud  were  the  complaints  and  so  plain  the  evidence  that  in 
1874  the  Republican  Senate  was  compelled  to  order  an  investigation.  It  was  a 
whitewashing  affair,  however,  directed  only  to  one  subject  of  inquiry,  the  charge 
of  excessive  charges  made  by  the  public  printer  against  the  departments.  Other 
charges  were  made  against  Clapp  while  this  investigation  was  pending,  but  a 
hearing  on  ihem  was  rudely  refused  by  the  committee.  Clapp's  attorney  was 
Dick  Harrington,  a  member  of  the  District  Ring,  who  was  himself  under  investi- 
gation at  the  time. 

When  the  Democratic  House  came  in,  however,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Forty- 
fourth  Congress,  it  was  determined  to  make  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  print- 
ing office.  The  institution  had  been  established  by  the  Republicans,  and  was 
vigorously  defended  by  Republican  influences.  With  this  establishment  the  cost 
of  the  public  printing  has  increased  to  between  $1,500,000  and  .$2,000,000,  from 


460  GOVERNMENT   PRINTING    FRAUDS. 

^hich  it  is  estimated  the  stealings  are  from  $400,000  to  $600,000  a  year.  Some  of 
this  money  is  used  for  printing  Republican  campaign  literature,  and  for  binding 
books  for  the  private  libraries  of  members  of  Congress. 

The  investigation  being  ordered,  Mr.  Clapp  testified  that  he  bought  his  supplies 
at  the  lowest  rates,  and  did  his  work  economically.  A  number  of  expert  printers, 
on  the  other  hand,  testified  that  samples  of  work  shown  them  could  be  done  prof- 
itably for  from  twenty  to  three  hundred  per  cent,  lower  than  Clapp  had  charged. 

ASTOUNDING  DISCLOSURES. 

A.  R.  Spofford,  the  able  Librarian  of  Congress,  testified  to  the  enormous  charges 
of  the  government  printer  for  work  done  for  the  Congressional  library,  and  said 
that  he  wanted  it  put  on  record  that  he  was  no  party  to  these  frauds,  as  he  was 
compelled  by  law  to  send  all  the  books  to  be  bound  to  the  Government  Printing 
Office,  no  matter  what  the  charges  were.  He  brought  books  to  the  committee 
room  and  fully  illustrated  the  various  charges.  The  binding  for  the  Congres- 
sional library  last  year  cost  over  twenty-eight  thousand  dollars. 

George  A.  Gane,  of  New  York  City,  the  proprietor  of  two  of  the  largest  estab- 
lishments in  this  country  for  the  sale  of  binders'  material — one  in  New  York  City 
and  the  other  in  Boston— made  astounding  disclosures  in  regard  to  what  the 
government  printer  pays  and  what  he  would  furnish  the  same  material  for.  He 
said  that  he  had  noticed  the  frauds  practiced  in  the  purchase  of  binders'  material 
for  the  government  several  years  ago  and  found  out  that  there  was  no  competition 
to  the  trade.  He  had  written  to  Mr.  Clapp,  sent  him  samples,  and  said  that  he 
would  furnish  the  articles  for  prices  named.  Mr.  Clapp  paid  no  attention  to  this, 
so  a  year  later  Mr.  Gane  wrote  again  to  Mr.  Clapp,  calling  his  attention  to  his 
former  offer.  Mr.  Clapp  gave  him  an  order  for  a  small  quantity,  and,  acknowl- 
edging the  receipt  of  the  material,  stated  that  it  was  entirely  satisfactory,  but 
never  gave  another  order. 

John  Gibson,  of  Washington,  a  practical  printer,  who  has  a  large  establishment 
which  he  had  conducted  over  thirty  years,  furnished  prices  at  which  he  was  will- 
ing to  do  the  work  for  the  government,  and  they  were  one  hundred  and  sixteen 
per  cent,  lower  than  those  charged  at  the  Government  Printing  Office. 

Joseph  L.  Pearson,  a  practical  printer  of  twenty-one  years'  experience,  was  one 
hundred  and  twenty  per  cent,  lower  in  his  estimates. 

All  the  persons  named  and  many  others,  who  gave  similar  testimony  under 
oath,  are  proprietors  of  large  establishments  and  are  persons  of  the  highest  in- 
tegrity and  bear  the  highest  reputation  for  truth  and  veracity,  and  their  testimony 
cannot  be  questioned. 

OVER   ONE   HUNDRED   PER  CENT.  PROFIT. 

In  regard  to  blank  books  manufactured  at  the  Government  Printing  Office  for 
the  various  departments,  including  all  the  custom-houses,  Mr.  Lewis  A.  Lipman, 
of  the  firm  of  Boorum  &  Pease  of  New  York,  the  largest  blank-book  manufac- 
turers in  New  York  City,  testified  that  their  prices,  including  profits,  were  one 
hundred  per  cent,  lower  than  those  charged  at  the  Government  Printing  Office. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  all  these  charges  against  the  Congressional 
printer  for  work  done  he  takes  no  account  of  superintendence,  rent,  taxes,  insur- 
ance, repairs,  and  many  other  items  of  cost  that  amount  in  the  aggregate  to  a  large 
sum,  and  which  all  private  establishments  have  to  take  into  consideration  in  mak- 
ing up  their  prices.  The  foreman  in  the  press  room  in  the  Government  Printing 
Office  testified  that  the  presses  were  run  up  at  a  very  high  rate  of  speed,  in  some 
double  what  they  would  be  in  a  private  establishment,  and  hence  frequent 


GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    FRAUDS.  461 

breakages  and  repairs  and  early  destruction  of  the  presses.  To  practical  printers 
it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  an  Adams  press  is  run  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  hundred 
impressions  per  hour,  and  they  can  form  an  idea  of  the  enormous  wear  and  tear 
there  must  be  in  the  course  of  a  year.  It  makes  no  difference  to  the  public  printer 
how  long  a  press  may  last,  for  as  soon  as  it  is  worn  out  it  is  thrown  away  and  an- 
other purchased. 

There  is  no  check  whatever  upon  the  person  in  charge  of  this  vast  establish- 
ment, and  he  can  purchase  whatever  material,  machinery,  presses,  type,  etc.,  he 
chooses,  and  makes  whatever  arrangement  he  can  with  parties  furnishing  such 
supplies,  and  it  would  be  a  very  easy  matter  in  this  way  to  defraud  the  govern- 
ment of  large  sums  of  money.  The  quantity  of  type  in  the  Government  Printing 
Office  would  probably  supply  every  printing  establishment  in  New  York  City. 
They  have  such  a  vast  supply  that  if  they  have  a  book  to  print  which  they  have 
reason  to  believe  may  be  ordered  reprinted  in  a  year,  they  keep  all  the  forms 
standing,  no  matter  if  there  are  a  thousand  pages.  Instances  in  which  forms  are 
kept  standing  in  this  way  were  made  known  to  the  committee  ;  and  it  was  proved, 
that  the  cost  of  composition  was  charged  against  the  government  a  second  time. 

WHAT  REPUBLICAN  WITNESSES  TESTIFIED. 

With  such  facts  before  them  the  committee  made  their  report  to  the  House 
recommending  certain  changes,  which  recommendations  were  adopted  by  the 
House,  and  legislation  authorizing  them  was  inserted  in  the  Sundry  Civil  Bill. 
The  Senate  struck  out  all  these  safeguards  and  checks,  which  were  designed  by 
the  House  to  prevent  overcharges  and  other  fraud  on  the  part  of  the  public 
printer.  Senator  Morton  advocated  Mr.  Clapp  in  the  Senate,  notwithstanding  the 
testimony  taken  by  the  Printing  Committee  of  the  House  had  been  published 
weeks  before,  had  been  discussed  for  days  in  the  House,  and  had  been  commented 
on  by  all  the  principal  papers  in  the  country  ;  and  notwithstanding,  too,  the  fact 
that  nearly  all  the  witnesses  and  experts  who  gave  this  testimony  acknowledged 
themselves  to  be  Republicans.  Mr.  Lipman  and  Mr.  DeVinne,  who  gave  the  most 
damaging  testimony,  are  staunch  Republicans  ;  and  Mr.  Behle.  an  accountant 
who  examined  the  books  of  Mr.  Clapp,  is  also  a  Republican  and  has  been  em- 
ployed for  the  National  Republican  Executive  Committee  as  a  stump  speaker.  The 
committee,  in  selecting  experts,  had  but  one  object,  and  that  was  to  obtain  com- 
petent experts  and  honest  men.  Those  only  who  were  known  as  standing  at  the 
head  of  the  different  trades  were  subpcenaed. 

WHAT  IS   STOLEN. 

Some  of  the  frauds  practiced  were  of  such  glaring  character  that  the  testimony 
of  an  expert  is  not  necessary  to  expose  them  ;  for  instance,  small  blank  books, 
which  can  be  purchased  at  any  stationery  store  at  retail  for  from  thirty  to  forty 
cents  a  dozen,  the  Congressional  printer  swears  cost,  at  the  Government  Printing 
Office,  from  sixtj--  to  seventy-five  cents  per  dozen.  The  Revised  Statutes,  a  book  of 
course  familiar  to  every  lawyer,  the  government  printer  testified  cost  three  dol- 
lars and  a  half  each.  This  is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  he  undercharges.  The 
object  of  this  is  to  make  it  appear  that  work  of  this  kind  done  at  the  Government 
Printing  Office  is  done  at  far  below  the  prices  charged  at  private  establishments  ;; 
but  when  the  books  of  the  Congressional  printer  came  to  be  examined  by  the 
committee  it  was  found  that  his  volume  which  he  says  cost  three  dollars  and  a 
half  actually  cost  nearly  seven  dollars.  In  the  same  way  various  other  cases  may 
be  mentioned.  For  instance,  the  Army  and  Navy  Register,  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pages,  is  kept  standing  in  the  forms  from  one  year  to  another,  only  slight 


462  GOVEBNMEXT    PRINTING    FRAUDS. 

changes  having  to  be  made  in  the  yearly  corrections;  yet  full  composition  is 
charged  every  year,  no  matter  if  hut  a  single  name  has  been  changed. 

From  1863  to  1875,  inclusive,  the  Government  Printing  Office,  exclusive  of  re- 
pairs, taxes,  insurance  and  improvements,  has  cost  $21,767,496.91,  or  an 
average  per  year  of  $1,674,422.S4.  From  the  data  obtained  by  the  House 
Committee  on  Printing,  it  can  be  safely  assumed  that  if  the  work  done  at  this 
establishment  had  been  honestly  done  or  given  out  by  contract  to  the  lowest  re- 
sponsible bidders,  it  could  have  been  done  as  promptly  and  more  faithfully,  at  a 
saving  of  at  least  forty  per  cent.,  or  about  ^§,600,000. 

THE   FRAUDS  PRACTICED   IN  THE   PURCHASE   OF  MATERIALS 

can  be  judged  from  the  testimony  of  George  W.  Garner,  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
John  Campbell  &  Co.  This  house  had  furnished  materials  to  the  public  printer 
for  seven  years.  Garner  testified  that  Clapp  bought  from  $125,000  to  $150,000 
worth  of  material  of  his  firm  annually.  To  show  what  profit  was  made  on  these 
sales,  he  swore  that  in  a  sale  of  $879.25  worth  of  imitation  gold  leaf  the  firm  made 
a  profit  of  $570.25.  This  transaction  was  more  to  the  discredit  of  the  public 
printer  because  the  gold  leaf  was  purchased  of  Valleau,  of  New  York,  and  each 
package  was  stamped  witli  his  name.  Had  Mr.  Clapp  been  really  desirous  of 
Tjuying  the  goods  as  low  as  possible  he  would  certainly  have  dealt  with  first  hands. 
On  a  sale  of  $4,452  worth  of  law  calf,  Garner  testified  that  his  firm  realized  a  profit 
of  $1,264.  Generally,  he  swore,  the  public  printer  paid  him  higher  prices  than 
individuals  did.  Mr.  Clapp  swore  that  he  always  made  liis  purchases  in  open 
market,  but  on  cross-examination  he  testified  that  he  bought  at  private  sales  and 
of  whom  he  chose,  never  advertising  for  proposals  or  bids. 
Mr.  Clapp  was  guilty  of  a 

VIOLATION  OF  CRIMINAL  LAW. 

In  March,  1872,  he  testified  he  drew  a  check  for  $234  to  Philp  «fc  Solomons  for 
white  paper.  Solomons  swore,  however,  that  the  public  printer  had  not  pur- 
chased a  sheet  of  paper  of  the  firm,  and  that  the  check  was  a  false  voucher,  made 
out  for  Mr.  Clapp's  benefit.  The  following  is  the  story  of  this  discreditable  trans- 
action : 

From  A.  M.  Clapp's  testimony:  Question.  Referring  to  the  stubs  of  your  check-book  under  the 
date  of  March  1,  1872,  do  you  find  that  a  check  was  drawn  in  favor  of  Philp  &  Solomons  for  $234  ? 
Answer.  I  do. 

Q.  Can  you  explain  for  what  that  check  was  drawn  ?    A.  I  cannot  here  say, 

Q.  Do  the  data  you  have  show  that  fifty  reams  of  white  cap  paper  were  purchased  from  Philp  & 
Solomons  on  February  20,  1872  ?    A.  Yes;  and  receipted  for  by  my  foreman  of  binding. 

Q.  It  shows  that  you  purchased  paper  from  Philp  <fc  Solomons  ?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

A.  S.  Solomons  testifies  to  the  fact  that  not  one  sheet  of  such  paper  was  pur- 
chased from  him  by  the  Congressional  Printer,  but  that  a  false  voucher  was 
made  out  for  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Clapp,  and  used  in  his  settlement  with  the 
treasury. 

Question.  Did  you  make  an  examination  in  regard  to  the  transaction  of  March  13,  1872,  when  the 
Congressional  Printer  drew  a  check  in  favor  of  Philp  &  Solomons  for  $234  ?    Answer.  I  did. 

Q.  Please  state  the  result  of  that  examination.  A.  We  had  a  large  number  of  blank  books 
which  we  desired  to  sell  to  the  Treasury  Department.  They  needed  the  books,  but  had  no  fund 
out  of  which  they  could  pay  for  them,  and  suggested  that  we  should  see  some  one  connected  with 
the])ublic  printer.  I  met  Mr.  Roberts,  whom  I  believed  to  be  the  foreman  of  the  bindery,  and  re- 
lated to  him  the  circumstances.  He  said  he  would  see  about  it.  Shortly  thereafter  he  made  inquiry 
as  to  the  number  of  books  in  our  possession,  and  subsequently  saw  and  made  a  selection  from 
them,  footing  up  the  amount  we  asked  for  such  books.  He  then  informed  me  that,  under  the  law, 
they  could  not  buy  blank  books,  but  had  to  buy  paper,  and  he  asked  me  to  make  out  the  bill  for  the 
gross  amount  of  the  books  ;  that  was  $234.  The  bill  read,  "  Fifty  reams  white  cap  paper,  ISpounds. 
At  26  cents  per  pound,  $4.68  per  ream,"  making  in  the  aggregate  $2.34.  Subsequently  that  amount 
was  paid  to  ua  by  a  check  from  the  government  printer,  and  the  account  was  closed. 


govj^kisme2;t  puinting  frauds.  4G3 

Q.  How  many  books  did  you  sell  them  ?  A.  Somewhere  between  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
and  two  hundretl  demy  and  crown  cloth-covered  books,  ruled  faint  only,  and  paged. 

Q.  Did  you  include  in  this  charge  p»per,  books,  binding,  and  all  else  connected  ?    A.  Yes. 
Q.  In  this  bill  of  $234,  did  you  furnish  any  white  cap  paper  ?    A.  None  whatever. 

CLAPP  CONTKADICTED   BY  HIS  OWN  EMPLOYEES. 

J.  PI.  Roberts,  foreman  of  binding,  through  whom  the  blank  books  were  pur- 
chased, fixes  the  responsibility  upon  the  Congressional  printer,  where  it  properly 
belongs,  although  the  printer  feigns  utter  ignorance  of  the  whole  transaction. 

Question.  Did  you  ever  make  a  purchase  of  Philp  «fc  Solomons  of  books,  and  have  them  make 
out  a  bill  for  the  game  as  paper  ?    Answer.  Yes,  sir. 

Q.  Was  Mr.  Clapp  conversant  with  that  transaction  in  its  various  stages  ?  A.  I  cannot  say  that 
I  presume  I  reported  to  him  when  I  came  back. 

Roberts  corroborates  this  testimony,  but  fixes  the  blame  on  Clapp. 

Clapp  retained,  in  violation  of  law,  some  $60,000  belonging  to  the  government. 
He  swore  that  all  this  money  was  in  the  safe  at  the  office.  The  clerk  of  the  in- 
vestigation went  there,  however,  and  found  only  $16,257.99  in  the  safe.  Al- 
though Clapp  swore  the  money  was  nowhere  on  deposit,  and  that  he  had  no  de- 
posit in  any  bank  in  the  city,  the  cashier  of  the  Metropolis  Savings  Bank  testified 
that  he  had  at  that  very  time  deposited  in  their  institution  $12,000,  drawing  in- 
terest at  five  per  cent,  per  annum.  The  cashier  of  the  Second  National  Bank 
also  swore  that  Clapp  had  deposited  there  $8,000,  and  that  his  deposits  ranged 
from  $15,000  to  $16,000.     On  these  deposits  interest  was  allowed. 

WHAT   THE   ACCOUNTANT   FOUND. 

Mr.  C.  E.  Behle,  a  very  skilled  accountant,  who  spent  days  in  trying  to  sift 
and  digest  the  accounts  of  the  Public  Printing  Office  kept  by  Mr.  Clapp,  gave 
testimony  as  follows  : 

Question.  Do  the  amounts  stated  in  the  reports  as  realized  from  sales  of  waste,  etc.),  agree  with 
the  book  entries  ?    Answer.  They  do  not. 

Q.  Should,  or  should  not,  the  books  sustain  the  reports  ?  A.  By  all  means,  the  books  should 
corroborate  the  statements  of  the  reports. 

Q.  Piom  your  examination,  state  the  amounts  deposited  from  October  1, 1875,  to  March  10, 1876? 
A.  Thereare  two  deposits  on  October  12  of  $9,137.38;  and  on  November  12,  $10,889.93. 

Q.  What  balance,  then,  would  this  show  to  be  on  hand  on  the  10th  of  March  ?  A.  The  amount 
realized  from  October  1,  1875.  to  February  18,  187«,  as  shown  by  loose  sheets  accompanying  sum- 
mary cash-book,  was  $12,580.50;  with  the  balance  on  hand  not  deposited  on  September  30,  $63,828.- 
88,  and  the  balance  as  shown  by  cash-book  from  H.  H.  Clapp,  from  October  4,  1875,  to  March  10, 
1876,  $3,850.66,  or  total  receipts  amounting  to  $80,260.04,  would  show,  after  the  deduction  of  the 
two  deposits,  a  balance  on  hand  March  10, 1876,  amounting  to  $60,232.73. 

This  amounted,  under  the  statutes,  to  embezzlement  on  the  part  of  Clapp. 

ONE  MORE   INSTANCE   OF   OVERCHARGES. 

The  various  departments  of  the  government  use  millions  of  blank  vouchers 
during  the  year.  There  has  been  no  change  in  the  form  of  these  blanks  for 
the  last  ten  years.  The  forms  on  which  they  are  printed  are  stereotyped,  yet 
no  matter  how  frequently  they  are  ordered,  full  composition  (setting  type)  is 
charged  on  each  order,  though  not  a  single  letter  had  been  changed.  The 
work  for  the  departments  amount  to  about  nine  hundred  thousand  dollars  a 
year.  Many  of  these  blanks  are  small,  and  frequently  thirty- two  of  them  can 
be  printed  at  one  impression,  yet  the  Congressional  printer  charges  an  impres- 
sion for  each  blank.  This  system  of  overcharges  on  press-work  is  adniirably 
illustrated  by  the  chairman  of  the  Printing  Committee  of  the  House,  Mr.  Vance, 
who,  when  the  legislation  proposed  by  his  committee  was  under  discussion  in 
the  House,  spoke  as  follows  : 

THE   OVERCHARGES  ILLUSTRATED. 

I  next  come  to  the  question  of  overcharges.  The  overcharges  referred  to  in  the  contract  system 
have  prevailed  here;  the  same  system  of  •'doubling  up,"  of  charging  for  work  that  has  not  been 
done. 

This  paper  which  I  hold  in  my  hand  is  what  is  termed  a  form  of  sixteen  pages.  These  sixteen 
pages  are  made  up  in  type,  locked  up  in  what  is  termed  a  chase,  and  put  upon  a  press.  The  paper 
IS  put  in  and  run  through  the  press  and  comes  out  with  sixteen  pages  printed  on  it. 


4G4  GOVEEIfMENT    TKINTING    FRAUDS. 

Now,  the  complaint  that  was  made  heretofore  in  discussing  the  wrongs  practiced  nnder  the  con- 
tract system  was,  that  the  contractor  would  print  these  sixteen  pages— would  tear  them  apart  and 
charge  sixteen  times  for  the  work.  But  what  do  we  find  in  reference  to  the  work  of  the  Congre?- 
sional  Printing  Office?  We  find  this  Identical  system  carried  out  there,  and  it  has  been  carried  out 
there  through  all  the  books  that  I  have  examined. 

But  now  I  am  speaking  upon  the  present  charges.  Look  at  this.  Here  is  a  form  of  sixteen  pages. 
If  these  forms  were  made  up  of  single-sheet  reports  there  would  be  sixteen  printed  at  once.  Here 
are  sixteen  cut  apart.  Now  the  Congressional  Printer  prints  off  these  forms  of  sixteen  pages  each. 
He  tears  them  into  sixteen  pieces.  He  makes  sixteen  separate  and  distinct  jobs  of  nineteen  hun- 
dred copies  each.  And  what  does  he  charge?  Not  one  press  work,  but  sixteen  press-works.  What 
is  the  result?  He  makes  an  overcharge  of  about  S85  for  press-work  alone  upon  each  and  every 
form  of  that  sort  that  he  puts  through  his  press.  An  examination  of  the  books  of  the  Congres- 
sional Printer  shows  that  full  press- work  is  charged  upon  each  and  every  job  of  work,  whether 
put  through  the  press  singly  or  combined  with  other  jobs. 

Then  there  are  overcharges  made  in  composition.  We  find  by  further  examination  of  the  Con- 
gressional Printing  Office  that  a  great  many  jobs  are  stereotyped  there— hundreds  of  them— and 
that  all  that  is  necessary  to  do  when  an  order  comes  from  a  department  is  to  print  it.  We  find 
tliat  in  almost  every  such  case  full  composition  is  charged,  when  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  take  one  of 
these  out,  lock  it  up  in  a  chase  and  put  it  on  a  press,  and  charge  every  time  the  job  is  ordered. 
The  books  show  that  these  charges  have  been  made  ;  that  it  is  a  rule  to  so  charge. 

During  the  session  of  Congress,  these  one  and  two-page  documents  Mr. 
Yance  speaks  of,  will  vary  from  sixteen  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  g,  day: 
yet  there  is  no  single  instance  where  on  his  books  Mr.  Clapp  has  not  over- 
charged for  them. 

THE  OBJECT  OP  UNDERCHARGES. 

It  was  found  by  the  investigation  that  two  classes  of  work  were  system- 
atically undercharged  by  Mr.  Clapp;  one  of  these  was  the  Congressional  Rec- 
ord and  another  was  the  work  of  the  Supreme  Court.  The  Congressional  Rec- 
ord, it  will  be  remembered,  was  taken  from  the  private  establishment  of  the 
Rives  Brothers,  and  the  Supreme  Court  work  was  also  taken  from  other  private 
parties  in  the  City  of  Washington.  For  forty  years  the  Congressional  Olohe  had 
been  printed  by  the  Riveses,  and  always  to  the  satisfaction  of  Congress.  v 

An  examination  of  the  books  of  the  Congressional  Printer  showed  that  the  cost 
of  the  Congressional  Record  had  been  underestimated;  in  other  words,  was  re- 
ported to  have  cost  forty  thousand  dollars  less  per  Congress  than  the  white 
paper,  type-setting,  press-work  and  other  labor  incident  to  the  performance  of 
the  work  actually  cost.  The  object  of  this  undercharge  was  to  make  Congress 
believe  that  all  the  work  done  at  the  government  establishment  was  done  in  the 
same  reasonable  manner.  He  was  enabled  to  do  this  by  using  the  surplus  of 
money  accumulated  from  overcharges  on  other  work  to  defray  the  cost  of  print- 
ing the  Record  which  was  not  reported. 

THE  PRESIDENT  VINDICATES  CLAPP  AND  THE  SENATE  CONCURS. 

Yet,  notwithstanding  all  the  facts,  which  proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  a  system 
of  corruption  existed  in  the  management  of  the  Goverment  Printing  Office,  and 
that  frauds  and  overcharges  against  the  government  were  regularly  practiced, 
the  President  renominated  Mr.  Clapp,  who  had  just  been  legislated  out  of  office 
by  the  House  insisting  that  the  public  printer  should  no  longer  be  nominally  an 
officer  of  the  Senate.  The  new  office  was  created,  and  the  incumbent  is  hereafter 
to  be  known  as  the  Public  Printer.  To  this  Mr.  Clapp  was  appointed  by  the 
President  ;  the  nomination  was  referred  to  the  Senate  Committee  on  Printing, 
and  Senators  Anthony  and  Sherman  reported  it  back,  with  a  recommendation 
that  Mr.  Clapp  be  confirmed.  The  Democratic  Senators  protested  in  Executive 
session  against  it,  yet  Mr.  Clapp  was  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  Republican 
Senators  confirmed. 


PUBLIC    BUILDING    FRAUDS.  465 


PUBLIC  BUILDING  FRAUDS. 


Under  Grant's  administration  the  Ring  of  Republican  politicians  who  formed 
the  "Kitchen"  Cabinet  discovered  that  a  gold  mine,  yet  undeveloped,  lay  in  the 
construction  of  public  buildings.  The  total  cost  of  public  buildings,  from  1779 
down  to  1860  were  $28,640,170.38.  In  1866  the  pipes  were  laid,  and  in  1868  the 
carnival  began.  The  total  expenditures  for  public  buildings  from  1860  to  1876 
were  $51,174,978.05.  Nearly  all  this  vast  sum  was  expended  under  Grant's  ad- 
ministration. Of  the  grand  total  of  $79,805,148.15  expended  for  public  build- 
ings since  the  creation  of  the  government,  $28,640,170.38  were  expended  in  the 
seventy-one  years  previous  to  1860,  and  $51,164,978.05  during  fifteen  years  of  Re- 
publican extravagance  and  misrule. 

The  Republican  party  has  had  a  continuous  tendency  to  create  new  offices,  bu 
reaus  and  divisions,  to  provide  places  for  the  politicians  who  were  demanding  re-  • 
wards  for  political  service.  In  this  manner  the  Supervising  Architect's  office,  in 
the  Treasury  Department,  which  was  not  created  by  law,  has  grown  to  be  one  of 
the  most  important  divisions  of  the  civil  administration.  From  a  petty  officer, 
who  had  control  of  the  Treasury  building  extension  only,  the  Supervising  Archi- 
tect has  become  the  head  of  a  bureau. 

Government  agents  are  appointed  to  superintend  the  work  of  construction. 
The  contractors  are  friends  of  the  administration,  and  their  employees  are  ex- 
pected to  vote  the  Republican  ticket.  It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  the  workmen  in 
the  granite  quarries  in  Maine,  whose  work  is  virtually  controlled  by  the  Super- 
vising Architect,  have  for  many  years  been  under  political  duress,  and  that  a  re- 
fusal to  vote  the  Republican  ticket  meant  prompt  dismissal. 

The  accounts  for  fuel,  gas  and  water  for  public  buildings  pass  through  the  Su- 
pervising Architect's  office.  When  Mr.  Bristow  became  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
he  attempted  some  reform  in  this  direction,  but  his  efforts  to  check  abuses  being 
offensive  to  Grant,  he  was  compelled  to  resign. 

JOBBERY   IN   THE   SUPERVISING  ARCHITECT'S   OFFICE. 

During  the  fiscal  year  1872-3  there  were  twenty-one  public  buildings  in  course 
of  construction,  appropriations  for  which  aggregated  $10,052,063.  There  were 
no  contracts  awarded  for  the  construction  of  the  buildings  in  gross  sums,  but  the 
Supervising  Architect  awarded  different  contracts  for  various  kinds  of  work  on 
the  same  buildings.  On  the  total  cost  of  the  work  the  contractors  received  a 
profit  of  fifteen  per  cent.,  or  $1,500,000. 

I  THE   NEW   YORK  POST-OFFICE. 

The  construction  of  this  great  and  necessary  public  building  in  New  York  was 
managed  in  the  interests  of  a  Ring  of  contractors  and  politicians.  The  site  for 
the  building  and  the  plans  for  its  construction  were  prepared  by  a  commission  of 
eminent  gentlemen  in  New  York,  acting  under  a  resolution  of  Congress.     They 

S9 


466  PUBLIC    BUILDING    FRAUDS. 

estimated  tlie  cost  of  a  larger  building  tlian  the  one  now  completed,  making  a 
liberal  allowance  for  contingencies,  at  $3,542,930.  These  plans  were  objected  to 
by  the  Supervising  Architect.  The  Committee  on  Post-oflaces  and  Post  Roads, 
however,  adopted  the  commission's  plans.  The  Supervising  Architect,  through 
the  influence  of  the  White  House,  threw  the  commission's  plans  aside.  The  present 
building  occupies  10,000  square  feet  less  than  the  one  originally  planned  by  the 
commission.  The  work  dragged  along  from  year  to  year,  until  the  citizens  of 
New  York  began  to  despair  of  living  to  see  the  new  post-ofllce  completed.  When 
it  was  completed,  the  total  cost  was  found  to  be  $7,454,831.68,  or  nearly  $4,000,000 
more  than  the  estimated  cost  of  the  larger  building  under  the  plans  of  the  commission. 
The  building  was  constructed  in  the  most  extravagant  manner.  Contracts  for 
the  granite,  of  which  the  building  is  composed,  were  awarded  without  competitive 
bidding.  A  contract  was  made  with  the  Dix  Island  Granite  Company  to  furnish 
stone  for  sixty-five  cents  per  cubic  foot  for  all  stones  whose  quarry  dimensions 
did  not  exceed  twenty  cubic  feet,  and  one  cent  additional  for  every  cubic  foot  in 
excess  of  twenty;  and,  in  addition,  fifteen  per  cent,  on  the  total  cost.  The  con- 
tractors made  fortunes.  The  masonry  work  was  performed  by  day  work,  under 
the  inspection  of  a  crowd  of  superintendents,  who  received  from  $6  to  $16  per 
day  each. 

THE  BOSTON  POST-OFFICE. 

This  public  work  was  constructed  upon  the  same  principle  as  the  New  York 
post-oflice.  Although  the  former  building  did  not  cost  so  much  as  the  latter,  the 
jobbery  in  its  construction  was  more  apparent.  The  site  for  the  Boston  post-oflice 
was  purchased  in  March,  1868,  for  $453,000.  The  city  government  expended  half 
a  million  dollars  in  providing  suitable  approaches  to  the  site.  Merchants  of  Bos- 
ton employed  an  architect  of  ability  and  experience  to  prepare  drawings  for  the 
superstructure  of  the  building.  Those  plans  did  not  please  the  Supervising  Archi- 
tect, who  rejected  them  without  even  consulting  tlie  8ecreta/ry  of  the  Treojm/ry. 

The  sum  of  $200,000  was  expended  in  laying  the  foundation.  The  cost  of  the 
building  was  estimated  at  $2,598,967.60.  Subsequently  an  extension  to  the  build- 
ing was  authorized  and  the  cost  was  run  up  in  round  numbers  a  million  more 
than  the  original  estimate. 

The  frauds  in  supplying  stone  and  other  materials  for  the  Boston  post-oflice 
were  equally  as  glaring  as  those  in  connection  with  the  building  in  New  York. 

The  interests  of  the  government  were  entirely  unprotected.  Incompetent  men 
were  employed,  mainly  because  of  their  political  influence. 

BOSS  shepherd's  CONTRACTS. 

Boss  Shepherd,  who  had  a  finger  in  every  job  where  money  was  to  be  made, 
came  in  for  his  share  of  the  plunder  at  this  time.  He  was  the  owner  of  two  patents. 
One  was  the  Vaux  patent  roofing  and  the  other  a  patent  anti-freezing  pipe  used  in 
plimibing  work.  Shepherd  made  it  his  business  to  secure  the  fat  contracts  for 
plimibing  and  roofing  the  public  buildings  then  in  process  of  construction. 

His  workmen  traveled  from  Washington  about  the  country,  their  expenses  being 
paid  by  the  government.  Material  purporting  to  be  shipped  from  Washington 
was  charged  to  the  government  at  profitable  prices,  and  thus  Shepkerd  was  paid 
15  per  cent,  on  the  total  cost,  and  10  per  cent,  royalty  for  the  use  of  his  patents. 
The  old  public  buildings  were  stripped  of  their  gas  fixtures  and  supplied  with  new 
ones  purchased  from  the  Tucker  Bronze  Company,  in  which  Shepherd  was  the 
principal  stockholder. 


FRAUDS    IX   THE    PENSION    OFFICE.  467 


FRAUDS  IN  THE  PENSION  OFFICE. 


The  administration  of  the  Pension  service  of  the  United  States  for  the  past  ten 
years  has  been  a  disgrace  to  the  country,  and  an  outrage  upon  the  brave  men  for 
-whose  reward  the  service  w^as  established.  The  representatives  of  a  grateful 
people,  then  struggling  in  the  throes  of  civil  war,  promised  the  heroes  who 
marched  forth  to  battle  that  in  the  event  of  their  disability  from  wounds  or  death, 
the  government  would,  in  the  former  case,  render  them  assistance,  and  in  the  latter 
«vent,  care  for  their  widows  and  children.  This  promise  implied  prompt  and 
liberal  treatment  of  these  most  honorable  wards  of  the  nation.  How  those  pledges 
have  been  fulfilled  none  are  so  well  qualified  to  tell  as  the  men,  impoverished 
and  disabled,  who  have  been  knocking  at  the  doors  of  the  pension  offices  for  the 
last  decade,  vainly  striving  to  have  justice  done  them. 

For  the  first  few  years  the  work  of  the  pension  office  was  well  done.  At  that 
time  the  exigencies  of  the  Republican  party  were  not  such  as  to  demand  the  con- 
version of  the  pension  service  into  a  political  machine.  The  service  was  managed 
for  the  benefit  of  those  whom  it  wa^  intended  by  the  people  to  reward.  In  the 
year  1866,  with  a  clerical  force  of  175,  over  50,000  original  pensions  were  granted 
by  the  Pension  Bureau. 

CONVERSION   OP   THE  PENSION   OFFICE   INTO  A  POLITICAL   ORGANIZATION. 

In  1875  the  Pension  Office  was  called  to  the  assistance  of  the  Republican  party. 
In  that  year  there  was  an  average  clerical  force  of  420,  and  only  about  13,800 
original  cases  were  considered  and  granted.  The  object  of  the  administration  was 
to  give  as  many  politicians  places  as  possible,  and  to  so  retard  the  work  as  to  keep 
these  political  hacks  in  steady  employment.  Between  the  4th  of  March,  1875, 
and  the  6th  of  February,  1876,  128  employees  were  discharged  to  make  room  for 
98  new  men.  From  the  4th  of  March,  1875,  down  to  the  present  time,  four  dif- 
ferent Commissioners  have  been  in  office.  The  present  Commissioner,  Mr.  Bentley, 
has  been  in  office  since  1876.  There  has  been  trouble  in  the  operations  of  the 
office  ever  since.  Attorneys  and  claim  agents,  who  do  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
the  pension  business  of  the  country,  have  not  been  given  facilities  for  the  speedy 
transaction  of  their  work.  Individual  applicants  complain  of  the  treatment  they 
have  received  in  presenting  their  claims  to  the  bureau,  and  members  of  Congress 
have  been  harassed  in  securing  information  for  their  constituents.  Since  March 
4th,  1877,  Democratic  Congresses  have  voted  $117,493,000  for  the  payment  of 
pensions  ;  of  this  sum  $25,500,000  has  been  voted  to  pay  arrears  of  pensions.  In 
1876  employees  of  the  Republican  Congressional  Committee  were  borne  on  the 
rolls  of  the  Pension  Bureau,  but  did  no  work  there. 

AN   INVESTIGATION   OP   THE   PENSION   BUREAU. 

At  the  last  session  of  Congress  the  abuses  in  the  Pension  Bureau  had  increased 
to  such  an  unusual  degree,  complaints  of  delays  in  the  settlement  of  pensions  were 


468  FEAX7DS    IN   THE    PENSION    OFFICE. 

SO  frequent  and  universal,  that  the  House  determinea  to  take  official  cognizance 
of  the  matter.  On  the  12th  of  January,  1880,  Mr.  Harmer,  Republican,  introduced 
the  following  preamble  and  resolution  in  the  House : 

Whereas,  it  is  a  matter  of  public  record  that  soldier's  claims  for  pension  to  the  number  of  two 
hundred  thousand  are  now  pending  in  the  Pension  Office  and  unsettled  ;  and  whereas,  it  is  alleged 
that  bounty  and  back  pay,  due  under  existing  law  to  soldiers  who  have  served  in  the  armies  of  the 
United  States,  are  due  and  unpaid;  therefore, 

Resolved  by  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America,  That  a  committee  of 
seven  members  of  this  House  be  appointed  by  the  Speaker,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  examine  and 
inquire  into  the  method  and  manner  of  the  payment  of  pensions,  arrears  of  pensions,  bounty,  and 
back  pay,  and  to  ascertain  whether  any  irregularities  exist  in  the  payment  of  the  same:  and  the 
said  committee  shall  have  further  power  to  investigate  any  subject  of  complaint  that  may  be  lodged 
with  them  concerning  the  payment,  rejection,  or  suspension  of  pensions,  bounty,  ana  back  pay; 
to  examine  witnesses,  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  to  employ  a  clerk,  and  to  report  the  result 
of  said  investigation  to  this  House,  with  a  view  to  the  enactment  of  such  additional  legislation  as 
may  correct  existing  defects  and  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to  protect  the  pensioners  and  soldiers 
of  the  government  fn  their  rights. 

And  be  it  further  Resolved,  That  the  expenses  of  the  said  committee  shall  be  paid  out  of  the 
contingent  fund  of  the  House  upon  vouchers  signed  by  the  chairman  of  the  said  committee. 

The  resolution  was  promptly  adopted,  and  the  Speaker  appointed  A.  H.  Coff- 
roth  of  Pennsylvania,  George  W.  Geddes  of  Ohio,  W.  R.  Myers  of  Indiana,. 
Benton  McMillin  of  Tennessee,  A.  C,  Harmer  of  Pennsylvania,  Lucien  B.  Cas- 
well of  Wisconsin,  J.  R.  Thomas  of  Illinois,  as  the  committee. 

The  investigation  made  by  the  committee  proves  beyond  question  that  the 
present  administration  of  the  Pension  Bureau  is  solely  responsible  for  the  grievous 
delays  that  pensioners  suffer  in  securing  action  upon  their  cases.  The  Democratic 
House  has  been  most  liberal  in  dealing  with  the  soldiers  of  the  late  war.  It 
has  not  alone  given  the  Union  soldiers  increases  and  arrearages  of  pensions  but 
it  has  furnished  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions  with  every  facility  for  the  speedy 
transaction  of  business  in  his  bureau. 

After  the  Arrearages  Pension  Act  was  passed  Congress  promptly  made  au  addi- 
ional  appropriation  for  an  increase  of  clerical  force.  To-day  the  number  of 
employees  in  the  bureau  proper  is  590.  On  the  30th  of  June,  1879,  there  were  364 
clerks  in  the  office,  independent  of  laborers,  mechanics  and  engineers. 

With  a  largely  increased  force  the  work  of  the  office  has  steadily  fallen  behind. 
The  number  of  applications  for  pensions  has,  it  is  true,  largely  increased,  but  the 
Commissioner  has  so  organized  the  work  of  the  office  that  there  are  duplications 
and  delays  innumerable. 

The  investigating  committee  had  no  opportunity  to  make  a  report  at  the  last 
session  of  Congress,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  evidence  taken  has  not  yet  been 
printed.  Mr.  Bentley,  the  Commissioner,  first  appeared  before  the  committee 
and  made  a  long  statement  about  the  work  of  his  office.  The  main  purpose  of 
his  testimony  seemed  to  be  to  show  what  a  large  increase  of  cases  there  had  been 
since  1877,  and  to  impress  the  committee  with  the  idea  that  there  was  no  possible 
method  by  which  the  business  of  the  office  could  be  quickened.  According  to  a 
table  prepared  by  the  Commissioner,  there  have  been  filed  and  allowed  from  1862 
to  January  31,  1880,  excluding  claims  for  increase,  arrears  and  bounty  claims, 
pension  claims  as  follows:  Applications  filed:  Invalids  and  widows,  608,511; 
navy,  invalids  and  widows,  9,918  ;  war  of  1812,  73,342. 

Of  the  total  of  608,511  applications  filed  from  the  army,  347,127  were  allowed. 
Of  the  total  of  9,918  navy  applications  filed,  6,796  were  allowed,  and  of  the 
73,342  applications  from  survivors  and  their  relatives  of  the  war  of  1812,  68,974 
were  allowed. 

BEFORE  THE  PENSION  BUREAU  BECAME  A  POLITICAL  MACHINE. 

For  the  purpose  of  comparing  the  work  done  in  the  bureau,  when  there  were 
no  political  influences  at  work,  with  the  administration  of  the  office  at  the  present 


FRAUDS    IN    THE    PENSION    OFEICE.  469 

time,  the  class  of  pensioners  known  as  invalids  have  been  selected.  In  1866,  32,645 
invalid  claims  were  allowed.  There  were  then  175  clerks  in  the  bureau.  There 
are  now  590  employees  in  the  otSce,  and  from  June  30,  1879,  to  February  1, 1880, 
three-fourths  of  the  fiscal  year,  only  3,332  invalid  claims  had  been  allowed.  The 
number  of  applications  filed  during  that  time  for  invalid  pensions  was  50,938, 
while  the  total  number  of  such  applications  filed  in  1866  was  35,799.  In  1866  the 
bureau  did  not  possess  the  facilities  for  quick  transaction  of  business  that  it 
now  does. 

SINCE  IT  BECAME  A  POLITICAL  MACHINE. 

Since  1875  the  work  of  the  Pension  Office  has  been  constantly  falling  behind. 
In  June,  1875,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Bentley,  the  pending  claims 
were  73,795  ;  on  June  30,  1876,  88,973  ;  June  30,  1877,  91,444  ;  June  30,  1878, 
120,387  ;  June  30,  1879,  184,709.  This  included  48,064  claims  for  arrears  from 
old  peasioners.  On  the  1st  of  February,  1880,  there  was  an  aggregate  of 
269,178  claims  pending.  Mr.  Bentley  said  that  64,000  of  these  claims  were  in 
the  rejected  files,  and  of  that  number  25,000  were  dead  cases.  The  rejected 
cases,  with  the  exception  of  25,000,  however,  are  yet  alive,  and  can  be  reopened, 
jso  they  properly  belong  in  the  class  of  pending  cases.  During  all  the  time  that 
these  cases  were  accumulating.  Congress  was  increasing  the  clerical  force  of  the 
ofllce.  Instead  of  devoting  this  force  to  the  pension  work  proper,  Mr.  Bentley 
was  inventing  a  new  system  for  doing  the  work.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of 
names  had  to  be  copied,  lists  revised,  etc.,  and  the  work  was  not  finished  until 
the  end  of  the  last  fiscal  year.  He  made  nine  divisions  for  work,  and  employed 
nine  chiefs  of  divisions,  and  did  away  with  some  of  the  old  time  distinctions. 
These  chiefs  of  divisions  have  from  twenty  to  fifty  men  underneath  them. 
Although  Mr.  Bentley  has  a  high  opinion  of  his  new  system,  the  practical 
results  of  its  operations  do  not  seem  to  be  successful. 

The  following  extract  from  Mr.  Bentley's  examination  will  show  the  length  of 
time  necessary  to  obtain  a  pension  : 

Mr.  Harmer  :  Is  it  not  very  exceptional  for  cases  to  be  reached  within  a  year  from  the  date  of 
application  ?  A.  There  are  a  great  many  more  cases  pending  longer  than  a  year  than  there  are 
cases  settled  within  a  year  from  the  date  of  application.  There  are  many  cases  pending  six  or 
seven  years. 

Mr.  Harmer  :  So  few  cases  have  come  under  my  notice  that  have  been  settled  within  one  year 
or  even  within  two  years  from  the  date  of  application,  that  I  am  led  to  make  these  inquiries. 

Mr.  Thomas  :  And  yet  there  are  cases  that  have  been  settled  in  much  less  time.  I  have 
knowledge  of  one  that  has  been  settled  within  four  months  from  the  date  of  application.  A.  That 
is  certainly  exceptional. 

FAVORITISM  IN  THE  PENSION  OFFICE, 

It  is  charged  that  gross  favoritism  has  been  shown  certain  pensioners  of 
influence,  and  members  of  Congress  who  are  especial  friends  of  the  Com- 
missioner. 

One  instance  of  this  kind  in  particular  was  brought  to  light  in  the  testimony 
of  Charles  King,  Esq.,  an  attorney  of  this  city.  William  P.  Copeland,  a  "Wash- 
ington lobbyist,  applied  for  arrearages  of  pensions.  Mr.  King  testified  in  rela- 
tion to  his  case  as  follows  : 

When  Mr.  Copeland  made  his  affidavit,  he  said  he  thought  himself  entitled  to  a  pension,  and  de- 
scribed his  disability  ;  and  after  he  described  it,  I  told  him  I  thought  he  was  entitled  to  a  pension 
of  from  $3  to  $4  a  month.  I  asked  him  the  effect  that  it  had  upon  his  capacity  for  business.  He 
said  it  had  obliged  him  to  abandon  his  business,  and  he  had  taken  up  the  busmess  of  journalism. 
"And,"  said  he,  "  I  would  like  to  get  that  pension  immediately,  for  I  am  going  to  California  to 
represent  several  newspapers,  and  I  wish  there  was  some  way  to  hurry  it  through  so  that  I  might 
get  the  money  to  use."  I  told  him  we  had  refused  for  several  years  to  go  to  the  Pension  Office  to  ask 
any  favor  in  any  case,  but  that  if  any  public  man  would  go  for  him,  to  represent  his  interests,  or  if 
he  would  himself  go  to  the  commissioner  and  represent  the  urgency  of  his  case,  perhaps  the  com- 
missioner wo'ild  do  something  for  him.  He  said  he  would  try  it.  We  made  out  his  apulication, 
and  he  took  it  up.    lie  called  on  us  a  day  or  two  or  perhaps  a  week,  afterwards,  and  said  that  the 


470  FRAUDS    I^q-   THE    PEXSION    OFFICE. 

arrangement  was  all  made,  and  the  case  would  be  made  "  epecial."  We  filed  that  application  on? 
the  10th  of  July,  1879,  and  in  just  sevent5'-fiv.e  days  from  that  time  the  pension  was  allowed  to  him, 
and  he  drew  nearly  ^400.  He  was  a  man  in  no  distress  whatever  for  the  money,  but  it  wa?  a  matter 
of  convenience  for  him,  and  he  said  that  he  would  be  very  much  obliged  to  us  if  we  would  put  him 
in  the  way  of  hastening  it, 

Mr.  Geddes  :  So  far  as  you  know,  what  were  the  influences  brought  to  bear  to  bring  about  that 
speedy  allowance  ? 

The  witness  :  I  do  not  know  ;  only  it  was  suggested  to  him  by  me  that,  being  a  newspaper  man, 
it  was  probable  that  he  would  have  considerable  influence  in  that  office.  Said  I,  "  I  see  no  other 
way." 

The  Chairman  :  Why  should  he  have  special  influence  because  he  was  a  newspaper  man  ? 

The  witness  :  I  have* noticed  for  several  years  back  a  great  deal  of  what  I  call  trash  and  stuff, 
eulogizing  the  Pension  Office  and  its  management,  and  every  little  while  there  would  be  a  flaming 
statement  that  Commissioner  Bentley  had  discovered  frauds  here  and  there  ;  that  Commissioner 
Bentley  had  ascertained  that  the  claim  agents  were  doing  this,  that,  and  the  other  thing  ;  a  con- 
stant tissue  of  this  sort  of  twaddle  has  been  going  out  from  here  for  at  least  three  years. 

Mr.  Geddes  :  When  you  made  that  suggestion,  did  Copeland  say  he  would  use  the  means  you 
suggested,  or  did  he  tell  j'ou  afterwards  that  he  had  done  so  ? 

The  witness  :  He  said  he  would  act  upon  the  suffgestion,  and  subsequently  told  me  that  he  had 
acted  upon  it,  and  that  the  matter  was  all  right,  and  that  he  would  soon  get  his  pension. 

The  Chairman  :  Do  you  know  whether  he  wrote  any  flaming  articles,  such  as  you  described  ? 

The  witness  :  I  do  not  know  who  does  write  that  literary  trash,  and  never  have  known. 

Other  cases  where  favoritism  had  been  shown  were  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  committee. 

THE  EX  PAKTE  INVESTTGATTON   SYSTEM. 

One  of  the  most  glaring  evils  of  the  present  pension  system  is  the  practice  of 
employing  spies  or  special  agents  to  investigate  pension  cases  after  allowances 
have  been  made.  The  wrong  is  not  in  making  the  investigations,  but  in  the  man- 
ner of  conducting  them.  Certain  clerks  are  detailed  by  the  commissioner  of 
pensions  to  investigate  suspicious  cases.  Sometimes  the  enemy  of  a  pensioner- 
writes  to  the  bureau  that  the  said  pensioner  obtained  his  pension  by  fraud.  The 
spy  of  the  bureau  goes  to  the  informer  secretly,  and  obtains  from  him  all  the 
hearsay  information  he  possesses.  The  spy  is  then  directed  to  other  enemies  of 
the  unsuspecting  pensioner,  who  in  turn  give  him  their  suspicions.  The  object 
of  the  investigation  knows  nothing  of  the  inquiry  in  progress;  He  is  not  allowed 
to  appear  in  his  own  defense.  The  spy  measures  his  success  in  the  business  by 
the  number  of  fraudulent  pensioners  he  discovers,  and  the  consequence  is  that  he 
reports  every  man  guilty  until  he  is  proven  innocent.  The  first  information  the 
pensioner  has  of  the  occurrence  is  notification  that  his  name  has  been  dropped 
from  the  pension  rolls.  If  he  is  able  immediately  to  establish  his  innocence  two 
or  three  years  may  elapse  before  he  can  get  his  name  upon  the  rolls  again. 

George  M.  Yan  Buren,  ex-pension  agent  in  New  York  City,  in  his  testimony 

said  : 

The  special  agents  are  as  a  class  a  low  order  of  spies.  They  feel  that  the  more  cases  they  can 
report,  the  better  their  standing  with  the  department,  and  they  become  spies,  informers,  tricksters, 
persecutors  and  prosecutors.  Generally  they  look  only  to  find  those  who  will  report  against  the 
claimant  and  get  the  credit  of  stopping  the  pension.  One  of  the  worst  of  these  examples  was 
found  in  Western  North  Carolina,  where  a  specinl  agent  was  sent  who  filled  out  such  affidavits  as 
he  wanted  and  then  hunted  up  witnesses  to  make  them,  often  reading  only  a  part  of  the  affidavit  (I 
wish  this  statement  to  be  taken  as  made,  not  of  my  own  knowledge,  but  upon  information).  In 
this  case  a  whole  host  of  pensions  was  stopped,  and  the  department,  finding  they  could  not  stand 
the  odium  of  such  a  man,  discharged  him,  giving  as  a  reason  that  he  charged  in  his  vouchers  $3  per 
day  paid  for  the  use  of  a  horse,  when  in  fact  he  paid  but  fiftv  cents.  Another  agent  was  sent 
after  him  and  reported  these  facts  as  I  have  stated  to  the  Pension  Office,  but,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
these  pensioners  are  still  suspended." 

Mr.  Bentley  does  not  approve  of  the  monstrous  ex  pm^  law  enacted  by  the 

Republican  administration.     He  alluded  to  it  before  the  committee  as  follows  : 

This  system  is  conducted  now  on  a  somewhat  different  basis  from  that  on  which  it  was  started. 
Originally  the  system  was  that  an  agent  went  out,  took  a  case,  and  played  the  part  of  a  detective. 
That  was  his  business.  He  made  his  reputation  by  trying  how  many  pensioners'  heads  he  could  cut 
pff.  He  did  not  report  evidence.  He  simply  reported  what  results  he  found.  He  wrote  down 
that  such  and  such  was  the  case  and  sent  it  in,  and  on  that  report  the  pensioners  were  dropped  from 
the  rolls.  In  later  years  it  was  changed,  so  that  all  the  evidence  was  required  to  be  taken  by  affi- 
davit and  sent  into  the  office.  That  is  the  system  now.  There  is  another  thing.  Without  con- 
demning myself  or  any  of  my  predecessors  as  beang  politicians,  or  using  these  officers  for  political 
purposes,  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  system  is  peculiarly  open  to  that  abuse.  I 
might  go  on  and  name  many  other  grounds  upon  which  such  a  system  is  peculiarly  open  to- 


FRAUDS    IX   THE    PENSION    OFFICE.  47 1 

abuse.  ************* 

I  have  known  caBes  where  they  went  so  far  after  they  had  been  detailed  as  to  be  caught  in  some 
political  engineering,  but  I  believe  none  of  those  men  went  out  a  second  ticie. 

Mr.  Geddes  :  On  demanding  money  for  a  fayorable  report  ? 

Mr.  Bentley  :  Well,  I  hear  many  allegations  made  against  agents.  I  have  a  case  now  in  my  mind 
where  very  serious  allegations  are  made  against  an  agent  whom  I  have  believed  to  be  one  of  my 
best  and  most  eflScient  men.  Whether  the  allegations  are  true  or  false  I  do  not  know,  but  I  mean 
to  find  out.    I  have  no  knowledge  of  charges  of  bribery. 

Mr  Harmer  :  I  have  now  on  my  files  a  number  of  cases  in  which  great  injustice  has  been  done, 
to  which.  I  shall  call  the  commissioner's  attention  at  a  proper  time. 

DROPPING  PENSIONERS  FROM    ROLLS   WITHOUT    NOTICF. 

Commissioner  Bentley  has  plainly  violated  one  provision  of  t  lie  statutes  in  his 
management  of  the  Pension  Office.  He  has  dropped  men  from  the  pension  rolls 
without  givin(]j  notice  to  the  pensioner  and  without  hearing  sworn  testimony.  The 
chairman  of  the  committee,  prior  to  the  investigation,  held  a  consultation  with  the 
commissioner,  and  pointed  out  to  him  wherein  he  thought  he  was  exceeding  his 
powers.     The  following  testimony  was  taken  upon  this  point : 

Q.  Then  under  the  present  rule,  adopted  since  the  conversation  with  the  chairman  of  this  com- 
mittee to  which  you  have  referred,  there  are  no  cases  in  which  parties  have  been  dropped  from  the 
rolls  without  notice  ?  A.  Yes,  there  are  some.  There  are  all  these  cases  that  are  included  within 
the  provisions  of  section  4719;  but  no  names  are  now  dropped  from  the  rolls,  in  cases  where  the  Pen- 
sion Bureau  takes  aggressive  steps  to  drop  them, without  giving  notice  to  the  claimant ;  and  except 
in  cases  that  were  dropped  on  the  certificate  of  an  examining  surgeon,  there  have  been  no  such  in- 
stances for  several  years. 

The  Chairman  :  I  will  state  the  position  which  I  took  in  my  consultation  with  you  with  refer- 
ence to  that  section  of  the  statute.  It  was,  that  where  you  had  notice  that  a  certain  party  was 
drawing  a  pension  who  was  not  entitled  to  it,  you  were  obliged  to  have  a  sworn  statement  of  the 
facts  alleged  before  an  examination  could  be  ordered,  and  that  the  statement  or  statements  would 
have  to  be  under  oath,  all  except  the  certificate  of  the  surgeon,  he  being  by  law  presumed  to  be  act- 
ing under  oath. 

Mr.  Bentley  :  If  you  state  that  as  your  interpretation  of  my  power  and  my  duty  under  the  law, 
I  must  beg  leave  respectfully  to  disagree  with  you,  because  I  don't  think  you  are  correct.  I  think 
that  I  may  order  any  invalid  pensioner  on  the  roll  to  go  and  be  examined,  without  having  any  alle- 
gations against  him  at  all. 

The  Chairman  :  Yes,  but  I  do  not  refer  to  cases  of  that  kind.  I  mean  cases  where  the  order 
for  the  examination  results  from  allegations  or  charges  made  by  somebody,  and  what  I  contend  is 
that  those  allegations  or  charges  must  be  under  oath. 

Mr,  Bentley  :  I  do  not  agree  with  you  in  that.  I  think  that  I  may  or  may  not  require  the  pre- 
liminary statement  to  be  under  oath,  as  I  please.  The  mere  ordering  of  an  examination  is  one 
thing ;  the  taking  of  aggressive  steps  after  the  examination  has  been  made  is  quite  a  different 
thing.  I  do  not  tnink  it  is  necessary  under  the  law  that  preliminary  statements  made  to  me  shall 
be  under  oath. 

The  Chairman  :  But  how  do  you  get  around  the  provision  of  the  statute  that  "  in  no  case  shall 
a  pension  be  withdrawn  or  reduced  except  upon  notice  to  the  pensioner  and  a  hearing  upon  sworn 
testimony." 

Mr.  Bentlev  :  I  do  not  withdraw  or  reduce  until  after  the  examination— never  before. 

The  Chairman  :  Then  the  act  of  Congress  is  made  void  by  your  interpretation,  because  /could 
write  a  letter  stating  that  a  man  was  not  entitled  to  a  pension,  and,  upon  that  statement,  you  could 
order  him  to  be  examined. 

Mr.  Bentley:  I  could.,  but  perhaps  I  would  not. 

ABUSES  IN  THE   PENSION  OFFICE. 

Nathan  W.  Fitzgerald,  formerly  general  clerk  of  the  Pension  Office  in  Indian- 
apolis, and  at  present  claim  agent  in  Washington,  gave  the  committee  the  benefit 
of  his  experience  in  the  Pension  Office.  Mr.  Fitzgerald  and  indeed  every  witness 
examined  by  the  committee  were  Republicans.  Ko  political  bias  can  be  attrib- 
uted to  his  testimony.  He  had  25,000  pension  claims  pending  in  his  office  at  the 
time.     He  said  : 

For  the  last  two  or  two  and  a  half  years  I  have  noticed  a  very  considerable  increase  of  the  delay 
in  adjusting  claims  beyond  what  occurred  prior  to  that  time.  About  two  years  ago,  I  believe,  the 
commissioner  notified  Congress  that  he  did  not  require  any  more  clerical  assistance  at  that  time,  so 
that  I  suppose  the  delay  has  arisen  not  from  the  lack  of  clerical  force,  but  because  of  the  Commis- 
sioner's desire  to  institute  another  line  of  examination  and  procedure  in  the  matter  of  pension 
cases. 

By  Mr.  Geddes  :  Q.  From  your  own  personal  knowledge,  to  what  do  yon  attribute  the  delaj's  in 
the  Pension  Bureau  ?  A.  I  attribute  the  delay  at  present  to  alack  of  clerical  force  and  to  the  want 
of  a  proper  organization  of  the  oflice.  From  my  knowledge  of  the  mode  in  which  the  business  has 
been  conducted,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  office  is  properly  organized  ;  I  do  not  think  it  is  organ- 
ized, for  instance,  on  the  basis  on  which  a  private  individual  would  conduct  a  business  of  that  kind 
so  as  to  get  the  most  out  of  it  and  to  obtain  the  greatest  amount  of  labor  for  the  number  of  persons 
employed  ;  I  think  there  is  a  very  great  fault  in  the  organization  of  the  Pension  Office  in  that  re- 
spect. 

Q.  Do  you  know  of  any  changes  that  have  been  made  by  the  Commissioner  which  have  corrected 


472  FRAUDS    IX    THE    TEXSIOX    OFFICE. 

that  condition  of  affairs  ?  A.  I  do  not.  With  the  permission  of  the  committee  I  will  state  a  matter 
which  will  show  you  the  want  of  system  in  that  office.  Within  the  last  four  or  five  months  I  have 
received  duplicate,  sometimes  triplicate,  and  sometimes  quadruplicate  letters  from  the  Tension  Office 
containing  the  very  same  matter  exactly.  For  instance,  I  file  a  claim  for  a  pension  ;  shortly  after- 
wards I  receive  notice  from  the  offlee  that  the  claim  has  been  received  and  placed  on  the  files  and 
given  a  certain  number  ;  then  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  weeks  along  comes  another  letter  giv- 
ing the  same  notice  exactly  ;  that  causes  me  to  set  my  clerks  at  work  to  search  my  files  for  the  case, 
and  then  I  discover  that  I  have  already  one  such  notice  on  file  and  that  this  is  a  duplicate.  Such 
cases  have  often  occurred,  and  even  triplicate  notices  are  C[uite  frequent. 

Q.  To  what  do  you  attribute  these  repeated  communications  containing  the  same  substance  ? 
A.  It  seems  to  me  that  if  I  conducted  my  business  in  that  way  it  would  indicate  a  lack  of  manage- 
ment ;  if  I  managed  my  business  in  such  a  way  as  to  have  my  clerks  do  the  same  work  over  again 
two  or  three  times,  I  should  think  there  was  a  waste  of  material  and  a  lack  of  system. 

Q.  Do  those  notices  in  every  case  come  from  the  same  branch  of  the  office  ?  A.  Yes,  sir  ;  from 
the  same  branch. 

THE   INTERMINABLE  DELAYS. 

Mr.  Fitzgerald  testified  that  generally  six  months  or  a  year  elapsed  after  evi- 
dence is  filed  in  a  given  case  before  any  answer  or  communication  is  received  in 
reply  from  the  Pension  Oflice. 

Q.  Can  you  state  whether,  in  his  rulings  upon  the  law  and  the  evidence,  the  commissioner  is 
liberal  toward  the  applicant  and  the  pensioner,  or  whether  he  rules  always  against  them  ?  A.  I 
know  that  in  my  practice  in  every  case  to  which  I  have  given  my  personal  attention  rejections  are 
made  on  technicalities  of  cases  which  a  liberal  ruling— that  is,  a  just  and  equitable  ruling — would 
pass,  I  have  had  a  great  many  cases  rejected  where  the  office  seemed  to  be  sorry  for  its  action  after- 
Avards,  because  they  have  often  taken  up  such  cases  and  allowed  them  afterwards  without  my  call- 
ing them  up  again  at  all. 

The  witness  then  explained  the  difficulties  under  which  pensioners  suffer  in 
securing  their  claims,  through  the  severity  of  the  Pension  Office.  Circumstances 
frequently  occur  to  prevent  a  claimant  from  obtaining  proof  of  treatment  in-  the 
service  for  a  wound  or  disease,  owing  to  death  or  absence  of  the  surgeon,  although 
the  claimant's  old  comrades  and  officers  testify  that  the  man  vras  wounded  or  dis- 
eased, he  seldom  has  the  good  fortune  to  secure  a  pension.  In  the  witnesses'  prac- 
tice the  number  of  cases  at  first  rejected  by  the  Pension  Bureau,  and  afterwards 
granted  without  request,  is  so  .arge  that  he  does  not  remove  rejected  cases  from 
the  files  of  his  office ;  expecting,  like  Micawber,  that  one  day  or  another  something 
will  turn  up.  The  average  time  for  settlement  of  his  claims  exceeds  two  years. 
The  testimony  of  Mr.  Fitzgerald  on  the  subject  of  dropping  pensioners  from  the 
rolls  without  notification  contrasts  severely  with  the  testimony  of  the  Commissioner 
on  that  point. 

Mr.  Harmer  :  Q.  Do  I  understand  you  to  say  that  a  number  of  your  clients  who  had  been  placed 
on  the  pension  roll  have  been  dropped  on  the  report  of  special  agents?  A.  Yes,  sir,  some  of  them: 
I  cannot  tell  just  how  many. 

Q.  In  how  many  of  those  cases  were  the  pensioners  notified  and  given  an  oi)portunity  to  file  tes- 
timony in  their  defense?    A.  I  do  not  know  of  any  such  case. 

FALSE  RATING  OF  DISABILITY. 

One  of  the  greatest  abuses  in  the  pension  system  is  the  way  in  which  pensioners 
are  rated  according  to  the  extent  of  their  disability.  A  sample  is  as  follows :  Henry 
A.  Smith,  pension  $4  per  month  from  June  15, 1864,  to  June  G,  186C;  $8  yer  month 
from  June,  1866,  to  January,  1879,  and  $18  per  month  from  January,  1879,  on. 
The  pensioner's  disability  was  the  same  from  1864  to  the  present  time.  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald submitted  thirty-two  glaring  cases  of  this  unjust  and  Inexcusable  rating  of 
certain  favored  pensioners!  Another  abuse  complained  of  is  the  authority  exer- 
cised by  the  Commissioner  to  change  ratings.  If  Brown  comes  before  a  board  of 
surgeons  in  New  York,  is  examined  and  rated  by  the  board  to  receive  a  pension  of 
$8  per  month,  the  Commissioner,  on  the  authority  of  the  medical  referee  in  Wash- 
ington, who  knows  nothing  of  the  case,  can  rate  the  man  $4  per  month.  These 
instances  are  of  frequent  occurrence.  Ex-Pension  Agent  Van  Buren,  in  his  te"*' 
mony  on  this  point,  says  : 

NO   LAW  OR  JUSTICE   FOR   IT. 
The  surgeons— old  army  surgeons,  three  of  them  -exammc  a  man,  and  they  five  hini  a  three- 


FRAUDS    IN    THE    PENSION    OFFICE.  473 

fourths  or  total  i>cnsion,  and,  upon  review,  the  Pension  Office  issues  him  a  certiftcatc  for  a  one-f oarth 
or  one-half  pension,  virtually  stealing  the  balance.  There  is  no  more  Jaw,  justice  or  authority  for 
this  than  for  the  President  approving  a  bill  for  $25,000  after  its  passage  for  $100,000,  and  the  com- 
mittee should  draw  articles  of  impeachment  at  once  in  the  case.  No  monarch  could  exercise  more 
complete  sway  than  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions.  The  entire  weal  or  woe  of  these  thousands  of 
poor  pensioners  rests  upon  his  mere  ipse  dixit.  I  submit  that  the  law  gives  the  President  a  right 
to  approve  or  to  disapprove  a  bill,  and  the  Commissioner  to  approve  or  to  disapprove  of  a  rating  of 
a  board  of  surgeons;  but  right  here  comes  in  the  devilishness  of  the  scheme;  while  he  does  neither 
approve  nor  disapprove,  he  stabs  in  the  dark.  (I  do  not  mean  personally,  but  I  mean  that  the  de- 
partment takes  the  man  entirely  in  the  dark.)  He  throws  aside  the  rating  of  the  surgeon,  and  his 
medical  referee,  who  never  saw  the  applicant,  gives  him  his  own  rating,  and  the  certificate  is  issued 
giving  a  pensioner  a  pension  of  $2  a  month  when  he  feels  that  he  should  receive  $8  per  month,  and 
he  knows  he  is  unjustly  dealt  by;  that  a  species  of  lynch-law  has  been  enacted  towards  him,  but 
can't  tell  where,  and  hence  no  appeal,  and  he  curses  the  government  ho  strove  so  earnestly  to  save. 
Do  you  ask  how  I  know  this?  I  say  I  have  seen  and  heard  boards  of  surgeons  give  these  ratings, 
and  then  have  seen  the  certificates  come  back  at  these  lesser  rates. 

AN  expert's  testimony. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  is  familiar  with  all  the  workings  of  the  Pension  Oflace.  He  says 
that  he  believes  the  whole  struggle  in  the  Pension  Bureau  is  to  find  work  for  the 
clerks,  and  not  allow  pensions.     He  says : 

Now,  in  my  opinion  it  is  very  slow  work  for  an  office  where  there  are  five  or  six  hundred  clerks 
to  issue  only  3,360  pension  original  invalid  claims  in  seven  months,  although  the  arrears  might 
have  interfered.  From  the  13th  of  January  to  the  26th  of  February  there  were  only  900  original 
pension  claims  of  invalids  issued;  not,  in  niy  opinion,  because  they  could  not  be  issued,  but  because 
the  commissioner  dare  not  issue  them. 

Q.  Why  d.ire  he  not  issue  them?    A.  Because  he  has  no  money  to  pay  them. 

Q.  Has  Congress  refused  to  give  appropriations  for  the  payment  of  pensions?  A.  The  Commis- 
sioner of  Pensions,  a  year  ago  or  thereabouts,  when  Congress  asked  him  if  he  needed  any  more 
clerical  force,  replied  that  he  did  not;  and  I  think  he  did. 

Q.  That  is  not  an  answer  to  my  (question.  I  ask  you  if  Congress  has  ever  refused  to  make  ap- 
propriations for  the  payment  of  pensions?    A.  I  do  not  think  so. 

PRESIDENTIAL  POLITICS  IN  THE  PENSION  BUREAU. 

Q.  Then  why  dare  not  the  Commissioner  issue  these  pensions,  and  why  would  he  not  have  the 
money  ?    A.  He  does  not  ask  for  it.    In  my  opinion  —that  is,  a  political  opinion. 

By  Mr.  Geddes  :  O.  But  why  would  the  Commissioner  feel  a  personal  or  official  interest  in  keep- 
ing back  cases;  simply  because  of  the  amount  of  money  that  would  be  required  to  pay  them  if  al- 
lowed ?  A.  Because  I  do  not  think  the  Treasury  Department  wishes  that  that  should  be  the  case. 
I  think  that  Mr.  Sherman  does  not  want  to  have  so  many  million  dollars  turned  out  of  the  treas- 
ury; and  in  mjr  opinion  that  is  the  difficulty  and  the  reason  why  this  money  is  not  called  for.  But 
I  believe  that  if  called  to  the  notice  of  the  President  they  would  be  paid,  as  he  was  a  soldier  and  is 
in  sympathy  with  them.  Now  it  takes  thirty  and  odd  million  dollars  to  pay  the  regular  pensions 
for  the  next  year,  the  cases  now  on  the  roll ;  and  for  every  one  thousand  pensioners  that  are  put  on 
the  roll  the  first  payment  alone  will  take  a  million  dollars,  so  that  if  20,000  are  put  on  the  roll,  next 
year  it  will  take  $20,000,000  to  make  the  first  payment  in  addition  to  the  thirty  or  thirty-three  mil- 
lion dollars  required  to  pay  these  regular  pensioners;  it  will  take  a  million  dollars  for  every  one 
thousand  cases  that  he  puts  upon  the  roll,  and  if  he  issues  40,000  cases  it  will  take  $40,000,000  to 
pay  them,  and  Mr.  Sherman  will  not  be  able  to  report  what  he  would  like  to  report  until  after 
the  next  campaign. 

Q.  What  he  would  like  to  report  is  a  decrease  in  the  public  debt.  I  suppose?  A.  And  so  forth. 
I  will  say  that  I  am  a  radical  Republican  and  do  not  want  to  interfere  with  the  party  in  any  way. 
I  am  a  Grant  man,  and  have  always  been  so.  I  have  the  figures  here  by  which  I  can  give  you  the 
number  of  invalid  pensions  that  have  been  issued  up  to  certain  dates.  On  the  14th  of  June  last 
there  were  160,771 ;  on  the  15th  of  January,  seven  months  and  a  day  later,  164,130  ;  on  the  26th  of 
February,  165,038;  on  the  19th  of  March,  165,673;  from  February  28th  to  March  19th  there  were  a 
little  over  600  cases. 

Q.  Have  you  in  your  mind  any  other  reason  why  the  Commissioner  in  his  official  or  his  personal 
capacity  would  be  biased  toward  withholding  the  allowance  of  cases  ? 

**  **  ie  if  if  if  if  if  :f.  if  ^i  if 

The  witness  :  Well;  I  believe  that  the  whole  system  for  the  last  couple  of  years  has  been  aiming 
toward  centralization,  the  one-man  power,  if  you  choose  to  say  it,  in  the  Pension  Office  ;  I  believe 
the  rulings  in  the  action  of  the  Pension  Office  have  been  made  so  that  the  Commissioner 
could  have  the  entire  control  and  management  of  the  pensioners  throughout  the.  aountry  in  his 
own  hands. 

Q.  Do  you  know  any  other  reason  or  motive  for  these  delays  which  you  say  occur  in  the  settle- 
ment of  pension  claims  ?  A.  I  think  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions  or  the  Bureau  should  act  as  a 
judge  in  these  cases.  The  practice,  for  the  last  few  years  particularly,  has  been  for  him  to  act  as  a 
prosecuting  attorney  and  as  a  strong  defendant  in  these  cases,  seeking  not  to  do  justice  to  the  pen- 
sioner, but  to  defeat  every  claim  by  any  possible  means.  That  nas  been  the  practice  in  my 
opinion. 

ONE   SPECIAL   CASE — A   SAMPLE   ONE. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  knew  one  case  of  favoritism  exercised  by  the  Commissioner  at 

the  expense  of  some  poor  soldier. 

O.  Do  you  know  of  any  cases  made  special  unless  the  claimant  was  sick  or  CTeatly  impoverished? 
A.  General  Graham,  Surveyor  of  the  Port  of  New  York,  whom  I  met  in  the  Pension  Office  draw- 
ing a  good  many  hundreds  of  dollars,  told  me  that  his  case  had  been  made  special,  and  I  think  he 


474  FliAUDS    IN    Tllltl    PEXSION    OFFICE. 

said  that  within  eix  weeks  he  got  his  pension.  I  know  that  he  asked  me  about  it,  and  he  had  made 
the  claim  for  a  pension  only  a  very  short  time  before. 

Q.  Bo  you  know  anything  about  liis  condition  or  his  embarrassments  ?  A.  He  is  getting  $6,000 
or  $8,000  a  year  as  Surveyor  of  the  Port  of  New  York. 

Q.  Do  you  know  on  whose  request  his  case  was  made  special  ?    A.  I  do  not. 

Q.  Can  you  name  any  other  case  ?  A.  I  do  not  know  that  I  could  name  any  other  case  now;  if  I 
were  in  New  York  I  think  I  could, 

PENSION  ATTORNEYS. 

There  are  about  16,000  persons  practicing  before  the  Pension  Bureau,  and 

styling  themselves  "pension  attorneys."    A  great  majority  of  this  number  are 

claim  agents.     Charles  King,  Esq. ,  in  his  testimony  before  the  committee,  swore 

that  three-fourths  of  the  pension  business  of  the  country  is  clone  by  100  men,  and 

the  attorneys  residing  in  Washington  have  probably  100,000  of  the  240,000  live 

cases  before  the  bureau.     According  to  Mr.  King's  estimate  there  are  several 

thousand  attorneys  having  from  one  to  three  or  five  cases  each. 

"Now,"  said  Mr.  King,  "if  this  is  even  approximately  true,  it  seems  to  be  perfectly  apparent 
that  the  Pension  Office  is  contending  with  a  mass  of  incompetency  and  ignorance  that,  to  me, 
would  be  utterly  appalling.  If  I  were  commissioner  I  should  ^et  on  my  knees  and  pray  (Congress 
to  give  me  some  relief,  and  I  am  not  at  all  surprised  at  the  condition  In  which  the  office  is  said  to 
be  by  the  officials  who  have  it  in  charge.    But  my  position  is  that  the  failure  is  in  not  making  a 

{)roper  selection  of  persons  to  do  businees  with  the  office,  and  in  my  judgment  the  Commissioner 
lae  full  power  to  do  that  under  the  advice  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  to  both  of  whom  he  can  appeal  under  the  law." 

It  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  Commissioner,  by  allowing  irresponsible  per- 
sons to  practice  the  claim  business  in  liis  ofRce,  has  retarded  the  work  of  the 
bureau,  and  in  many  instances  injured  the  claims  of  applicants  for  pensions. 
Pensioners  can  understand  how  many  of  their  claims  come  to  be  rejected  by  the 
following  sample.  This  communication  was  sent  to  Mr.  King  from  the  Pension 
Office: 

Yon  are  hereby  informed  that  claim  No.  225,4.54,  of  John  Friend,  as  guardian  of  the  minors  of 
Elias  Friend,  is  rejected  on  the  ground  that  the  disease,  consumption,  of  which  the  soldier  died, 
was  not  contracted  in  the  United  States  service. 

That  notification  did  not  inform  the  attorney  of  the  precise  difficulties  supposed 
to  exist  in  the  case.  He  had  no  means  of  knowing  whether  the  office  had  evi- 
dence that  consumption  existed  in  the  man  at  the  time  of  his  enlistment,  or 
whether  consumption  was  contracted  by  carelessness  on  liis  part,  or  whether  the 
disease  originated  after  liis  discharge  from  the  army.  These  points  are  important, 
as  the  man  might  be  able  to  give  an  explanation  which  would  show  him  to  be 
entitled  to  receive  a  pension. 

THE  PENSION  OFFICE  DEFINITION   OP  LOYALTY. 

Loyal  people  who  resided  in  the  Southern  states  during  the  war  have  had  great 
difficulty  in  obtaining  pensions  and  settling  bounty  land  claims.  The  Union 
soldier  who  left  his  home  to  fight  the  battles  of  his  country  has  often  suffered 
greatly  because  of  the  severe  ruling  of  the  Department.  Circulars  liave  been 
issued  from  the  Pension  Office  from  time  to  time  declaring  that  in  proving  loy- 
alty, both  in  invalid  and  widows'  cases,  where  loyalty  is  necessary  to  be  proven, 
it  must  be  shown  whether  the  applicant  paid  taxes  io  or  in  any  other  manner 
aided  or  abetted  the  Confederate  cause.  Such  a  test  of  loyalty  was  never  heard 
of.  Men  may  be  disloyal  to  this  government  and  yet  pay  taxes  to  it.  A  Union 
soldier  owning  property  in  the  South  may  have  left  his  wife  upon  his  farm. 
Unless  she  paid  taxes  licr  sole  means  of  support  might  be  taken  from  her.  If  she 
did  pay  the  taxes,  and  her  husband  was  killed  in  the  Union  army,  she  could  not 
obtain  a  pension  on  his  account. 

CHIEFS  OP  DIVISIONS  CONTRADICT    THE  COMMISSIONER. 

The  committee  examined  the  nine  chiefs  of  divisions  in  the  Pension  Office  as 


FBAUDS    IN    THE    PENSION    OFFICE.  475 

to  their  duties.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Commissioner  said  that  he  did 
not  desire  an  increase  of  his  clerical  force;  that  such  an  increase  would  not  facili- 
tate the  work  of  the  office.  Each  of  the  chiefs  of  divisions  swore  that  an  in- 
creased number  of  clerks  would  assist  materially  in  pushing  forward  their  work. 
Mr.  Bentley  was  contradicted  by  his  own  subordinates,  who  should  have  had 
more  politeness.  A  number  of  witnesses  appeared  before  the  committee  who 
declared  that  they  had  been  dropped  from  the  rolls  without  notification.  Others 
testified  that  they  could  not  obtain  from  the  Bureau  the  reasons  why  their  appli- 
cations were  rejected.  Still  others  declared  that  they  had  been  refused  informa- 
tion about  cases  when  they  applied  personally.  The  investigation  showed  that 
the  office  is  mismanaged;  that  its  business  is  not  conducted  for  the  benefit  of  the 
soldier  and  sailor,  but  to  promote  the  political  aspirations  of  certain  Republican 
office-holders.  In  fact,  the  Union  soldiers  need  only  read  the  record  evidence  of 
this  investigation  to  be  convinced  that  a  change  of  administration  is  needed  to 
give  them  the  tardy  justice  th^y  have  been  so  vainly  striving  to  obtain  under 
Republican  rule. 


41 Q  FRAUDS   IN   THE   DEPARTMENT    OF   JUSTICE. 


FMUDS  m  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE. 


WHAT  IT  COST  THE  TAXPAYERS  TO  SUPPLY  LUXURIES  FOR 
REPUBLICAN  ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. 


FREE    RIDES,    FBEE    TICKETS,    FREE    LITERATURE    AND  OTHER  CONTINGENT  EX- 
PENSES OF  THE    DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE. 

In  the  good  old  days,  before  the  Republican  party  got  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment, a  Cabinet  officer  would  have  been  shocked  at  the  suggestion  that  his  ex- 
penses for  carriage  hire,  novel  reading,  visiting  cards,  trips  to  Long  Branch,  and 
the  like,  could  be  legally  charged  in  his  account  against  the  United  States. 

In  the  opinion  of  Democratic  Cabinet  ministers  this  would  have  been  as  gross 
an  abuse  of  law  and  decency  as  to  charge  the  government  with  their  clothing  and 
board.  The  plan  of  assessing  the  government  for  expensive  pleasure  excursions, 
costly  equipages,  tapestry,  carpets  for  private  dwellings,  and  servants  in  livery, 
whose  names  were  borne  on  the  pay-rolls  as  messengers,  was  inaugurated  by  the 
Rev.  James  Harlan,  a  Republican  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

There  was  something  in  this  idea  of  ease  and  luxury  at  the  public  expense  that 
commended  itself  to  other  departments,  and  it  has  been  fashionable  in  Repub- 
lican administrations  ever  since,  and  especially  so  during  those  of  Grant  and 
Hayes. 

The  Attorney-General,  and  latterly  tJie  Department  of  Jtistice,  have  been  con- 
spicuous for  abuses  of  this  kind. 

Taking  the  Attorney-General's  office  for  a  period  commencing  June,  1875,  and 
ending  the  same  month  in  1879,  and  we  find  the  following  aggregate  cost,  year 
by  year,  for  a  few  only  of  the  unnecessary  items  of  luxury  purchased,  and  a  few 
only  of  the  vast  number  of  the  contingent  expenses  of  that  office. 

This  statement  is  taken  from  the  official  reports  of  the  Attorney-General  cover- 
ing the  period  named.  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  money  so  expended 
came  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  taxpayers  of  the  United  States. 

REPORT  OF  1875. 

THE  OFFICIAL  CARRIAGE. 

Salary  of  driver  of  Department  carriage .i.. $840  00 

Livery  (3)  horses 903  00 

Horseshoeing 101  00 

Medical  attendance 2  00 

■Carriage  repairs ; 399  63 

Harness  and  repairs 178  62 

$2,424  26 

Street-car  tickets 59  70 

Partisan  Newspaper  subscriptions  paid  for  bt  the  taxpayers 64  00 

laTEBATURE 59  25 


FBAUDS    IN   THE    DEPABTMENT    OF   JUSTICE.  417 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Washing  towels $165  14 

Hack  hire 4  50 

Portrait  Attorney-General  Ackerman 500  00 

Visitine  cards 2  00 

Trip  to  Long  Branch , , .  138  59 

$810  23 

Summary $3,417  4a 


REPORT  OF  1876. 

THE  OFFICIAL  CARKIAQK. 

Drivef  of  l^epartmcnt  carriage $787  11 

Livery  (3)  horses , 912  50 

Horseshoeing 72  25 

Repairing  carriages. 293  79 

Harness ; 102  00 

New  carriage 650  00 

$2,817  65 

Street-car  tickets 72  07 

Partisan  Newspapers  paid  for  bt  the  taxpatxrb ., 73  75 

Literature 116  50> 

MI8C  ELL  ANE0U8. 

Two  tripe  to  Long  Brattch.  •  i < , .  • 53  29 

Re-upholstering  1  sofa  and  7  chairs 100  00 

J.  W.  McKnight,  of  the  Feather  Dusting'  Legislature,  %  chamois  skin 500 

2  pairs  gloves 6  00- 

2,000  visiting  cards  (Mrs.  Taf t) :   12  00 

80  packs     do.       do.    do.       and  printing 60  00 

Portrait  Attorney-Gen.  Taft 750  00 

do.      Judge  CliflEord 456  00 

Electric  bell : , 40  00 

One  rep  couch , 30  oO 

Washing  towels i  •.  .i .....  r 340  43 

$1,852  72 

Summary $4,932  69 


REPORT  OF  1877. 

THE  OFFICIAL  CARRIAGE. 

Salary  of  driver  of  Department  carriage  i  <  1 1 ....... .  $840  00 

Livery  (2)  horses 688  33 

Medicine , 1  75 

Hire  of  Horse 18  GO 

Purchase  of  new  horse; 300  00 

Horseshoeing 85  13 

New  carriage , 600  00 

New  harness , 103  00 

Repair  of  carriage 186  30 

$2,822  51 

Street-car  tickets 52  10 

Partisan  Newspaper  subsciuptions  paid  for  by  the  taxpayers 95  75 

Literature:— 

Life  of  Prince  Consort $2  00 

Life  of  Marie  Antoniette 2  60 

Life  of  Seward  5  20 

North  American  Review 5  00 

British  Quarterly 7  50 

$22  20 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Washing  towels.  .........•••>>>   1 1 . « i $144  00 

Milk 25 

Carpets,  &c 83  25 

Trip  TO  Long  Branch 43  00 

Portrait  oi  Attorney-General  Pierrepont 1,305  00 

Frame 35  00 

Cloralum ,...,, , , . , 50 

1,611  00 

Summary $4,603  5& 


478 


FRAUDS    IN   THE   DEPARTMENT    OF   JUSTICE. 


REPORT  OF  1878. 

THE   OFFICIAL  CARRIAGE. 

Salary  of  driver  of  Department  carriage ; . ,  $940  00 

Livery  (.3)  horsee 714  15 

Horseshoeing  98  85 

Carriage  repairs 22180 

Harness  and  repairs  84  75 

Horse  purchased 335  00 

$2,394  55 

Street-car  tickets 81  29 

Partisan  Newspaper  subscriptions  paid  por  bt  the  taxpatsbs : . .    $102  00 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Lounge - 25  00 

Tapestry , 226  56 

Summer  trip  Attorney-General  to  Colorado 184  65 

Summer  trip  Attorney-General  to  Long  Branch 39  75 

Portrait  Ex-Attorney-General  Taft 750  00 

Washing  towels 182  40 

■ 1,408  36 

Summar-  $3,986  13 

REPORT  OF  1879. 

THE   OFFICIAL  CARRIAGE. 

Salary  of  driver  of  Department  carriage $840  00 

Livery  (2)  horses 556  84 

Medical  attendance  on  same 6  00 

Horse  hire 51  50 

Purchase  of  two  horses 525  00 

Horseshoeing 79  50 

New  carriage 550  00 

Repairs  on  carriage 286  41 

Harness  and  repairs 185  15 

Two  whips 2  00 

3,072  40 

Street  car  tickets .       150  50 

Partisan  Newspaper  subscriptions  paid  i-or  bt  the  taxpayers 93  35 

Literature 158  25 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

Sweeping  office • . .  • . .  •  • 240  00 

Trips  to  Long  Branch  and^New  York 1,103  77 

Trips  to  Huntsville 92  75 

Towels 14  50 

Washing  towels 2ft3  86 

Sweetoil 100 

Chlorine ....  1  00 

Upholstering  two  sofas ,, 25  00 

Feather  dusters 7  00 

Plectric  bell 73  50 

500  VISITING  CARDS 7  50 

One  ream  Cream  Note 4  50 

One  SMYRNA  RUG 18  00 

One  mat 10  50 

One  corkscrew 25 

Two  settees  and  chairs , Ill  00 

Bookcases ,,,.  ,, 369  00 

2,283  13 

Summary $5,762  63 

RECAPITULATION. 


TEAR. 

WHEN  REPORTED. 

attornet-general. 

AMOUNT. 

1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 

Reported  1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 

Williams. 

Pierrepont. 

Taft. 

Devens. 

Devens. 

$3,417  43 
4,932  69 
4,603  56 
3,986  13 
5,762  63 

Total  fo^  five  years'  luxuries  for  the  Attorney-General's  office,  $23,702.44. 


FAVORITISM   IN    ENFORCEMENT    OF   JUDGMENTS.  479 

LANDAULET  WILLIAMS  OUTDONE. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Landaulet  "Williams,  who  has  been  so  bitterly  abused  on 
account  of  official  extravagance  in  the  matter  of  the  purchase  of  a  **  department 
carriage,"  has  been  outdone  by  his  successors.  Pierrepont,  for  the  same  manner  of 
luxuries  expended  more  than  did  Williams  out  of  the  department  contingent  fund. 
Taft  exceeded  Pierrepont's  expenditures  in  the  same  line,  and  the  aristocratic 
Devens  has  run  the  expenditures  for  the  same  items  up  to  $5,762.63,  as  against 
$3,417.43  expended  in  his  last  year  by  Williams. 

This  is  but  one  of  the  many  instances  which  show  that  Hayes'  administration  is 
tainted  with  the  same  luxurious  extravagance  that  made  Grant's  a  reproach  to  the 
country. 


FAYORITISM  IN  ENFORCEMENT  OF  JUDGMENTS. 


FAT  TIMES  FOR  SPECIAL  ASSISTANTS. 

From  the  report  of  the  Attorneys-General  from  June  30,  1874,  to  June  30,  1879, 
it  appears  that  the  total  amount  of  judgments  obtained  in  the  Federal  courts  in 

civil  and  criminal  causes  was $16,516,580  33 

and  the  total  amount  realized  from  collections 5, 599, 495  23 

Balance  uncollected _ $10,917,385  11 

It  also  appears  from  the  same  reports  from  June  30,  1874,  to  June  30,  1879, 
that  the  amount  paid  by  the  government  on  account  of  causes  farmed  out  to  special 
assistant  attorneys  was  $142,249.37. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  under  Republican  administration  even  the  Federal 
judiciary  has  become  debauched,  and  judgments  obtained  for  money  due  the 
United  States  from  its  defaulting  agents  have  been  permitted  to  lapse  through 
political  favoritism.  It  has  been  by  such  crooked  practices  in  the  courts  of  justice 
held  by  political  judges,  whose  judgments  have  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  poli- 
ical  strikers  for  execution,  that  during  the  few  years  referred  to  nearly  eleven 
million  dollars  have  been  suffered  to  go  uncollected,  in  order  that  political  favor- 
ites, unworthy  Federal  officials  in  a  large  number  of  cases,  might  go  scot  free. 

OFFICIAL  INCOMPETENCY. 

In  the  same  connection  it  will  be  seen  that  the  huge  army  of  attorneys-general, 
assistant  attorneys-general,  regular  assistant  attorneys-general,  and  special  assist- 
ants strewn  thickly  around  our  Federal  courts  all  over  the  country,  have,  during 
four  or  five  years  past,  been  so  terribly  overworked,  taking  pleasure  excursions, 
driving  fast  teams,  reading  literary  works,  paying  and  interchanging  visits  per 
card,  testing  electric  bells,  sampling  $5  chamois  skins,  drinking  milk,  etc.,  etc., 
etc.,  all  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers  of  the  United  States,  that  they  have  been 
obliged  to 'call  to  their  assistance  an  army  of  special  assistant  attorneys-general  to 
enable  them  to  get  along  with  the  public  business. 


480  EXPENSES    OF    UNITED    STATES    COURTS. 


EXPENSES  OF  UNITED  STATES  COURTS. 


ALARMING  INCREASE  IN  THE  PAST   TWENTY-FIVE   YEARS. 

Below  will  be  found  a  table  making  comparisons  of  the  cost  of  llie  Federal 
Courts  before  and  since  1860.  From  this  it  appears  that  the  average  cost 
of  the  Federal  Judiciary  in  1850  was  .021  per  capita,  a  little  more  than  two 
cents  ;  in  18G0  was  .03  per  capita,  a  little  more  than  three  cents  ;  in  1870  was 
.0572  per  capita,  nearly  six  cents.  Whilst  the  increase  in  the  decade  from  1860  to 
1870  has  been  at  the  rate  exceeding  131  per  cent. ,  the  increase  for  the  decade  from 
1865  to  1875,  has  been  at  the  rate  of  104  per  cent.,  and  is  constantly  augmenting. 
Much  of  this  extravagance  is  due  to  payments  for  partisan  election  work  by  par- 
tisan supervisors  of  election  and  deputy  marshals.  As  a  country  increases  its  popu- 
lation to  the  square  mile,  these  expenses  should  decrease  as  compared  with  the 
denser  population.  The  reverse  is  the  case  under  Radical  rule.  Whilst  the  char- 
acter of  the  judiciary  has  deteriorated,  its  expenses  have  augmented  : 

FOR  THE  YEARS  1850,    1860,    1865,'  1870  AND  1875, 

1850 $497,558  54 

1860 - 936,477  61 

1865  - .: 1,192,272  84 

1870 -- --- 2,162,109  82 

1875 - 3,332,182  27 

2  years,  1850  and  1860 - 1,434,036  15 

2years,  1870  and  1875 5,494,292  09 

1865 - ---  1,192,272  84 

1875 .,-..,...„,.............., 3,332,182  27 


481 


SHERMAN'S    PET    BANK 


HOW  IT  HELPED  HIM  REFUND  THE  DEBT — A  MONOPOLY  OF  THE  FOUR  PER  CENT. 
BONDS— $115,000,000  MADE  OFF  THE  GOVERNMENT— $5, 000, 000  BORROWER 
FROM  THE  BANK  AND  NEVER  PAID  BACK. 

Secretary  Sherman,  at  the  conclusion  of  his  funding  operations  in  the  fall  of 
1879,  sent  out  a  letter  of  congratulation  to  the  people  claiming  that  he  had  saved  to- 
the  government  millions  of  dollars  of  interest.  ' '  The  great  Secretary  "  failed,  how- 
ever, to  state  in  his  pronunciamento  that  at  the  very  time  of  this  wasted  saving  he 
gave  away  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  to  pet  banks,  which  could  also  have 
been  saved  to  the  people.  The  return  to  prosperity  in  1879  made  the  government, 
bonds  a  very  desirable  security.  Sherman  and  Hayes,  in  their  report  to  Congress, 
were  claiming  much  credit  for  resumption  and  the  refunding  operations,  whichi 
in  reality  they  had  little  to  do  with. 

The  refunding  of  the  ten  forty  bonds  into  four  per  eent.  is  a  disgraceful  history. 

There  were  $740,000,000  of  the  four  per  cent,  bonds  sold  at  par,  and  a  half  of 
one  per  cent,  commission,  netting  the  government  99^  cents.  The  market  value 
of  the  four  per  cents  can  be  put  at  $1.07,  which  would  make  the  $740,000,000  of 
four  per  cents  worth  $851,800,000.  But  at  99|  they  netted  the  government  only 
$736,300,000,  or  a  profit  to  the  speculators  of  $115,500,000.  The  principal  pur- 
chaser was  the  First  National  Bank  of  New  York,  the  heir  and  successor  of  the 
notorious  Jay  Cooke,  McCulloch  &  Co.  This  bank,  with  a  capital  of  only  half  a 
million  dollars,  on  the  14th  of  June,  1879,  owed  the  government  $128,109,071  for 
bonds. 

In  a  circular  issued  October  7th,  1879,  the  bank  boasted  that  it  had  sold  over 
$400,000,000  of  the  $737,157,050  of  four  per  cents  issued  up  to  that  time. 

It  was  an  institution  of  obscure  and  uncertain  credit  at  the  time  its  present 
owners  came  into  control,  which,  singularly  enough,  was  of  the  same  date  as  the 
incoming  of  the  present  administration.  In  so  short  a  time  it  has  acquired  a  re- 
lation with  the  government  that  the  Bank  of  England  and  the  Rothschilds  could 
never  accomplish  with  any  government. 

The  four  per  cent,  bonds  were  selling  rapidly  and  on  better  terms  for  the  govern- 
ment.  Private  and  state  trusts  were  being  converted  into  these  bonds.  They  were 
becoming  inevitably  a  popular  security,  when  Mr.  Sherman  suddenly  announces 
that  he  has  received  subscriptions  for  all  that  he  can  sell;  that  is,  that  over 
$150,000,000  have  been  subscribed  for,  which  will  enable  him  to  take  up 
all  the  ten-forty  (higher  rate  of  interest  bonds)  that  will  fall  due  for 
two  years.  This,  he  said,  was  a  saving  of  interest  for  two  yefni's,.  But  it  took  time 
to  learn  what  the  Secretary  failed  to  state  :  that  he  had  given  his  pet  bank  the  mo- 
nopoly of  these  bonds.  In  two  days  they  were  at  a  premium  of  two  per  cent.  Of 
the  ten-forty  called  bonds  the  national  banks  had  nearly  $100,000,000  on  deposit 
with  the  government  for  their  security.  With  the  call  their  interest  stopped.  Of 
course,  the  banks  would  desire  to  replace  them  with  an  interest  bearing  bond. 
The  only  bond  to  be  purchased  was  the  four  per  cent,  bond,  which  the  pet  bank 
now  controlled.  Inside  of  a  week  this  bond  was  raised  to  a  premium  of  106.  If 
Mr.  Baker,  the  cashier,  refused  to  sell  a  bond  at  102^,  inside  of  an  hour  the  gov- 

31 


<?i82  SHERMAN  S    PET    BANK. 

enzQieDft  four  per  cents  were  quoted  at  102|,  and  so  the  premium  was  forced  up. 
7[h&  national  banks,  mostly  in  the  West,  which  had  the  ten-forties,  were  compelled 
tka^Mj  the  four  per  cents  of  the  First  National  Bank  of  New  York.  Some  of  the 
jaational  banks  held  off  and  did  not  readily  come  to  terms,  saying  they  would 
acafliEr  Jose  the  interest  than  be  fleeced  by  Mr.  Sherman's  bank.  The  latter  insti- 
*utkai,  by  reason  of  this,  soon  found  itself  in  a  predicament.  By  arbitrary  action 
at  kept  up  the  price  of  four  per  cents. 

50m  the  first  of  August,  1879,  one  of  its  subscriptions  for  forty  millions  fell  due. 
HIl  Bherman -was  in  the  Maine  campaign  at  the  time.  Mr.  Gilfillen,  Treasurer 
*«jff  -the  United  States,  needing  some  money  to  pay  interest,  made  a  draft  upon  the 
•bank  for  six  million  dollars.  The  bank  was  not  selling  many  bonds,  and  could 
not  pay  the  draft.  It  had  overreached  itself.  It  had  put  the  bonds  at  too  high  a 
Xiwemium.  "The  bank  telegraphed  Mr.  Sherman  in  Maine  and  Mr.  Sherman  tele- 
.gcaplied  Mr.  Gilfillen  not  to  press  his  draft.  Then  Mr.  Sherman  hurriedly  left 
"Maine  if  or  Washington  and  issued  an  oi^der  extending  the  time  for  payment  by  tlie 
(Sbsmktwo  Quonihs.  Mr.  Sherman  then  went  to  Ohio  to  make  speeches  and  tell  the 
^pocrple  how  well  he  had  refunded  the  debt.  With  his  first  speech,  however,  came 
tilMB  publication  of  his  transactions  with  the  pet  bank.  He  made  a  poor  effort  at 
explanation  before  the  Cincinnati  Chamber  of  Commerce,  saying  the  bank  did 
mot  ta"ke  actual  possession  of  the  bonds  until  paid  for,  but  he  did  not  say  that  the 
l»ank  had  the  coupons  and  up  to  that  time  had  drawn  eight  hundred  thousand  dol- 
Mari  interest. 

The  exposure  run  Mr.  Sherman  out  of  Ohio,  where  he  had  engaged  himself  for 
aen^peeches.  On  his  return  to  Washington  he  issued  an  order  that  no  news  was 
^Isegrven  to  the  press,  except  on  his  order,  by  any  employee  of  the  Treasury 
lliepartment.  The  exposure  which  drove  him  out  of  Ohio  had  leaked  from  the 
treasury.  This  pet  bank  and  its  associates  were  then  levied  upon  for  money  to 
lielp  elect  Foster  over  Ewing  as  Governor  of  Ohio. 

The  First  National  Bank  finally  paid  for  its  bonds  after  having  them  five  month 
^Mt,  credit^  and  during  which  time  it  regularly  drew  the  interest. 

A  LOAN  ON  GOOD  TERMS  SECURED. 

This  bank,  as  before  stated,  is  the  heir  of  and  pretty  much  owned  by  the  for- 
snier  Jay  Cooke  concern,  of  which  John  Sherman  was  a  stockholder. 

la  1877,  when  Mr.  Hayes  was  anxious  to  get  Packard,  who  had  received  more 
VBiteB  than  he  had  in  Louisiana,  out  of  the  gubernatorial  fight,  he  sent  a  com- 
■oiiBslon  to  accomplish  his  end.  Below  is  the  correspondence  which  shows  how 
fluts-same  bank  advanced  the  money.  Mr.  Sherman  has  since  had  the  audacity 
itoaisk  Congress  to  appropriate  it,  but  as  yet  the  bank  must  be  contented  with  its 
paj  in  the  way  of  profits  on  the  bonds.  Charles  F.  Conant  was  Assistant  Secre- 
tory of  :the  Treasury,  and  went  through  that  open  passage  way  between  the 
Treasury  Department  and  the  syndicate  to  become  the  London  mutual  friend  of 
tflbte  ^treasury  and  the  syndicate.     He  is  now  Mr.  Sherman's  confidential  agent 

altDoad. 

(Private  and  confidential.)  \ 

Treasury  Department,  March  23,  1877.  f 
®EOEGE  T.  Baker,  Cashier  First  National  Bank,  N.  Y. 

My iDear  Mr.  Baker:  The  President  has  decided  to  send  a  commission,  com- 
Eposed  of  men  of  prominence  and  respectability,  to  some  of  the  Southern  states 
Jor  -the  purpose  of  healing,  if  possible,  the  present  political  difficulties  which 
«existan:them.  It  is  also  hoped  that  this  course  will  secure  to  the  administration 
tEadttheigowemment  the  moral  support  and  aid  of  the  persons  residing  in  South- 
«stii  localities.    The  only  practical  difficulty  in  the  way  of  carrying  out  this  grand 


Sherman's  pet  bank.  483 

project  arises  from  the  want  of  an  appropriation.  Your  bank  can  remove  that 
difficulty,  and  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  securing  your  aid  in  this  matter  that  I  ad- 
dress this  letter  to  you,  believing  that  you  will,  cheerfully  co-operate  in  a  work 
which  has  for  its  aim  and  object  the  peaceful  solution  of  grave  -and  perplexing 
difficulties.  The  amount  which  will  be  required  will  probably  fall  between 
$3,000  and  |5,000.  What  I  have  to  suggest  is  this  :  that  your  bank  advance  the 
money  to  some  person  who  will  be  appointed  the  disbursing  agent  and  receive 
from  him  the  vouchers,  which  he  will  take  when  he  makes  the  disbursement. 
When  Congress  convenes  again  a  deficiciency  appropriation  will  be  asked  for  by 
the  Executive  for  the  purpose  indicated  above,  and  what  you  shall  advance  will 
be  promptly  returned  to  you.  I  do  not  think  there  can  be  any  hazard  or  risk  in 
this  matter,  or  I  would  not  suggest  it.  I  have  thought  also  that  you  would  be 
pleased  to  have  the  opportunity  to  render  the  aid  which  is  so  much  needed  for 
a  good  purpose  at  this  time!  I  shall  be  glad  to  receive  an  early  reply  to  this 
letter.  With  much  respect,  I  am  truly  yours, 

(Signed.)  CHARLES  F.  CONANT. 

The  Treasury  Department  but  Congi-ess  has  not  performed. 

Baker's  answer  was  as  follows  : 

First  National  Bank,  N.  Y.,  March  24,  1877. 

My  Bear  Conant:  I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  of  yesterday  in  regard  to  making 
an  advance  of  money  for  the  expenses  of  the  commission  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President  to  visit  the  Southern  states,  and  beg  to  say  that  the  bank  will  take 
pleasure  in  extehding  the  accommodation  in  the  manner  requested. 

(Signed)  Yours,  truly,  GEO.  F.  BAKER. 

James  .D.  Powers,  a  treasury  clerk,  and  a  stenographer,  both  paid  by  the 
treasury,  were  detailed  to  go  with  the  commission. 

Conant  then  writes : 

Treasury  Department, 
Washington,  D.  C,  March  29,  1877. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Baker:  Enclosed  I  send  you  a  copy  of  a  letter  addressed  to  the 
gentlemen  composing  the  commission  about  to  visit  the  South,  from  which  you  will 
see  that  Mr.  Jas.  D.  Powers,  of  this  department  is  to  act  as  disbursing  agent. 

The  committee  will  probably  leave  here  Monday  next,  and  I  will  thank  you  to 
transmit  to  Mr.  Power,  in  my  care,  a  draft  in  his  favor  for  $5,000. 

Truly  yours, 

(Signed)  CHAS.  F.  CONANT. 

The  enclosure  is  as  follows : 

Treasury  Department,  March  28th,  1877. 
Addressed  to  Lawrence,  Harlan,  Brown,  Hawley  and  McVeigh. 

Gentlemen:  This  will  be  presented  to  you  by  Mr.  Jas.  D.  Powers,  a  clerk  of  this 
department,  who  has  been  detailed  to  accompany  you  on  your  proposed  trip  South, 
in  the  capacity  of  disbursing  agent.  He  will  also  provide  for  your  transportation 
and  subsistence,  and  will  make  such  other  arrangements  as  may  be  necessary  for 
your  comfort  and  convenience.  Mr.  Power  has  the  confidence  of  the  department 
and  is  a  trustworthy  gentleman.  Very  respectfully, 

(Signed)  JOHN  SHERMAN,  Sec'y. 

The  five  members  of  this  commission  in  three  weeks  spent  all  of  the  $5,000  to  a 
cent.  John  M.  Harlan,  according  to  the  evidence  before  the  Potter  Committee,  told 
General  Boynton  that  he  expected  to  get  a  place  on  the  United  States  Supreme 
bench  for  his  work  on  this  commission,  and  so  he  did.  He  carried  his  son  along 
with  him,  whose  expenses  were  also  paid  out  of  the  common  fund. 


484  CARL  SCHURZ  AND  THE  INDIAN  BUREAU. 


GAEL  SCHURZ  AND  THE  INDIAN 
BUREAU. 


ENORMOUS  AND  WASTEFUL  EXPENDITURES. 


hayt's  vtlliany. 

Senator  Dawes,  Republican,  of  Massachusetts,  in  a  letter  dated  July  21st,  1880^ 
to  the  Springfield,  Mass.,  Bepublican,  regarding  the  removal  of  the  Ponca  Indians, 
said  : 

"  Some  one  is  making  up  an  Indian  record  for  this  administration,  which  it  will 
be  hard  to  defend  by  the  side  of  the  blackest  that  has  gone  before. " 

Mr.  Schurz,  about  the  same  week,  in  a  speech  at  Indianapolis  said  in  glorifica- 
tion of  the  present  administration  and  its  reforms,  that  he  spoke  from  personal 
knowledge  when  he  asserted  that  the  Indian  bureau  had  been  greatly  reformed. 
The  only  act  that  he  could  point  to  in  support  of  this  statement  was  the  removal 
of  Commissioner  Hayt.  The  record  of  the  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners  shows 
that  Mr.  Schurz  had  to  be  prodded  into  doing  this  long-delayed  act. 

As  was  shown  by  the  evidence  taken  before  the  Board  of  Indian  Commissioners, 
Mr.  Schurz  had  been  repeatedly  informed  of  the  true  character  of  his  Commis- 
sioner of  Indian  affairs.  While  serving  in  such  position  he  was  arrested  for  de- 
stroying a  savings  bank,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  directors.  At  the  precise 
time  of  his  arrest  Mr.  Schurz  was  insisting  upon  the  suspension  of  a  federal  official 
in  St.  Louis,  who  was  under  indictment,  on  the  ground  that  no  federal  oflSciai 
should  be  in  actual  service  while  under  indictment  for  a  crime.  Yet  he  did 
not  suspend  Mr.  Hayt,  and  did  not  remove  that  official  until  after  it  was  conclu- 
sively proven  that  he  had  been  using  the  Indian  Bureau  to  steal  a  mine  in  the  Far 
West.  What  Senator  Dawes  no  doubt  refers  to  in  particular  are  the  constant  vio- 
lations of  faith  with  the  Indians.  The  treatment  of  the  Nez  Perces,  the  Poncas, 
Bannocks  and  Northern  Cheyennes,  are  but  illustrative  of  the  rule  which  guides 
Mr.  Schurz  in  his  dealings  with  the  Indians.  The  Nez  Perces,  living  a  civilized 
life  in  Idaho,  were  the  victims  of  the  white  man's  encroachment.  This  they  re- 
sisted and  war  followed. 

Over  one  million  dollars  were  expended  by  the  government  in  that  war.  At 
last  Joseph,  after  carrying  on  a  warfare,  which  General  Miles  testifies  was  free  from 
all  brutality,  surrendered.  The  terms  of  his  surrender  were  that  he  and  his  people 
should  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  reservation  in  Idaho,  where  his  tribe  had  always 
lived.  The  contractors  of  the  Indian  Bureau  objected.  There  was  more  money 
to  be  made  by  having  the  Indians  sent  to  the  Indian  territory.     The  malarial  cli- 


CARL    SCHUKZ   AND   THE    INDIAN    BUREAU.  485 

mate  had  its  natural  effect  upon  people  who  had  come  from  the  invigorating  and 
cool  air  of  Idaho.  The  death  rate  was  thirty  per  cent,  a  year.  In  vain  they  have 
appealed  for  justice,  but  are  still  kept  prisoners  in  a  country  to  them  absolutely 
pestilential.  The  Sioux  were  promised  a  reservation  near  the  Missouri  River. 
They  were  deceived  and  sent  into  the  back  country.  By  this  maneuver  contractors 
could  get  more  compensation  for  hauling  the  stores  and  provisions. 

Senator  Dawes  from  the  select  committee  of  the  Senate  to  inquire  into  the  re- 
moval of  the  Poncas  reports  as  follows  : 

"In  concluding  that  branch  of  the  subject  matter  with  which  the  committee  is 
charged,  that  requires  of  them  to  inquire  into  the  circumstances  of  the  removal  of 
the  Poncas,  the  committee  find  that  they  were  one  of  the  most  peaceable  of  all  the 
Indian  tribes,  that  they  were  dwelling  upon  a  reservation  which  they  had  occu- 
pied ever  since  they  were  known  as  a  tribe,  under  words  of  absolute  grant  from 
the  United  States,  accompanied  by  a  covenant  of  peaceable  enjoyment  during 
their  good  behavior ;  that  without  their  knowledge  and  without  compensation  and 
without  a  shadow  of  complaint  against  them  as  a  tribe,  the  United  States  included 
their  reservation  by  mistake  of  boundaries  within  the  limits  of  the  reservation  set 
apart  from  the  Sioux ;  that  the  United  States  has  never  undertaken  to  compensate 
them  in  any  way  for  this  attempting  to  deprive  them  of  their  home;  that  to  relieve 
themselves  of  the  difficulties  in  which  this  mistake  had  involved  the  United  States, 
they  undertook  to  remove  the  Poncas  from  their  home  and  provide  for  them  else- 
where and  Congress  authorized  their  removal  to  the  Indian  Territory  if  they  should 
give  their  free  consent  to  such  removal ;  that  the  goverment  failing  to  obtain  such 
free  consent,  removed  them  by  force  and  placed  them  where  they  now  are  against 
their  will,  leaving  their  houses  and  all  other  property  which  they  were  unable  to 
take  with  them  and  lodging  them  in  a  hot,  and  to  them  an  inhospitable  climate ; 
that  they  have  suffered  greatly  from  the  time  of  their  removal  to  the  present  time, 
and  have  been  thereby  greatly  diminished  in  numbers;  that  they  are  at  the  present 
moment  discontented,  discouraged,  and  disheartened,  and  are  making  no  progress 
toward  self-support ;  that  this  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  was 
without  justification,  and  was  a  great  wrong  to  this  peaceable  tribe  of  Indians, 
and  demands  at  the  hands  of  the  United  States  speedy  and  full  redress." 

In  vain  the  Poncas  have  asked  for  justice  at  Mr.  Schurz's  hands,  as  do  all  these 
tribes.  When  Mr.  Schurz  does  as  he  did  with  the  Poncas,  he  orders  one  of  his 
agents  to  take  to  Washington  some  of  the  head  chiefs.  Arriving  in  Washington 
they  are  given  carte  blanche.  Thousands  of  dollars  are  spent  upon  them  during 
their  sojourn  at  the  Capital.  All  this  is  for  the  purpose  of  making  them  forget 
the  wrong  that  has  been  done  them. 

COST  OF  THE  SYSTEM. 

Mr.  Schurz's  management  has  not  decreased  the  cost  of  the  Indian  service.  The 
annual  average  is  over  five  million  dollars.  The  annual  average  under  Democratic 
rule  up  to  1861  was  three  million  dollars.  A  comparison  of  the  cost  of  the  care 
of  the  Indians  in  this  country  with  those  in  Canada,  gives  an  illustration  of  tha 
theiving,  and  of  the  extent  to  which  it  is  carried  on.  There  are  94,324  Indians 
scattered  over  the  Canadian  domain.  The  annual  cost  per  head  is  $2.  Many  of 
them  have  become  prosperous  farmers.  Above  all  they  are  peaceable.  By  the 
honest  operation  of  the  Canadian  system  a  large  reserve  fund  has  been  created,  the 
interest  on  which  will  before  long  maintain  and  make  the  Indians  independent. 
The  census  as  taken  by  the  Indian  Bureau  shows  275,000  Indians  in  this  country. 
It  is  an  undisputed  fact  that  the  Indian  agents  exaggerate  the  number  of  Indians, 


486  CARL    SCHURZ    AND    THE    INDIAN    BUREAU. 

SO  that  they  may  get  larger  allowances  for  their  care.  But  at  their  figures  the  cost 
is  $24  per  head,  and  in  Canada  it  is  done  vastly  better  at  $3  a  head. 

No  definite  knowledge  can  be  obtained  of  the  detail  of  expenditure  of  the  mil- 
lions Congress  is  called  upon  annually  to  appropriate  for  the  care  of  these 
"Wards  of  the  Nation." 

Such  items  as  the  following  are  found  in  the  reports: 

Civilization  and  subsistence  of  Indians  on  the  Malheur  reservation $48,057  64 

Collecting  and  subsisting  Apaches 4,182  00 

Expense  of  Indian  delegation  visiting  Washington 13, 544  00 

The  names  of  the  agents  are  given,  but  how  this  money  is  expended  is  left  for 
them  to  show  in  whatever  manner  they  please.  They  can  make  out  their  vouchers 
for  thousands  of  dollars,  almost  as  sure  of  payment  as  if  they  called  for  as  many 
cents. 


ANOTHER    EX-CABINET    OFFICER    BROUGHT   TO    GRIEF.  48T 


ANOTHER    EX-CABINET    OFFICER 
BROUGHT  TO  GRIEF. 


HISTORY  OF  A  TRANSACTION  MORE  DISGRACEFUL  THAN  THE  CREDIT  MOBILIEIfc 
AND  DE  GOLYER  FRAUDS,  AS  TOLD  BY  THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE. 
UNITED   STATES. 

THE  KIND  OF  MAN   MR.  GARFIELD   SELECTED   FOR  CHAIRMAN   OF  THE   REPUKLBCAN: 
NATIONAL   COMMITTEE. 

For  several  weeks  after  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Garfield  the  chairmansMp  of 
the  Republican  National  Committee  went  begging.  Don  Cameron  was-  made 
sick,  "  nigh  unto  death,"  by  the  victory  of  Garfield  and  the  crushing  defeat  of 
Grant  at  Chicago.  To  heal  the  wounds  inflicted  by  the  mad  factions  in  that 
convention  Mr.  Garfield  and  his  friends  implored  Cameron  to  remain  at  the  Head 
of  the  National  Committee;  but  Mr.  Cameron  was  in  a  bad  humor  and  positively- 
declined.  They  next  offered  the  vacant  post  to  William  E.  Chandler,  with;  the 
hope  of  reconciling  the  friends  of  Blaine,  but  the  "Plumed  Knight"  ordered 
his  wily  henchman  to  reject  it.  The  doubtful  honor  went  begging  anotherweek. 
At  length  the  friends  of  Mr.  Garfield  betook  themselves  to  Utica,  and  begaic 
coquetting  with  Senator  Conkling.  They  offered  the  chairmanship  to  the  H(mi_ 
Thomas  C.  Piatt,  Mr.  Conkling's  friend,  with  protestations  of  unfailing  loyalty 
to  the  "head  and  summit  of  the  human  race,"  and  dutiful  affection  for  the 
New  York  Senator.  Mr.  Conkling  was  also  sick.  Sprague's  shotgun  at  Canoo- 
chet,  and  Grant's  Waterloo  at  Chicago,  had  soured  his  temper.  Mr.  Piatt  was 
not  permitted  to  accept  the  chairmanship.  Several  other  Republican  statesmen 
were  implored  to  accept  it,  but  each  in  turn  declined. 

At  length,  in  great  despair,  Mr.  Garfield  turned  to  his  old  friend,  Marshali. 
Jevtell,  of  Connecticut.  **  A  fellow-feeling  makes  men  wondrous  kind."  Mr- 
Jewell  had  been  Postmaster- General  under  Grant,  who  unceremoniously  kicked 
him  out  of  that  office.  Garfield  had  been  caught  in  two  schemes  of  fraud  with 
scarcely  a  parallel  in  history.  Jewell  had  been  caught  in  a  transaction!  evwt 
more  disgraceful,  but  not  so  well  known  to  the  public.  The  chairmanship,  waa 
offered  to  Mr.  Jewell  and  promptly  accepted. 

The  public  may  learn  who  this  Chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Cbmmilf- 
tee  is  by  reading  the  following  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United. 
States,  as  reported  in  the  4th  volume  of  Otto's  Reports,  p.  506. 

Allore  ) 

m.        y  In  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  October  Term,  1876. 
Jewell.  ) 

Appeal  from  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern  District  oC 
Michigan. 


488  ANOTHER    EX-CABINET    OFFICER    BROUGHT   TO    GRIEF. 

The  facts  are  stated  in  the  opinion  of  the  court. 

Mr.  Alfred  Russell  for  the  appellant. 

Mr.  A.  B.  Maynard,  contra. 

Mr.  Justice  Field  delivered  the  opinion  of  the  court. 

This  is  a  suit  brought  by  the  heir-at-law  of  Marie  Genevieve  Thibault,  late  of 
Detroit,  Mich.,  to  cancel  a  conveyance  of  land  alleged  to  have  been  obtained 
from  her  a  few  weeks  before  her  death,  when,  from  her  condition,  she  was  in- 
capable of  understanding  the  nature  and  effect  of  the  transaction. 

The  deceased  died  at  Detroit,  on  the  4th  of  February,  1864,  intestate,  leaving 
the  complainant  her  sole  surviving  heir-at-law.  For  many  years  previous  to  her 
death,  and  until  the  execution  of  the  conveyance  to  the  defendant,  she  was  seised 
in  fee  of  the  land  in  controversy  situated  in  that  city,  which  she  occupied  as  a 
liomestead. 

In  November,  1863,  the  defendant  obtained  from  her  a  conveyance  of  this 
property. 

A  copy  of  the  conveyance  is  set  forth  in  the  bill.  It  contains  covenants  of 
seisin  and  warranty  by  the  grantor,  and  immediately  following  them  an  agree- 
ment by  the  defendant  to  pay  her  $250  upon  the  delivery  of  the  instrument ;  an 
annuity  of  $500,  all  her  physician's  bills  during  her  life, the  taxes  on  the  property 
for  that  year,  and  all  subsequent  taxes  during  her  life;  also,  that  she  should  have 
the  use  and  occupation  of  the  house  until  the  spring  of  1864,"  or  that  he  would 
pay  the  rent  of  such  other  house  as  she  might  occupy  until  then.  The  property 
was  then  worth,  according  to  the  testimony  in  the  case,  between  $6,000  and  $8,000. 
The  deceased  was  at  that  time  between  sixty  and  seventy  years  of  age,  and  was 
■confined  to  her  house  by  sickness  from  which  she  never  recovered.  She  lived  alone 
in  a  state  of  great  degradation,  and  was  without  regular  attendance  in  her  sick- 
ness. There  were  no  persons  present  with  her  at  the  execution  of  the  convey- 
ance except  the  defendant,  his  agent  and  his  attorney.  The  $250  stipulated  were 
paid,  but  no  other  payment  was  ever  made  to  her;  she  died  a  few  weeks  after- 
wards. 

As  grounds  for  canceling  this  conveyance,  the  complainant  alleges  that  the 
^deceased,  during  the  last  few  years  of  her  life,  was  afflicted  with  lunacy  or  chronic 
insanity,  and  was  so  infirm  as  to  be  incapable  of  transacting  any  business  of  im- 
portance ;  that  her  last  sickness  aggravated  her  insanity,  greatly  weakened  her 
mental  faculties,  and  still  more  disqualified  her  for  business  ;  that  the  defendant 
4and  his  agent  knew  of  her  infirmity,  and  that  there  was  no  reasonable  prospect  of 
her  recovery  from  her  sickness,  or  of  her  long  surviving,  when  the  conveyance 
was  taken  ;  that  she  did  not  understand  the  nature  of  the  instrument,  and  that  it 
-was  obtained  for  an  insignificant  consideration,  and  in  a  clandestine  manner 
without  her  having  any  independent  advice. 

These  allegations  the  defendant  controverts,  and  avers  that  the  conveyance  was 
taken  upon  a  proposition  of  the  deceased  ;  that  at  the  date  of  its  execution  she  was 
in  the  full  possession  of  her  mental  faculties,  appreciated  the  value  of  the  property, 
and  was  capable  of  contracting  with  reference  to  it,  and  of  selling  or  otherwise 
dealing  with  it ;  that  since  her  death  he  has  occupied  the  premises,  and  made 
permanent  improvements  to  the  value  of  $7,000  ;  and  that  the  complainant  never 
gave  him  notice  of  any  claim  to  the  property  until  the  commencement  of  this 
suit. 

The  court  below  dismissed  the  Dili,  whereupon  the  complainant  appealed  here. 
'The  question  presented  for  determination  is,  whether  the  deceased,  at  the  time 


ANOTHER    EX-CABINET   OFFICER   BROUGHT   TO    GRIEF.  489 

she  executed  the  conveyance  in  question,  possessed  sufficient  intelligence  to  under- 
stand fully  the  nature  and  effect  of  the  transaction  ;  and,  ii  so,  whether  the  con- 
veyance was  executed  under  such  t3ircumstances  as  that  it  ought  to  he  upheld,  or 
as  would  justify  the  interference  of  equity  for  its  cancellation. 

Numerous  witnesses  were  examined  in  the  case,  and  a  large  amount  of  testi- 
mony was  taken.  This  testimony  has  been  carefully  analyzed  by  the  defendant's 
counsel ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  facts  detailed  by  any  one  witness  with 
reference  to  the  condition  of  the  deceased  previous  to  her  last  illness,  considered 
separately  and  apart  from  the  statements  of  the  others,  do  not  show  incapacity  to 
transact  business  on  her  part,  nor  establish  insanity,  either  continued  or  temporary. 
And  yet  when  all  the  facts  stated  by  the  different  witnesses  are  taken  together, 
one  is  led  irresistibly  by  their  combined  effect  to  the  conclusion,  that,  if  the 
deceased  was  not  afflicted  with  insanity  for  some  years  before  her  death,  her  mind 
wandered  so  near  the  line  which  divides  sanity  from  insanity  as  to  render  any 
important  business  transaction  with  her  of  doubtful  propriety,  and  to  justify  a 
careful  scrutiny  into  its  fairness. 

Thus,  some  of  the  witnesses  speak  of  the  deceased  as  having  low  and  filthy 
habits,  of  her  being  so  imperfectly  clad  as  at  times  to  expose  immodestly  portions 
of  her  person  ;  of  her  eating  with  her  fingers,  and  having  vermin  on  her  body. 
Some  of  them  testify  to  her  believing  in  dreams,  and  her  imagining  she  could  see 
ghosts  and  spirits  around  her  room,  and  her  claiming  to  talk  with  them  ;  to  her 
being  incoherent  in  her  conversation,  passing  suddenly  and  without  cause  from 
one  subject  to  another  ;  to  her  using  vulgar  and  profane  language  ;  to  her  making 
immodest  gestures  ;  to  her  talking  strangely,  and  making  singular  motions  and 
gestures  in  her  neighbors'  houses  and  in  the  streets.  Other  witnesses  testify  to 
further  peculiarities  of  life,  manner,  and  conduct ;  but  none  of  the  peculiarities 
mentioned,  considered  singly,  show  a  want  of  capacity  to  transact  business. 
Instances  will  readily  occur  to  every  one  where  some  of  them  have  been  exhibited 
by  persons  possesing  good  judgment  in  the  management  and  disposition  of 
property.  But  when  all  the  peculiarities  mentioned,  of  life,  conduct,  and  language, 
are  found  in  the  same  person,  they  create  a  strong  impression  that  his  mind  is  not 
entirely  sound  ;  and  all  transactions  relating  to  his  property  will  be  narrowly 
scanned  by  a  court  of  equity,  whenever  brought  under  its  cognizance. 

The  condition  of  the  deceased  was  not  improved  during  her  last  sickness. 

The  testimony  of  her  attending  physician  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  her  mental 
infirmities  were  aggravated  by  it.  He  states  that  he  had  studied  her  disease,  and 
for  many  years  had  considered  her  partially  insane,  and  that  in  his  opinion  she 
was  not  competent  in  November,  1863,  during  her  last  sickness,  to  understand  a 
document  like  the  instrument  executed.  The  physician  also  testifies  that  during 
this  month  he  informed  one  Dolsen,  who  had  inquired  of  the  condition  and  health 
of  the  deceased,  and  had  stated  that  efforts  had  been  made  to  purchase  her  prop- 
erty, that  in  his  opinion  she  could  not  survive  her  sickness,  and  that  she  was  not 
in  a  condition  to  make  any  sale  of  the  property  " in  a  right  way." 

This  Dolsen  had  at  one  time  owned  and  managed  a  tannery  adjoining  the  home 
of  the  deceased,  which  he  sold  to  the  defendant.  After  the  sale,  he  carried  on 
the  business  as  the  defendant's  agent.  Through  him  the  transaction  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  property  was  conducted.  The  deceased  understood  English  imper- 
fectly, and  Dolsen  undertook  to  explain  to  her,  in  French,  the  contents  of  the 
paper  she  executed.  Some  attempt  is  made  to  show  that  he  acted  as  her  agent ; 
but  this  is  evidently  an  afterthought.  He  was  in  the  employment  of  the  defendant, 
had  charge  of  his  business,  and  had  often  talked  with  him  about  securing  the 


490  ANOTHER    EX-CABINET    OFFICER    BROUGHT    TO    GRIEF. 

property  ;  and  in  his  interest  he  acted  throughout.  If  the  deceased  was  not  in  a 
condition  to  dispose  of  the  property,  she  was  not  in  a  condition  to  appoint  an 
agent  for  that  purpose. 

The  defendant  himself  states  that  he  had  seen  the  deceased  for  years,  and  knew 
that  she  was  eccentric,  queer,  and  penurious.  It  is  hardly  credible  that  during 
those  years,  carrying  on  business  within  a  few  yards  of  her  house,  he  had  not 
heard  that  her  mind  was  unsettled  ;  or,  at  least,  had  not  inferred  that  such  was 
the  fact,  from  what  he  saw  of  her  conduct.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Dolsen's  knowledge 
was  his  knowledge  ;  and  when  he  covenanted  to  pay  the  annuity,  some  inquiry 
must  have  been  had  as  to  the  probable  duration  of  the  payments.  Such  covenants 
are  not  often  made  without  inquiries  of  that  nature  ;  and  to  Dolsen  he  must  have 
looked  for  information,  for  he  states  that  he  conversed  with  no  one  else  about  the 
purchase.  "With  him  and  with  his  attorney  he  went  to  the  house  of  the  deceased, 
and  there  witnessed  the  miserable  condition  in  which  she  lived,  and  he  states  that 
he  wondered  how  anybody  could  live  in  such  a  place,  and  that  he  told  Dolsen  to 
get  her  a  bed  and  some  clothing.  Dolsen  had  previously  informed  him  that  she 
would  not  sell  the  property  ;  yet  he  took  a  conveyance  from  her  at  a  consideration 
which,  under  the  circumstances,  with  a  certaintj'"  almost  of  her  speedy  decease, 
was  an  insignificant  one  compared  with  the  value  of  the  property. 

In  view  of  the  circumstances  stated,  we  are  not  satisfied  that  the  deceased  was, 
at  the  time  she  executed  the  conveyance,  capable  of  comprehending  fully  the 
nature  and  effect  of  the  transaction.  She  was  in  a  state  of  physical  prostration  ; 
and  from  that  cause  and  her  previous  infirmities,  aggravated  by  her  sickness,  her 
intellect  was  greatly  enfeebled  ;  and  if  not  disqualified,  she  was  unfitted  to  attend 
to  business  of  such  importance  as  the  disposition  of  her  entire  property,  and  the 
securing  of  an  annuity  for  life.  Certain  it  is,  that  in  negotiating  for  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  property,  she  stood,  in  her  sickness  and  infirmities,  on  no  terms  of 
equality  with  the  defendant,  who  with  his  attorney  and  agent,  met  her  alone  in 
her  hovel  to  obtain  the  conveyance. 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  order  to  secure  the  aid  of  equity,  to  prove  that  the  de- 
ceased was  at  the  time  insane,  or  in  such  a  state  of  mental  imbecility  as  to  render 
her  entirely  incapable  of  executing  a  valid  deed.  It  is  sufficient  to  show  that, 
from  her  sickness  and  infirmities,  she  was  at  the  time  in  a  condition  of  great 
mental  weakness,  and  that  there  was  gross  inadequacy  of  consideration  for  the 
conveyance.  From  these  circumstances,  imposition  or  undue  influence  will  be 
inferred.  In  the  case  of  Harding  vs.  Wheaton,  reported  in  the  2d  of  Mason,  a  con- 
veyance executed  by  one  to  his  son-in-law,  for  a  nominal  consideration,  and 
upon  a  verbal  arrangement  that  it  should  be  considered  as  a  trust  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  grantor,  and  after  his  death  for  the  benefit  of  his  heirs,  was,  after  his 
death  set  aside,  except  as  security  for  actual  advances  and  charges,  upon  applica- 
tion of  his  heirs,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  obtained  from  him  when  his  mind  was 
enfeebled  by  age  and  other  causes.  "Extreme  weakness,"  said  Mr.  Justice 
Story,  in  deciding  the  case,  "will  raise  an  almost  necessary  presumption  of  im- 
position, even  when  it  stops  short  of  legal  incapacity  ;  and  though  a  contract,  in 
the  ordinary  course  of  things,  reasonably  made  with  such  a  person  might  be  ad- 
mitted to  stand,  yet  if  it  should  appear  to  be  of  such  a  nature  as  that  such  a  per- 
son could  not  be  capable  of  measuring  its  extent  or  importance,  its  reasonableness 
or  its  value,  fully  and  fairly,  it  cannot  be  tliat  the  law  is  so  much  at  variance  with 
common  sense  as  to  uphold  it."  The  case  subsequently  came  before  this  court  ; 
and,  in  deciding  it,  Mr.  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  speaking  of  this,  and.  it  would 
seem,  of  other  deeds  executed  by  the  deceased,  said  :  "If  these  deeds  were  ob- 


ANOTHER    EX-CABINET    OFFICER    BROUGHT    TO    GRIEF.  491 

tained  by  the  exercise  of  undue  influence  over  a  man  whose  mind  had  ceased  to 
be  the  safe  guide  of  his  actions,  it  is  against  conscience  for  him  who  has  obtained 
them  to  derive  any  advantage  from  them.  It  is  the  peculiar  province  of  a  court 
of  conscience  to  set  them  aside.  That  a  court  of  equity  will  interpose  in  such  a 
case  is  among  its  best-settled  principles"  {Harding  v.  Handy,  11  Wheat.,  125). 

The  same  doctrine  is  announced  in  adjudged  cases,  almost  without  number; 
and  it  may  be  stated  as  settled  law,  that  whenever  there  is  great  weakness  of 
mind  in  a  person  executing  a  conveyance  of  land,  arising  from  age,  sickness,  or 
any  other  cause,  though  not  amounting  to  absolute  disqualification,  and  the  con 
sideration  given  for  the  property  is  grossly  inadequate,  a  court  of  equity  will 
upon  proper  and  seasonable  application  of  the  injured  party,  or  his  representa- 
tives or  heirs,  interfere  and  set  the  conveyance  aside.  And  the  present  case  comes 
directly  within  this  principle. 

In  the  recent  case  of  Kempson  v.  Ashbee,  10  Ch.  Cas.,  15,  decided  in  the  Court 
of  Appeal  in  Chancery  in  England,  two  bonds  executed  by  a  young  woman,  liv- 
ing at  the  time  with  her  mother  and  stepfather,  one,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  as 
surety  for  her  stepfather's  debt,  and  the  other,  at  the  age  of  twenty-nine,  to 
secure  the  amount  of  a  judgment  recovered  on  the  first  bond,  were  set  aside  as 
against  her,  on  the  ground  that  she  had  acted  in  the  transaction  without  independ- 
ent advice  ;  one  of  the  justices  observing  that  the  Court  had  endeavored  to  pre- 
vent persons  subject  to  influence  from  being  induced  to  enter  into  transactions 
without  advice  of  that  kind.  The  principle  upon  which  the  court  acts  in  such 
cases,  of  protecting  the  weak  and  dependent,  may  always  be  invoked  on  behalf 
of  persons  in  the  situation  of  the  deceased  spinster  in  this  case  of  doubtful  sg.nity, 
living  entirely  by  herself,  without  friends  to  take  care  of  her,  and  conflned  to  her 
house  by  sickness.  As  well  on  this  ground  as  on  the  ground  of  weakness  of 
mind  and  gross  inadequacy  of  consideration,  we  think  the  case  a  proper  one  for 
the  interference  of  equity,  and  that  a  cancellation  of  the  deed  should  be  decreed. 

The  objection  of  the  lapse  of  time — six  years — before  bringing  the  suit  cannot 
avail  the  defendant.  If  during  this  time,  from  the  death  of  witnesses  or  other 
causes,  a  full  presentation  of  the  facts  of  the  case  had  become  impossible,  there 
might  be  force  in  the  objection.  But  as  there  had  been  no  change  in  this  respect 
to  the  injury  of  the  defendant,  it  does  not  lie  in  his  mouth,  after  having,  in  the 
manner  stated,  obtained  the  property  of  the  deceased,  to  complain  that  her  heir 
did  not  sooner  bring  suit  against  him  to  compel  its  surrender.  There  is  no  statu- 
tory bar  in  the  case.  The  improvements  made  have  not  cost  more  than  the 
amount  which  a  reasonable  rent  of  the  property  would  have  produced,  and  the 
complainant,  as  we  understand,  does  not  object  to  allow  the  defendant  credit  for 
them.  And  as  to  the  small  amount  paid  on  the  execution  of  the  conveyance,  it 
is  suflacent  to  observe  that  the  complainant  received  from  the  administrator  of  the 
deceased's  estate  only  $113.42  ;  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  knew  that 
this  sum  constituted  any  portion  of  the  money  obtained  from  the  defendant.  A 
decree  must,  therefore,  be  entered  for  a  cancellation  of  the  deed  of  the  deceased 
and  a  surrender  of  the  property  to  the  complainant,  but  without  any  accoimting 
for  back  rents,  the  improvements  being  taken  as  an  equivalent  for  them. 

Decree  reversed  and  cause  remanded,  with  directions  to  enter  a  decree  as  thus  stated. 


I 
492  PRESIDENTIAL    LUXURIES. 


PRESIDENTIAL  LUXURIES. 


HOW  THE  PEOPLE  ARE  TAXED  TO  PAY    FOR    DOGS,   COUPES,  CARRIAGES,   CRO- 
.      QUET  SETS,  CHINA  DINNER  SERVICE,  ETC.,  FOR  THE  WHITE  HOUSE. 


R.  B.  HAYES  IN  A  NEW  ROLE. 


The  simple  habits  and  straightforward  honesty  of  Democratic  Presidents 
made  the  White  House  the  pride  of  every  citizen.  From  the  humblest  to  the 
highest,  all  were  welcomed  there  with  a  cordial  and  unaffected  hospitality.  The 
inmates  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  in  the  good  old  Democratic  days,  treated  all 
visitors  alike,  whether  they  were  the  laboring  poor,  clad  in  homespun,  or  for- 
tune's favorites  done  up  in  broadcloth,  or  in  satin  and  silk.  In  those  days  the 
President  of  the  United  States  was  proud  to  acknowledge  himself  the  servant  of 
the  people,  and  not  their  master. 

But  all  this  has  changed.  Under  Republican  rule  official  snobbery  at  the 
White  House  has  made  that  home  of  the  Presidents  offensive  to  plain  and  honest 
people.  Democratic  simplicity  has  been  superseded  by  a  code  of  mannerism 
about  as  little  understood  by  the  multitude  as  were  the  mysteries  of  the  Holy 
Vehm  by  Continental  rustics  in  the  middle  ages.  But  while  the  general  public 
know  but  little  about  the  aristocratic  social  system  of  the  White  House,  by  rea- 
son of  the  exclusiveness  of  its  inmates,  even  less  is  known  about  its  financial 
management. 

With  the  introduction  of  this  imperial  code  of  manners,  came  that  mania  for 
luxury  and  extravagance  which  has  brought  such  scandal  upon  the  Executive 
Mansion  of  late  years.  With  the  advent  of  Grant  came  the  gift-maker.  Thou- 
sands of  costly  presents  were  showered  upon  him.  Hambletonian  colts,  bull 
pups,  gold-tipped  cigars,  expensive  libraries  and  the  like,  were  among  the  gifts 
that  found  their  way  to  the  White  House.  The  giver  was  almost  invariably  re- 
warded with  a  fat  oflBce  or  a  remunerative  contract. 

None  but  the  elect  were  permitted  to  visit  the  ofl&cial  dog  kennels,  or  the  offi- 
cial stables,  built  by  Babcock  at  a  cost  to  the  people  of  $10,000.  The  display  of 
blooded  animgfls,  poultry,  ponies,  coupes,  splendid  carriages,  sulkies,  drags,  and 
other  costly  things,  was  amazing.  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  all  of  this 
expensive  stud,  including  the  dogs  and  their  keepers,  were  maintained  by  the 
taxpayers  of  the  country. 

A  few  vouchers,  taken  at  random  from  the  expense  accounts  of  the  White 
House,  will  serve  to  show  how  the  taxpayers  were  made  to  foot  the  bills  for  these 
official  luxuries: 


PRESIDENTIAL   LUXURIES.  493 

THE  OFFICIAL  DOG. 

[Form  8.1 
Appropriation  for  improvement  and  care  of  public  grounds. 
The  United  States  (for  sundries)  to  Patrick  Sweeny,  Dr.,  1872.     Sept.   30 — 
For  board  and  care  of  dog  for  July,  August  and  September,  three  months, 
at  $10.     Application:  used  in  place  of  watchman.     $30  (receipted  as  above). 
Paid  by  check  No.  328;  dated  September  30,  1872,  for  $41,   on  treasurer, 
Washington. 
I  certify  that  the  above  account  is  correct  and  just,  the  articles  to  be  (or  have 
been)  accounted  for  in  my  return  for  the  third  quarter  of  1872. 

O.  E.  BABCOCK,  Major  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A. 

I  THE  president's  COUPE. 

[Form  8.] 
Appropriation  for  improvement  and  care  of  public  grounds. 
The  United  States  (for  repairing  coupe)  To  John  McDermott&  Bros.,  Dr.,  1871. 
Oct.  31st— For  repairing,  trimming  and  painting  government  coupe,  $173.50. 
Received  at  Washington,  this  Nov.  3d,  1871,  from  Major  O.  E.  Babcock,  Corps 
of  Engineers,  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  and  fifty-one-hundredth 
dollars,  in  full  payment  of  the  above  account.     Check  No.  76,  dated  Nov.  3d, 
1871,  on  treasurer  at  Washington,  for  $173.50. 

(Signed  in  duplicate)  JOHN  McDERMOTT  &  BROS. 

I  certify  the  above  account  is  correct  and  just. 

O.  E.  BABCOCK,  Major  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A. 

[Form  8.] 
Appropriation  for  improvement  and  care  of  public  grounds. 
The  United  States  (for  repairs)  To  J.  McDermott  &  Bros.,  Dr.,  1872.     May  31— 
For  repairing  coupe,  office  carriage  and  buggy,  from  Aug.  8th,  1871,  to 
May  31st,  1872,  $169.15. 
Received,  June  6th,  1872,  from  Major  O.  E.  Babcock,  Corps  of  Engineers,  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  and  fifteen-one-hundredth  dollars,  in  full  pay- 
ment of  the  above  account.      Check  No.  255,  dated  June  5th,  1872,  on  treasurer 
at  Washington,  for  $169.15. 

JOHN  McDERMOTT  &  BROS. 
I  certify  that  the  above  accoimt  is  correct  and  just. 

0.  E.  BABCOCK,  Major  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A. 

[Form  8.] 
Appropriation  for  improvement  and  care  of  public  grounds. 
The  United  States  (for  repairs)  To  John  McDermott  &  Bros.,  Dr.,  1872.    Sept. 
25th — For  thoroughly  repairing,  trimming  and  painting,  including  new  wheels, 
axles,  lamps  and  trimming  complete.     Application:  "on  coupe."  $550. 
Received  at  Washington,  D.  C,  this  Oct.  19th,  1872,  from  Major  O.  E.  Bab- 
cock, Corps  of  Engineers,  the  sum  of  five  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  in  full  pay- 
ment of  the  above  account.      Check  No.  408,  October  19th,  1872,  on  treasurer  at 
Washington,  for  $550. 

(Signed  in  duplicate)  JOHN  McDERMOTT  &  BROS. 

I  certify  that  the  above  account  is  just  and  correct. 

O.  E.  BABCOCK,  Major  of  Engineers  U.  S.  A. 


494  PRESIDENTIAL   LUXURIES. 

[Form  8.] 
Appropriation  for  improvement  and  care  of  public  grounds. 
The  United  States  (for  repairs)  To  John  McDermott  <&  Bros.,  Dr.,  1873.     July 
3d  to  Nov.  30th — For  painting,   trimming  and    necessary    repairs   on    car- 
riage and  huggy.     Application  :  office  use.     $315.50. 
Receipted  as  above,  Jan.   39th,    1873.      Check  No.  476,   Jan.  39th,  1873,  on 
treasurer  at  Washington,  for  $315.50. 

I  certify  that  the  above  account  is  just  and  correct,  the  articles  to  be  (or  have 
been)  accounted  for  in  my  return  for  the  first  quarter  of  1873. 

O.  E.  BABCOCK,  Major  of  Engimeers,  U.  S.  A. 

It  will  appear  from  these  vouchers  that  the  carriage  cobbler  cost  the  taxpayers 
almost  as  much  as  the  carriage  builder  ;  and  that  the  elevation  of  the  dog  to  the 
responsible  post  of  watchman  brought  the  canine  and  human  species  in  direct 
competition  for  positions  of  honor  and  trust  "near  the  throne." 

The  aesthetic  tastes  of  the  Presidential  household  have  greatly  changed  since 
the  retirement  of  Grant.  When  the  Electoral  Commission  decided  to  give  Hayes 
the  office  to  which  Mr.  Tilden  had  been  elected,  the  coimtry  was  assured  that  the 
manners  and  morals  of  the  White  House  would  be  radically  improved.  Grant 
had  been  profligate  in  his  tastes.  He  had  spent  a  fortune  on  his  private  table, 
gave  rich  entertainments,  and  the  crowd  at  the  White  House  had  con- 
sumed vast  quantities  of  strong  liquors  and  fine  cigars.  When  Hayes  took 
Mr.  Tilden's  seat  an  air  of  godlinesss  was  assumed  by  the  new  incum- 
bents. Wines  and  other  abominations  were  banished  from  the  Executive 
Mansion.  Pious  people  rejoiced.  Religion  and  morality  had  found  a 
home  at  the  White  House,  and  nothing  stronger  than  ApoUinaris  water  was 
allowed  there.  In  a  short  time  there  was  a  lapse  from  godliness  to  sin — from 
ApoUinaris  water  to  vulgar  whisky  and  strong  wines.  The  Russian  Grand  Dukes, 
Alexis  and  Constantine,  were  dined  in  state  at  the  Executive  Mansion.  The 
moral  ideas  of  the  fraudulent  President  vanished  before  these  scions  of  a  royal 
house.  Liquors  flowed  in  abundance,  and  there  was  a  high  old  time  at  the  White 
House.  The  Grand  Dukes  departed  for  Russia  and  the  Hayes  household  again 
settled  down  to  their  psalm-singing  and  spring  water. 

Mr.  Hayes  soon  discovered  a  taste  for  innocent  sports,  for  works  of  art  and 
refined  luxury.  The  taste  of  his  household  ran  in  the  same  direction.  Having  a 
salary  of  only  fifty  thousand  dollaes  a  year,  he  could  not  think  of  gratify- 
ing this  taste  at  his  own  expense.  So  he  decided  to  make  a  raid  on  the  Federal 
treasury.  This  was  shortly  after  his  inauguration.  The  healthful  and  innocent 
game  of  croquet  was  in  fashion.  He  could  liave  bought  a  set  for  $10,  but  it  was 
agreed  that  nothing  but  box-wood  halls  would  answer  for  the  White  House,  and 
they  would  cost  six  dollars  more — a  drain  that  his  private  fortune  could  never  bear. 
The  following  voucher  will  show  how  he  obtained  them  at  the  expense  of  the  tax- 
payers. It  will  be  observed  that  this  purchase  is  brought  under  the  head  of 
''Repairs  and  Fuel"  for  the  Executive  Mansion,  a  simple  device  that  no  one  but 
a  Christian  statesman  like  Mr.  Hayes  could  invent. 


PRESIDENTIAL    LUXURIES. 


495 


THE   OFFICIAL   CROQUET   SET. 

[Form  8.] 
Appropriation   for   Repairs,  Fuel,  etc.,  Executive  Mansion,  1878. 
States  (for  furniture)  to  J.  Bradley  Adams,  Dr. 


The  United 


Designation. 

Application. 

Cash.      . 

Dollars.    |  Cents. 

1877 
AprD 
July 

24. 
10. 

For  1  Set  Croquet 
"     8  Boxwood  Balls 

Refurnishing 
Ex.  Mansion 

10 
6 

00 
00 

$16 

00 

Received  at  Washington,  D.  C,  this  13th  day  of  July,  1877,  from  Lieut. -Col. 
T.  L.  Casey,  corps  of  Engineers,  the  sum  of  sixteen  Dollars  and  —  cents,  in  full 
payment  of  the  above  account. 

Check  No.  634,  dated  July  13th,  1877,  on  Treasury  of  the  United  States  for  $16. 
(Signed  in  duplicate) 

J.  BRADLEY  ADAMS. 

I  certify  that  the  above  account  is  correct  and  just,  the  articles  to  be  (or  have 
been)  accounted  for  in  my  return  for  the  3d  quarter  of  1877. 

THOMAS  LINCOLN  CASEY, 

Lieut. -Col.  of  Engineers. 

At  a  later  date  Mr.  Hayes  became  dissatisfied  with  his  carriage.  He  wanted  a 
more  costly  vehicle — a  luxurious  Rockaway,  capable  of  holding  a  large  family. 
So  the  disbursing  officer  of  the  White  House  was  ordered  to  buy  one  and  have  it 
charged  to  the  Government. 

The  purchase  was  made  at  a  cost  of  $800  to  the  taxpayers  of  the  country  as  the 
following  voucher  shows : 

THE   OFFICIAL   ROCKAWAY. 


Rept. 


No.  213,467. 
W.  K. 


Crook,  Dis.  Agent, 

Ex.  Man.  3d  and  4th  quarter,  1878. 
[Executive  Office.] 

To  Andrew  J.  Joyce,  Dr., 
Carriage  Manufacturer,  Nos.  412,  414,  416  Fourteenth  street. 

July  15th.    To  6  seat-pass.  Rockaway $800.00 

Rec'd  payment, 

ANDREW  J.  JOYCE. 
August  25th,  1878. 

It  has  been  whispered  that,  in  view  of  an  early  retirement  to  less  exciting  scenes, 
this  carriage  has  already  been  sent  to  Ohio  to  be  stored. 

IMPERIAL  CROCKERY. 

In  July,  1879,  the  Hayes  family  determined  to  put  in  practical  shape  a  long  cher- 
ished scheme  to  stock  the  Executive  Mansion  with  crockery  suited  to  the  moral 
tone  and  elevated  tastes  that  prevailed  there. 

The  Fraudulent  President  had  frequently  cheated  the  taxpayers  by  saddling  on 
the  Government  the  cost  of  luxuries  purchased  for  his  own  private  enjoyment ; 
but,  like  the  proofs  that  showed  his  defeat  in  1876,  he  no  doubt  considered  the 
evidence  of  this  petty  plundering  as  aliunde.    At  all  events,  it  was  settled  that  the 


496  PRESIDENTIAL    LUXURIES. 

Hayes  family  must  have  a  new  dinner  set,  and  that  the  government  must  pay  for 
it.  Tlie  mania  for  rare  China  was  raging  at  the  "White  House,  and  accordingly, 
negotiations  were  opened  with  the  Havilands  of  Limoges,  France,  and  estimates 
and  plans  and  prices  were  agreed  upon  for  a  dinner  set  to  be  made  of  that  exquisite 
material.  There  was  a  stipulation  in  the  contract  that  the  enormous  price  named 
was  exclusive  of  customs  duties.  Mr.  Hayes  must  see  to  it  that  the  goods  were 
smuggled  in  by  the  customs  oflScers  in  New  York,  or  pay  the  duty  himself.  The 
dinner  set  was  made  and  is  now  at  the  White  House.  Every  piece  in  the  service 
is  a  work  of  art.  Each  one  is  decorated  differently,  all  representing  American 
game  birds,  animals,  fish  and  hunting  scenes.  The  American  coat-of-arms  is 
painted  conspicuously  on  every  dish. 

When  the  contract  was  made  Mr.  Hayes  agreed  to  employ  an  American  artist 
to  make  the  designs.  After  the  designs  were  completed,  the  American  decorator 
was  paid  $3,000  by  the  French  manufactures.  Mr.  Hayes  refused  to  reimburse 
them,  and  in  consequence,  they  claim  that  they  make  no  profit  on  their  work. 

The  following  transcripts  of  papers,  the  originals  of  which  are  in  the  secret 
archives  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  show  all  the  details  of  this  remarkable 
transaction. 

THE  OFFICIAL  DECORATED  CHINA  DINNER  SERVICE. 

Haviland  &  Co.,  45  Barclay  Street,         ) 

Limoges.  New  York,  January  19th,  1879.  j" 

Mr.  T.  L.  Casey,  Lieut.-Col.  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A.  : 

Sir:  We  inclose  detailed  estimate  for  dinner  set  for  Executive  Mansion,  to  be 
of  our  very  best  quality  of  porcelain  and  decorated  by  our  first  artists ;  in  all  re- 
spects equal  in  quality  to  the  samples  submitted  to  her  excellency,  Mrs.  Hayes. 
We  will  deliver  the  set  in  the  Mansion.  The  figures  quoted  are,  of  course,  based 
on  the  understanding  that  we  can  import  the  set  free  of  duty. 

We  have  included  in  the  cost  of  each  article  the  price  of  the  crest,  thus  the 
dinner  plates  cost  $34.85  per  dozen,  and  the  crests  $15. 

If  you  decide  to  give  us  the  order  please  do  not  forget  to  send,  at  the  same 
time,  the  clippings  of  ferns  and  the  photograph  of  toilet  set  the  writer  spoke  to 
you  about.  Yours  respectfully, 

HAVILAND  &  CO., 

By  Albert  A.  Love,  Att'y 

Haviland  &  Co.,  45  Barclay  Street,         ) 

Limoges.  New  York,  January  19th,  1879.  j" 

Estimate  for  Dinner  Set  for  Executive  Marmon. 

10  dozen  dinner  plates,  flat,  plain,  8f  pouce.  Decoration :  Pearl  grey 
on  border,  with  line  of  dead  gold ;  rich  Persian  border,  by  Renard,  in 
rim  of  plate  in  gold  and  colors,  with  crest  of  U.  S.  and  figures  1879 
in  gold,  at  $49.85 $498  50 

5  dozen  soup  plates,  deep  plain,  8f  pouce;  same  decoration,  at  $49.85,      349  25 

5  dozen  fish  plates,  shell  shape,  1\  pouce;  color  under  glaze,  grand  fire 
and  marine  plants  and  shells,  by  Pallandre,  at  $39. 70 198  50 

5  dozen  game  plates,  engraved  border,  8  pouce;  decoration  similar  to 
dinner  plate,  and  game  birds  in  center,  by  Bellit,  at  $59. 90. 299  50 

5  dozen  dessert  plates,  coufe  (thin),'8  pouce ;  color  under  glaze,  grand 

fire,  and  subjects  by  Bracquemond,  with  crest,  etc.,  at  $75.35 376  75 

6  dozen  dessert  plates,  coufe  (thin),  1%  pouce;  color  under  glaze,  grand 
fire,  with  flower  and  fern  centers,   by  Lyssac,    with  crest,  etc.,  at 

$51.70 , 258  50 


PRESIDENTIAL   LUXURIES.  497 

4  fruit  baskets,  Saxon  round ;  color  under  glaze,  grand  fire,  flowers  in 

panels,  by  Chabunrier,  with  crest,  etc. ,  at  $11.^6 45  00 

2  fruit  baskets,  Saxon  oral;  same  decoration;  assorted  colors,  at  $24,35.  48  70 

4  Jardinieres  Meissen  2d;  same  decoration;  assorted  colors,  at  $15.40..  61  60 

2  Jardinieres  Meissen  1st;  same  decoration;  assorted  colors,  at  $29.60.  59  20 
6  Bon-Bon  stands,  laced  edge;  fern  decoration  in  centre,  by  Lyssac,  at 

$10.15 60  90 

4  Bon-Bon  stands,  laced  edge,  high  foot;  same  decoration,  at  $10.15.. _  40  60 
30  pairs  after-dinner  coffees,  anchor  shape  (thin,  deep  saucers),  Persian 

borders,  by  Renard,  with  crest,  etc.,  at  $4.95 148  50 

30  pairs  teas,  Parisian  (thin) ;  same  decoration,  at  $5. 85. 175  50 

30  pairs  after-dinner  coffees,  chrystal  (thin),  rich  decoration,  by  Joch- 

um,  with  crest,  etc. ;  cups  tinted  inside;  12  colors,  at  $7,50 225  00 

30  pairs  teas,  Parisian  1st,  at  $8.35. ^ - 250  50 

In  United  States  currency _ $2,996  50^ 

ARTICLES  OF  AGREEMENT. 

Articles  of  agreement  entered  into  this  20th  day  of  February,  1879,  between 
Lieut. -Colonel  Thomas  Lincoln  Casey,  Corps  of  Engineers,  United  States  Army,, 
for  and  in  behalf  of  the  United  States,  of  the  first  part,  and  David  Haviland, 
Charles  E.  Haviland,  and  Theo.  Haviland,  partners,  doing  business  under  the 
firm  name  of  Haviland  &  Co.,  of  New  York,  in  the  county  of  New  York,  state  of 
New  York,  of  the  second  part. 

This  agreement  witnesseth  that  the  said  parties  have  mutually  covenanted  and 
agreed,  to  and  with  each  other  in  the  manner  following,  namely:  That  the  said 
Haviland  &  Co.  shall,  in  conformity  with  their  proposal  and  estimate  hereunto 
attached,  and  which  form  a  part  of  this  contract,  and,  with  the  samples  sub- 
mitted by  them  for  inspection,  make  and  complete,  in  the  best  artistic  manner  of 
their  manufactory,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  party  of  the  first,  and  deliver  in 
complete  order  at  the  Executive  Mansion,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  D.  C,  a  por- 
celain service  for  the  state  dinner  table  of  the  said  Mansion,  comprising  the  fol- 
lowing pieces,  and  at  the  prices  annexed,  which  prices  are  to  be  exclusive  of  im- 
port duty;  namely: 
10    dozen   Dinner   Plates,  @,    $49.85 $498  50 

5  "      Soup  "  "        49.85. 249  25 

5      "      Fish  "  "        39.70 -..    198  50 

5      "      Game  "  "        59.90... 299  50 

5      "      Dessert        "  "        75.35„. 376  75 

5  "            "  "          "  51.70 258  50 

4  Fniit  Baskets,  "  11.25.. 45  00 

2      *'           "  "  24.35... 48  70 

4  Jardinieres,  "  15.40 61  60 

2            "  "  29.60.-- - 59  20 

6  Bon  Bon  Stands,  "        10.15... 60  90 

4        "  "  "        10.15 - -.     40  60 

30  Pairs  after-dinner  Coffees,  @  $4.95 148  50 

30      "     Teas,  "    5.85.- 175  50 

30       "     after-dinner  Coffees,  "    7.50 225  00 

30       "     Teas,  "    8.35 250  50 

Being,  for  the  whole,  the  sum  of  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety -six  dol- 
ars  and  fifty  cents  ($2,996yV7y)-  32 


498  PRESIDENTIAL    LUXURIES. 

That  the  above  cost's  shall  include  the  marking  upon  each  piece  ordered,  of  the 
eeat-of-arms  of  the  United  States,  as  per  sample  furnished,  together  with  the  year 
1879,  beneath  the  same,  in  small  figures. 

That  the  said  Haviland  &  Co.  shall  commence  the  manufacture  of  the  articles 
Serein  contracted  for  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  signing  of  this  contract,  and  de- 
Kver  the  same  within  six  months  from  the  commencement  of  the  work,  or  as 
much  sooner  as  is  practicable. 

That  payment  shall  be  made  when  the  articles  shall  have  been  delivered  and  ac- 
eepted 

In  witness  whereof  the  undersigned  have  hereunto  placed  their  hands  and  seals, 
the  day  and  date  first  above  written. 

THOMAS  LINCOLN  CASEY, 

Lieut. -Col.  of  Engineers,  U.  S.  A.     [Seal.] 
HAVILAND  &  CO., 

By  Theodore  Haviland,  Att'y  [Seal.] 

Witnesses : 

e.  f.  conklin, 
William  L.  Briggs, 
E.  Campbell, 

THE  TAX-PAYERS  FOOT  THE  BILL. 

This  rare  set  of  dinner  service  is  charged  to  the  furniture  account  of  the  Execu- 
tive Mansion,  and  the  taxpayers  of  the  United  States  foot  the  bill.  The  total  cost 
of  this  royal  outfit  is  about  $15,000.  When  Mr.  Hayes  retires  from  the  White 
Hbuse,  like  the  Rockaway  and  the  croquet  set,  this  china  service  will  find  its  way 
to  Ohio,  to  become  an  heirloom  in  the  family  of  the  First  Fraudulent  President. 

The  people  will  never  know  how  many  articles  for  personal  use  have  been  paid 
for  by  the  government,  under  the  Grant  and  Hayes'  administrations,  until  a  Dem- 
ocratic President  is  elected. 


EXECUTIVE    MANSION.  499 


EXECUTIYE  MANSION. 


Total  expenditures  on  account  of  the  Executive  Mansion,  from  March  3d,  1779, 
to  June  30th,  1876,  reported  to  the  House  of  Representatives  by  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  May  23,  1878. 

Furniture. 

Prom  March  2,  1797,  to  February  20, 1861 $281,052.92 

"     February  20, 1861,  to  March  3,  1873 $242,980  82 

Bepair%. 

From  March  3,  1807,  to  March  2, 1861 395,073  01 

"     March  2,  1861,  to  April  20,  1870 156,948  81 

Repairs,  Furniture  and  Fuel. 
From  March  3, 1871,  to  June  23,  1874 161,845  00 

L^ary. 

From  Sept.  30,  1850,  to  March  2,  1861  3,998  46 

"     March  3,  1861,  to  March  1, 1862 251  54 

Improvement  of  Grounds. 

From  April  20,  1818,  to  March  2, 1861 149,773  76 

"     March  2,  1861,  to  March  3, 1871 119,297  51 

Watchman. 

From  March  3,  1851,  to  February  20, 1861 11,601  00 

"     February20,  1861,  to  July  12,  1870 14,694  07 

Furnace  Keeper. 

From  March  3,  1855,  to  February  20, 1861 2,842  00 

"     February  20, 1861,  to  July  12, 1870 .• 6,527  50 

From  Aug.  31,  1852,  to  Februarj'  20,  1861 .* 10,479  00 

"     February  20,  1861,  to  July  12, 1870 10,834  63 

Fuel 

From  March  3,  1855,  to  March  2, 1861 8,200  00 

"     March  2,  1861,  to  July  15,  1870 38,929  03 

Policeman. 
None  orevlous  to  1866. 
From  July  28, 1866,  to  July  12, 1870 15,346  58 

Repairs  of  Summer  Residence. 

From  July  12, 1864 3,000  00 

Surxey  of  Land  foi'  Site  fo^r  President's  Mansion. 

1867 2,89131 

Underdraining  Grounds  and  Garden. 

1866 994  21 

Total  Expenditures  from  the  Commencement  of  the  Government. 

March  2, 1797,  to  March  2,  1861— 72  years $863,020  15 

The  above  includes  building  the  White  House  and  rebuilding  same. 
From  March  2, 1861,  to  June  23,  1874—13  years $773,040  51 

Very  nearly  as  much  spent  in  thirteen  years  Republican  rule  as  in  seventy-two 
years  previous,  being  less  than  one-fifth  of  the  time  only. 

The  average  per  annum  for  72  years  preceding  1861,  $11,986.39. 

Average  per  annum  for  13  years,  1861  to  1874,  $59,387.73. 

An  increase  of  $47,401.34  per  annum,  or  an  average  increase  of  395  per  cent. 
And  in  this  connection  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  Executive  Mansion  was  con- 
structed and  rebuilt  previous  to  1861.  The  amounts  $65,441.90  lavished  upon  it 
since  that  time,  and  especially  since  the  commencement  of  Grant's  administration, 
and  during  the  incumbency  of  Mr.  Hayes,  have  been  spent  for  the  comfort  and 
luxuries  of  the  occupants,  and  not  for  permanent  public  improvements. 


500 


EXPENSES    OF    THE    WHITE    HOUSE. 


EXPENSES  OF  THE  WHITE  HOUSE, 


Executive  Mansion. 


Annual  repairs,  including  painting,  etc 

Kef umishmg  interior,  etc 

Care  and  improvement  of  grounds  south  of  house  

Kepairs,  etc. ,  of  greenhouse  and  plants 

Fuel,  in  part  for  President's  house 

Books  for  library         "  "      ;.. 

Iron  fencing  around  grounds  

New  stables  to  replace  those  torn  down  to  make  room  for 

Treasury  

Care  of  nursery,  etc 

For  trees,  tree  stakes,  lime  and  stock  for  nursery 

For  removing  snow  and  ice 

For  flower  pots,  twine,  baskets,  and  lycopodinm 

For  filling,  leveling  and  improving  grounds  in  front  of 

Executive  Mansion 


Last  4  years  of 
Democratic  rule. 


Total 


Last  12  years  of 
Republican  rule. 


$32,000  00 

$302,345  00 

20,000  00 

5,500  00 

113,719  25 

1,000  00 

37,000  00 

7,300  00 

37,000  00 

1,000  00 

82,000  00 

20,000  00 

7,56660 



13,000  00 

5,000  00 

3,500  00 



10,000  00 

$86,700  00 

$611,064  25 

Salakies  op  Emplotkbs  in  Executive  Mansion- 

Night  watchmen , 

Door  keepers 

Furnace  keeper 

Policeman 

Usher 


$3,600  00 
18,000  00 
1,565  00 


$14,400  00 

19,360  00 

9,648  00 

18,440  00 

22,000  00 


Total. 


$23,165  00 


$83,848  00 


Salakies  op  Officers  ik  the  Executive  Office— 

President  of  the  United  States 

Secretary  to  sign  land  warrants 

Private  Secretary 

Assist.  Private  Secretary 

Clerk's  Executive  (2) 

Clerks,  J4,  ^»  3=^ 

Steward 

Messengers  (5) 

Stenographer  (1) 

Telegraph  Operator 

Contingent  expenses,  including  stationery 


Total. 


$100,000  00 

8,756 '66 


4,200  00 
3,150  00 


2,625  00 


$118,725  00 


$500,000  00 
7,500  00 


176,200  00 


25.500  00 


$709,900  00 


RECAPITULATION. 


Executive  Mansion 

Salaries  to  employees  in  same. 
Salaries  to  officers  in  same — 


Totals. 


$86,700  00 
23,165  00 
118,725  00 


$228,590  00 


$611,064  25 

83,848  00 

709,200  00 


$1,404,112  25 


Expenditure  during  four  years  of  Democratic  rule,  from  1857  to  1861 $228,590_00 

Expenditure  during  twelve  years  of  Republican  power  and  misrule,  from  March  4, 

1869,  to  March  4, 1881 ,    $1,404,118  26 


Average  annual  expenditure  under  Republican  rule $117,009^ 

Average  annual  expenditure  under  Democratic  rule $57,147,60 

Average  annual  saving  under  Democratic  administration  $68,861  86 


THE    BOTANICAL    GARDEN.  501 


THE  BOTANICAL  GARDEN. 


MR.    GARFIELD  INCREASES  THE  APPROPRIATIONS    FOR  BOUQUETS    AT    THE  WHITE 
HOUSE,  AND  FOR  FLORAL  GIFTS  BY  THE  PRESIDENTIAL  HOUSEHOLD. 


THE  BOUQUET  SHOP. 

The  Botanical  Garden  at  Washington,  which  is  used  amongst  other  purposes  to 
supply  bouquets  to  the  White  House,  and  for  presentation  by  the  occupants  of  the 
Presidential  mansion  to  distinguished  persons  for  social  entertainments,  has  grad- 
ually become  a  gr^at  annual  charge  to  the  tax-payers.  According  to  the  official 
reports  the  sum  spent  on  this  Bouquet  Shop,  from  the  commencement  of  Repub 
lican  rule  in  1861  to  the  present  year,  aggregates  $436,216.66.  During  the  admin- 
istration of  Lincoln  and  Johnson  the  appropriations  were  small,  not  averaging  to 
exceed  $11,828  per  annum,  including  the  erection  of  buildings.  The  increased 
Appropriations  for  this  official  luxury  were  begun  in  Grant's  administration,  and 
continued  extravagant  during  the  period  when  Mr.  James  Garfield  held  the  purse 
strings  as  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Appropriations  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, until  the  advent  of  the  Democratic  House,  when  they  were  reduced. 

The  first  great  increase  was  for  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30th,  1873,  being  also 
the  first  year  appropriated  for  after  Mr.  Garfield  became  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Appropriations.  The  amount  he  secured  for  this  project  in  that  year 
was  $43,646,  and  in  the  following  year  he  secured  the  increase  to  $56,646.  A 
•comparison  for  the  former  years  appropriated  when  Mr.  Garfield  was  Chairman 
of  the  Appropriation  Committee  with  those  appropriated  for  during  the  first  years 
of  the  Forty-fourth  and  Forty-fifth  Congresses  (when  the  House  was  Democratic) 
shows  the  former  to  have  been  $152,959  as  against  $69,795,  a  decrease  by  the 
Democratic  House  under  Mr.  Garfield's  appropriations  of  $83,164,  being  a  reduc- 
tion of  more  than  fifty-four  per  cent. 

Let  us  now  examine  the  cost  of  the  Botanical  Garden  from  the  first  year  of  its 
little  beginning  up  to  the  present  time,  and  make  the  comparison  between  its  cost 
previous  to  the  extravagant  expenditures  made  upon  it  by  the  Republicans  and 
the  cost  of  its  maintenance  since  1861.  The  first  appropriation  for  the  Garden 
appears  in  an  item  in  the  Act  of  1836.  The  total  expenditures  since  that  date 
were  as  follows  : 

EXPENDITURES  ON  ACCOUNT  OP  THE  BOTANICAL  GARDEN  FROM  1836  TO   1866. 

Buildings  and  Grounds $42,447.11 

Salaries 45,496.80 

Improvement  of  Grounds 20,600.00 

Bepairs 1,044.16 

Total  for  thirty  years ..$109,587.57 

Being  an  average  of  $3,653.92  per  year. 


502  THE    BOTANICAL    GARDEN. 

EXPENDITURES  ON  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  BOTANICAL  GARDEN  PROM  1866  TO  1877. 

Buildings  and  Grounds JlSSjlse-SS 

Salaries 121,590.07 

Improvement  of  Grounds 108,847.99' 

Bepairs 7,561.38^ 

Total  for  eleven  years $373,155.79 

Being  an  average  of  $33,923.00  per  year. 

In  other  words,  the  Botanical  Garden  since  1866  has  cost  ten  times  more  per  an- 
num to  support  than  it  did  before  that  period. 

Below  will  be  found  a  correct  statement  from  the  official  records  of  the  amounts 
annually  appropriated  for  the  Botanical  Garden  since  1861  : 

U.  S.  GOVERNMENT  EXPENSES  FOR  BOUQUET  SHOP  FOR  TWENTY   YEARS. 


Year  Ending 

Appboprijltions  for 
Botanical  Garden. 

Year  Ending 

Appropriations  for 
Botanical  Garden. 

1862 

$8,612  50 

1873 

$43,646  00 

1863 

8,412  50 

1874 

56,646  00 

1864 

8,421  50 

1875 

29,071  00 

1865 

9,445  80 

1876 

•23,596  00 

1866 

26,945  80 

1877 

♦16,450  00 

1867 

9,446  80 

1878 

*17,400  00 

1868 

16,645  80 

1879 

*20,450  00 

1869 

16,696  00 

1880....... 

*15,495  00 

1870 

25,296  96 

1881 

*18,883  00 

1871 

31,671  00 

1872 

32,986  00 

$436,216  66 

Years  appropriated  for  by  the  Democratic  House. 


DISTRICl'    OF    COLUMBIA.  S&S 


DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA. 


COMPARISON  OF  EXPENDITURES  BY  THE  GENERAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  DISTRICT 
OP  COLUMBIA  FOR  PUBLIC  PURPOSES,  PROM  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT TO  JUNE  30,  1876,  AS  REPORTED  TO  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTA- 
TIVES BY  THE  SECRETARY  OF  THE  TREASURY,  MAY  32,  1878. 

The  extravagant  expenditures  of  Republican  administrations  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  have  been  on  so  grand  a  scale  as  to  merit  and  receive  the  condem- 
nation of  the  people.  It  is  not  complained  of  that  the  government  should  pro- 
vide for  itself  the  necessary  buildings  and  conveniences  for  the  transaction  of  the 
public  business,  but  a  large  portion  of  the  money  chargeable  to  expenditures  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  has  been  stolen  by  the  rings  with  which  the  administra- 
tion of  Gen,  Grant,  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations  of  the 
House,  Mr.  Garfield,  were  on  intimate  relations. 

On  the  22d  of  May,  1878,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  made  a  report  to  the 
House  of  Representatives,  which  contained  all  the  public  expenditures  made  by 
the  United  States,  in  the  District  of  Columbia  for  public  purposes,  from  1797  to 
1876,  inclusive.     This  report  shows  the  following  facts : 

The  total  amount  expended  from  1797  to  1861,  a  period  of  64  years,  aggregated 
$35,478,899.40,  being  an  average  of  $554,357.80  per  year. 

The  total  amount  expended  in  the  District  of  Columbia  for  public  purposes, 
from  1861  to  1876  inclusive,  a  period  of  16  years,  aggregated  $56,663,496.47,  being 
at  the  rate  of  $5,541,468.53  per  year. 

Statement  of  expenditures  from  the  National  Treasury  in  the  District  of  Col- 
umbia for  streets  and  avenues. 

From  April  24,  1800  to  March  3,  1861,  $497,378.60,  61  years,  or  $8,153.75  per 
year. 

From  March  3,  1861  to  March  ^3,  1876,  15  years,  $3,534,930.96,  or  $235,662.06 
per  year. 

Comparison  by  year  of  expenditures  from  the  national  treasury  for  public  pur- 
poses in  the  District  of  Columbia  : 

EXPENDED. 

Year.  In 

1873 $8,041,458  56. 

1860 1,535,783  59.     Excess,  $6,505,674  97.     More  than  five  times  as  muck 

1874 5,135,901  01. 

1860 1,535,783  59.     Excess,  $3,600,117  42.     More  than  three  times  as  muck 

1875 6,468,753  64. 

1860 1,535,783  59.     Excess,  $4,932,970  05.     More  than  four  times  as  much. 

1876 5,050,770  95. 

1860 . .  1,535, 783  59.     Excess,  $4,514,987  36.   More  than  three  times  as  much 


504  DISTRICT    OF    COLUMBIA. 

These  figures  require  no  explanation — they  speak  for  themselves.  It  may  be 
attempted  to  reply  to  them  by  saying,  that  the  government  has  been  erecting  large 
and  costly  buildings  in  the  District  since  1861.  This  is  true;  but  it  is  also  true 
that  a  much  greater  number  of  public  buildings,  and  of  much  greater  value , 
were  erected  by  the  government  in  the  District  of  Columbia  previous  to  1861. 
For  example :  The  largest  and  most  costly  building  erected  by  the  government  is 
the  Capitol  of  the  United  States,  which  was  nearly  completed  previous  to  June 
30, 1861.  The  amount  expended  in  the  erection  of  the  old  and  new  Capitol,  and 
repairing  the  same,  was,  previous  to  June  30,  1861,  $9,225,000,  whilst  since  that 
date,  the  following  amount  only  has  been  expended  in  its  completion:  $2,470,000. 

In  addition  to  the  Capitol  building,  the  government  had,  previous  to  1861,  con- 
structed in  the  District  of  Columbia  the  court  house,  jail,  President's  house 
(building  and  rebuilding),  patent  oflQce,  post-office,  buildings  for  the  war,  navy, 
and  state  departments,  the  old  treasury  building  (and  had  nearly  completed  the  new 
treasury  building),  had  completed  observatory,  navy  yard,  arsenal,  and  the  bo- 
tanical garden  (partly  constructed).  Since  1861  the  government  has  commenced, 
but  not  yet  completed,  the  new  building  intended  for  the  state,  war  and  navy 
departments;  completed  the  building  for  the  treasury  department ;  erected  a 
small  building  for  the  department  of  agriculture;  also  a  small  building  for  a 
national  museum,  and  completed  the  interior  of  the  extension  to  the  patent  office. 

In  examining  the  expenditures  in  the  District  of  Columbia  by  the  government, 
since  1861,  it  will  be  found  that  they  have  not  been  in  a  great  degree  for  public 
improvements,  but  rather  temporary  and  contingent  expenses.  For  example, 
making  a  comparison  again  in  expenditures  for  the  Capitol  previous  to  and  since 
1861,  we  find  the  following  items  : 

Repairs,  for  34  years  to  March,  1861,  $347,468.85;  Repairs  for  14  years  from 
1861  to  1875,  $355,986.95. 

Furniture  for  61  years  to  1861,  $256,911.69;  Furniture  for  15  years  from  1861  to 
1876,  $425,884.32. 

Lighting  for  32  years  to  1861,  $425,426.49;  Lighting  for  14  years  from  1861  to 
1875,  $910,331.21. 

Heating  and  ventilating  for  30  years  to  1861,  $40,742.82;  Heg^ting  and  ventil- 
ating for  9  years  to  1871,  $257,841.57. 

Improvement  of  grounds  for  43  years  to  1859,  $224,012.41. 

Improvement  of  grounds  for  12  years  to  1876,  $1,410,246.00. 

Police  force  for  10  years  to  1861,  $65,273.77. 

Police  force  for  14  years  from  1861  to  1875,  $653,586.01. 

In  addition  there  are  such  items  as  the  following,  which  do  not  appear  previ- 
ous to  the  year  1861,  viz.:  Senate  stable,  $10,000;  labor,  $21,110;  police  uni- 
forms, $5,352.25,  and  the  like. 

MR.    GARFIELD   RESPONSIBLE   FOR   INCREASED   EXPENDITURES. 

A  comparison  of  the  year  previous  to  the  war  with  the  years  1873,  1874,  1875 
and  1876  (when  Mr.  Garfield  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations), 
of  the  expenditures  made  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  shows  the  following  enor- 
mous difference  : 

Comparison  by  years  of  expenditures  from  the  National  Treasury  for  pub- 
lic purposes  in  the  District  of  Columbia:    Expended  in 

YEAR. 

1873 $8,041,458.56 

1860 1,535,783.59 

Excess $6,505,674.97    More  than  five  times  as  much. 


DISTRICT    OP    COLUMBIA.  505 

1874 $5,135,901.01 

1860 1.535,783.59 

Excess $3,600,117.42  More  than  three  times  as  much 

1875 .....$6,468,753.64. 

1860 1,535,783.59' 

Excess .$4,932,970.05    More  than  four  times  as  much. 

1876 $5,050,770.95 

I860; 1,535,783.59 

Excess $4,514,987.36    More  than  three  times  as  much. 

The  comparisons  are  made  with  the  years  1873,  1874,  1875,  and  1876,  because 
Mr.  Garfield  was  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Appropriations,  which  made  the 
appropriations  for  those  years,  and  always  the  most  strenuous  advocate  of  ring 
interests  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Take  another  item  in  detail,  of  the  expenditures  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
namely,  for  streets  and  avenues  :  We  find  that  there  was  expended  for  those  pur- 
poses in  the  District  of  Columbia,  in  61  years,  from  April  24,  1800,  to  March  3, 
1861,  $497,378.60;  whilst  for  the  same  purposes  there  was  expended  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia  by  the  general  government,  for  15  years,  from  March  3,  1861,  to 
March  3,  1876,  $3,534,930.96,  or  an  average  of  $235,662.06  per  annum,  as  against 
$8,153.75  per  annum  for  the  years  preceding  the  war. 

In  addition  to  this  large  sum  expended  by  the  government  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  for  streets  and  avenues,  an  indebtedness  was  raised  of  $21,683,650.00, 
for  which  the  government  was  compelled  to  issue  its  bonds.  Nor  does  this  repre- 
sent the  total  amount  expended  in  the  District  of  Columbia  through  the  agency 
of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  which  exceeded  $35,000,000. 


506  APPROPRIATK  NS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 


APPROPRIATIONS  AND  EXPENDITURES. 


DEMOCRATIC  ECONOxMY  AND  REPUBLICAN  EXTRA- 
VAGANCE. 


The  profligate  expenditures  inaugurated  by  the  Republican  party  culminated 
in  Grant's  second  administration,  and,  to  a  considerable  extent,  were  checked  by 
the  incoming  of  the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives,  in  December,  1875. 

That  body,  as  far  as  it  had  the  power,  cut  down  expenditures  and  endeavored 
to  bring  back  the  government  to  the  economy  in  administration  which  prevailed 
before  the  new  era  of  Radical  corruption  and  wasteful  extravagance. 

DEMOCRATIC  ECONOMY  BEFORE  THE  WAR — 1860  COMPARED  WITH  1874. 

Economy  in  public  expenditures  has  always  been  a  cardinal  principle  of  the 
Democratic  party.  Contrast  the  net  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  last  Democratic 
administration  with  the  last  Republican  administration  previous  to  the  advent  of 
the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  in  1875,  and  the  difference  is  startling. 
Eliminating  from  the  calculation  all  expenditures  relating  to  the  public  debt, 
principal,  interest  and  premiums,  and  taking  only  tlie  net  ordinary  expenditures,  ex- 
clusive also  of  pensions,  and  we  find  : 

Democratic  administration,  year  ending  June  30th,  1861,  $61,581,456.05  ;  Re- 
publican administration,  year  ending  June  30th,  1874,  $165,080,570.34  ;  a  differ- 
ence of  $103,499,114.29  per  annum,  exclusive  of  expenditures  arising  out  of  the 
war ! 

TEN  YEARS  BEFORE  THE  WAR  COMPARED  WITH  TEN  YEARS  SINCE  THE  WAR. 

It  may  be  said  that  a  comparison  of  1861  with  1874  is  only  that  of  one  year 
with  another  single  year.  Let  us,  then,  make  the  comparison  as  complete  as  possi- 
ble. For  this  purpose  eliminate  entirely  the  war  period,  say  from  June  30th, 
1862,  to  June  30th,  1866,  both  fiscal  years  inclusive,  being  more  than  a  year  after 
the  close  of  the  war.  Eliminate  again  all  except  the  net  ordinary  expenditures, 
excluding  public  debt,  principal,  interest,  premiums  and  pensions,  and  it  appears 
that  the  net  ordinary  expenditures  above  stated,  from  the  fiscal  year  ended  March 
4th,  1879,  down  to  and  including  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30th,  1861,  both  in- 
clusive, covering 

A  PERIOD  OP  SEVENTY-TWO  YEARS, 

amounted  to  one  billion  five  hundred  and  six  millions  seven  hundred  and  six 
thousand  and  one  hundred  and  forty-one  dollars  and  fifteen  cents  ($1,506,- 
706,141.15). 

Now,  the  net  ordinary  expenditures  (for  the  same  items)  for  the  last  ten  years 
OP  Republican  rule  preceding  the  advent  of  the  Democratic  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, beginning  with  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1867,  more  than  one 


DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE.  50 T 

year  after  the  close  of  the  war,  up  to  and  including  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30, 
1876,  amounted  to  one  billion  five  hundred  and  twenty- eight  million  nine  hun- 
dred and  thirty-seven  thousand  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  dollars  and  eighty- 
seven  cents  ($1,628,937,137.87).  In  other  words,  the  Republican  party  ex- 
pended more  money  in  ten  years  after  the  close  of  the  war  and  the  disbandment 
of  our  armies,  for  net  ordinary  expenditures  alone,  exclusive  of  public  debt, 
interest,  principal  and  premium,  and  exclusive  of  pensions,  by  twenty-two  mil- 
lions two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-six  dollars  and 
seventy-two  cents  ($22,230,996.72),  than  had  been  expended  in  seventy-two  years, 
preceding  the  advent  of  the  Republican  party  to  power  I 

TEN  YEARS  BEFORE  THE  WAR  AND  TEN  YEARS  SINCE  THE  WAR. 

Taking  the  same  net  ordinary  expenditures  for  ten  years  of  Democratic  con- 
servative rule  before  the  war,  beginning  with  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1852,. 
up  to  and  including  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1861,  both  inclusive,  we  find  them 
to  have  been  but  five  hundred  and  seventy-two  millions  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-six  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  and  fifty-two  cents 
($572,876,260.52).  Compare  that  period  with  expenditures  for  like  items 
during  the  ten  years  of  Radical  rule  in  time  of  peace — from  fiscal  year  ended  June 
30, 1867,  to  and  including  fiscal  year  ended  June  80, 1876 — which  were  one  billion 
five  hundred  and  twenty-eight  millions  nine  hundred  and  thirty-seven  thousand 
one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  dollars  and  eighty-seven  cents  ($1,528,937,137.87) 
and  we  discover  an 

EXCESS  OF  REPUBLICAN  EXPENDITURES  OP  NINE  HUNDRED  AND  FIFTY-SIX 
MILLIONS  SIXTY  THOUSAND  EIGHT  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-SEVEN  DOLLARS 
AND  THIRTY-FIVE    CENTS, 

an  increase  in  ten  years  of  Republican  rule  in  the  items  of  net  ordinary  ex- 
penditures alone,  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  seventy  per  cent.,  comparing  ten. 
years  of  peace  before  1861  with  ten  years  of  peace  after  1867  !  The  average. 
PER  ANNUM  of  thesc  net  ordinary  expenditures  for  the  ten  years  of  Republican 
rule — in  time  of  peace — reached  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  millions  eight 
hundred  and  ninety-three  thousand  seven  hundred  and  thirteen  dollars  and  seventy- 
eight  cents  ($152,893,713.78),  whilst  the  same  items  of  net  ordinary  expenditures 
for  the  ten  years  of  Democratic  rule  above-named  averaged  only  fifty-seven  mil" 
lions  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-six  dollars 
and  five  cents  ($57,287,626.05).  This  shows  that,  comparing  two  decades  of 
profound  peace,  the  net  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  government,  exclusive  of 
the  public  debt,  interest,  principal  and  premiums,  and  exclusive  also  of  pensions, 
under  a  decade  of  Republican  rule,  were  nearly  three  times  as  large  as  for 

THE  LAST  DECADE  OF  DEMOCRATIC  CONSERVATIVE  RULE. 

Taking  the  censuses  of  1860  and  1870  respectively  as  the  bases  for  calculation, 
it  appears  that  these  same  net  ordinary  expenditures  under  the  same  decade  of 
Radical  rule  in  time  of  peace  amounted  to  thirty-nine  dollars  and  sixty-five  centa 
($39.65)  PER  CAPITA,  whilst  the  same  items  of  expenditure  for  the  last  decade  of 
Democratic  conservative  rule  amounted  to  but  eighteen  dollars  and  twenty-six 
cents  ($18.26)  per  capita,  or  an  excess  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen  (117)  per 
cent.*  against  the  Republican  party. 

EXTRAVAGANCE  IN  EVERY  BRANCH   OF  THE   SERVICE. 

The  official  record  shows  that  the  extravagant  and  criminal  increase  of  expen- 
ditures occurred  in  every  branch  of  the  service.  ' 

*  See  table  marked  A,  p.  506. 


:508 


APPROrRIATIO  NS    AN(1    EXPENDITURES 


IN  THE   WAR  DEPARTMENT. 

For  instance,  the  regular  army  was  largely  increased— not  during  but  after  the 
war— and  the  cost  of  maintaining  it  per  man  was  gi-eatly  augmented.  The  ex- 
penditures during  this  decade  of  Radical  rule,  for  that  branch  of  the  service  were 
$593,000,000  as  against  the  sum  of  $169,000,000  under  the  last  decade  of 
Democratic  conservative  rule,  showing  a  diffei-ence  for  ten  years  against  the 
Radical  party  of  $424,000,000,  being  an  increase  of  more  than  one  hundred  and 
ninety-one  per  cent. 

IN   THE   NAVY  DEPARTMENT. 

The  expenditures  for  the  decade  ending  June  30th,  1876,  for  maintaining  a  so- 
called  navy,  were  $234,000,000,  as  against  but  $123,000,000  for  the  last  Democratic 
decade,  a  difference  against  Radical  rule  of  $111,000,000;  being  an  increase  of 
more  than  eighty-nine  per  cent. 

IN   THE   INDIAN   DEPARTMENT. 

The  Indian  Ring  held  full  sway  during  this  decade  of  Radical  rule,  and  expended 
$62,500,000,  as  against  $32,500,000  expended  on  account  of  the  Indian  service 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  Democratic  rule,  a  difference  against  Republican  rule 
of  $30,000,000  5  being  an  increase  of  more  than  ninety-three  per  cent. 

THE  CIVIL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  EXPENDITURES 

for  these  ten  years  of  Radical  rule  amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $638,000,- 
000,  as  against  but  $247,000,000  expended  during  the  last  ten  years  of  Demo^ 
cratic  rule,  showing  an  increase  under  Republican  rule  of  $391,000,000 
IN  TEN  YEARS,  IN  THE  CIVIL  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  EXPENDITURES ;  being  an  in- 
crease of  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  per  cent. 

KECAPITULATION  OP  COMPARISON  OF  A  DECADE  OF  DEMOCRATIC  RULE  WITH  A 
DECADE  OF  RADICAL  RULE. 

Average  per  annum  of  ten  years  of  Democratic  rule,  June  30,  1852.  to  June  30,  1862. . .  $57,277,236.05 

'*  "  Radical  rule,  June  30,  186?,  to  Jane  30,  1876 152,893,713.78 

-Cost  per  capita  of  ten  years  of  Democratic  rule,  from  June  30,  1852,  to  June  30,  1861. . .  18.26 

"        "  "  Radical  rule,  June  30,  1867,  to  June  30,  1876 39.65 

The  above  is,  as  already  stated,  for  net  ordinary  expenditures  alone,  exclusive  of 
public  debt,  interest,  premium,  and  exclusive  also  of  pensions. 

The  following  table,  marked  A.,  gives  the  aggregate  for  the  years  and  purposes 
named  and  is  compiled  from  the  oflBcial  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

TABLE  A. 


Net  Ordinary  Expenditures  of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of  Public  Debt,  Premiums,  Interest  and 
Principal,  and  exclusive  also  of  Pensions,  for  ten  years,  June  30,  1852,  to  June  30, 1861,  both  in- 
clusive, and  for  ten  years  from  June  30,  1867,  to  June  30,  1876,  both  inclusive: 


TiTLB. 

Ten   years   of  Radical 
rule— June  30,  '67  to 
June  30,  '76— both  fis- 
cal years  inclusive. 

Ten'years  of  Democratic 
rule— June  30,  '52,  to 
June  30,  '61-both  fis- 
cal years  inclusive. 

Increase   of    10    years 
Radical  rule  over   10 
years  Democratic  rule 
for  same  periods. 

War 

Navy 

Indians 

$593,629,479  43 
234,191,119  10 
62,678,183  52 
638,438,355  82 

$169,132,248  55 

123,476,351  20 

32,571,486  75 

247,592,174  02 

$434,497,230  88 

110,714,767  90 

30,106,696  77 

Civil  and  Miscellaneous.. 

890,846,181  80 

Total 

$1,528,937,137  87 

$572,772,260  52 

$956,164,877  35 

EXPENDITURES  OF   1860  COMPARED  WITH  1875. 

Additional  comparisons  of  Democratic  economy  with  Republican  extravagance 
are  here  appended. 


DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE.  50^ 

The  last  fiscal  year  of  Democratic  administration  was  that  ending  June  30, 1860.- 
The  net  ordinary  expenses  of  the  government  for  that  year,  exclusive  of  pensions 
and  public  debt  and  interest,  were  $58,955,952. 

These  expenses,  stated  in  detail,  were  (omitting  cents) : 

For  the  War  Department $16,472,202- 

'«      Navy         "  11,514,649 

"     Indian        "  2,991,121 

"     Miscellaneous  or  civil 27,977,973^ 

Now  compare  these  expenditures  with  those  of  the  last  year  in  which  the  Re- 
publican party  had  unlimited  control,  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1875. 
The  net  ordinary  expenses  for  the  government  for  that  year,  (exclusive  of  pen- 
sions, public  debt  and  interest),  were  $142,073,632,  being  $83,117,682  in  excess  of 
the  last  year  of  Democratic  administration ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  Republican  ex- 
penditures were  nearly  two  and  a  half  times  as  great  as  the  Democratic  expendi- 
tures. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  our  population  was  much  greater  in  1875  than  it  was  in 
1860,  and  that  this  accounts  for  the  increased  expenses  of  government.  This  ex- 
planation will  not  suffice.  .  The  population  in  1860  was  31,443,321,  and  the  expen- 
ditures were  at  the  rate  of  $1.87i  P^''  capita.  In  1875  the  population,  as  nearly  as 
it  can  be  estimated,  was  43,000,000,  and  the  expenditures  were  at  the  rate  of  $3.30' 
per  capita. 

Again,  it  may  be  said,  that  the  increase  of  expenses  grew  out  of  the  war.  This 
explanation  will  not  answer.  In  the  figures  given,  and  those  hereafter  given, 
we  exclude  the  expenditures  occasioned  by  the  war — namely,  pensions,  the  public 
debt  and  the  interest  thereon — and  confine  the  comparison  to  the  ordinary  expenses 
of  government,  namely,  the  cost  of  the  War,  Navy,  Indian  and  Civil  Departments 
in  time  of  peace.  The  increase  in  these  departments  is  shown  in  the  following 
table: 

DETAILS. 

1860.  1875.  Increase. 

War  Department $16,472,202  $41,120,645  $24,648,443 

Navy 11,514,649  21,497,626  9,982,977 

Indian 2,991,121  8,384,656  5,393,535 

Miscellaneous  or  civil 27,977,978  71,070,702  43,092,724 


Increase $83,117,679 

But  it  may  be  said  that  the  comparison  should  not  be  of  a  single  year  with  a 
single  year,  because  special  circumstances  might  make  such  a  comparison  unfair, 
and  that  the  only  fair  mode  is  to  compare  a  period  of  several  years  with  a  like 
period. 

SEVEN      YEARS    BEFORE      THE     WAR      COMPARED      WITH      SEVEN      YEARS     SINCE 

THE  WAR. 

Let  us  take  a  period  of  seven  years  of  Democratic  administration,  and  compare 
it  with  a  like  period  of  Republican  administration— both  periods  being  years  of 
profound  peace.  Let  us  take  the  seven  fiscal  years  commencing  July  1,  1853, 
and  ending  June  30,  1860,  when  the  Democracy  were  in  power,  and  compare 
them  with  the  seven  fiscal  years  commencing  July  1,  1868  (three  years  after  the 
close  of  the  war),  and  ending  Jime  30,  1875,  when  the  Republicans  had  unlimited 
control;  and  what  is  the  result?    The  following  table  shows  it: 

July  1,  1853,  to  June  30,  1860,  seven  years— 

ORDINARY  EXPENDITURES,  LESS  PENSIONS. 

Fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  '54 , $50,734,863 

"  ',55 54,838,585 

56 65,476,298 

H 64,730,763 

,58 71,110,669 

,59 65,133,728 

60 58,955,952 

$430  980  868 
Average  annual  expenditure,  $61,568,694.  '      * 

Expenditure  per  capita,  $1.94. 


510  APPROPllIATIONS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 

•July  1,  1868,  to  June  30,  1875,  seven  years— 

Fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  '69 $162,019,733 

'70 136,081,305 

'71 123,139,933 

•'                             "          72 124,668,454 

"           ■                  •'          '73 151,129,210 

"          '74 165,080,570 

"          '75 142,073,632 


$1  004  192  837 
Average  annual  expenditure,  $143,456,119. 
Expenditure  per  capita,  $3.45. 

All  these  figures  are  derived  from  official  sources,  and  it  appears  by  them  that 
the  average  annual  ordinary  expenses  of  government  in  seven  years  of  Demo- 
cratic rule  were  $61,568,694,  while  the  like  average  annual  expenses  in  seven  years  of 
Republican  rule  were  $143,456,119,  being  an  average  annual  excess  under  Repub- 
lican administration  of  $81,887,425. 

And  this  excess  cannot  be  explained  by  the  increase  of  population,  for  the  ex- 
•penae  per  capita  in  the  seven  Republican  years  was  $3.45,  while  in  the  seven 
Democratic  years  it  was  $1.94. 

Nor  can  it  be  explained  as  necessarily  resulting  from  the  war;  for  there  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  comparison  expenses  caused  by  it — namely,  pensions,  public  debt 
and  interest  thereon ;  and  the  first  of  the  seven  Republican  years  taken  was  the 
third  year  after  the  war. 

EXTRAVAGANT     INCREASE     OP     EXPENDITURES — THEY     GROW     GREATER      AS     WE 
RECEDE   FROM   THE   WAR  PERIOD. 

An  examination  of  the  net  ordinary  expenditures  of  the  government  (exclud- 
ing always  the  public  debt,  interest,  principal  and  premiums,  and  also  excluding 
pensions)  shows  a  reckless  increase  as  we  recede  from  the  war  period  which  is 
totally  inexcusable.  And  this  increase  continued  up  to  the  advent  of  the  Demo- 
cratic House  of  Representatives  in  1875.  For  example,  the  expenditures  for  these 
purposes  named  were  for  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1871,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  millions  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and 
thirty-two  dollars,  and  in  1876  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  millions  six  hundred 
thousand  four  hundred  and  seventeen  dollars — an  increase  of  thirteen  millions, 
four  hundred  and  sixty  thousand,  four  hundred  and  eighty-five  dollars  and  sixty 
seven  cents  ($13,460,485.67),  whilst  the  expenditures  for  like  items  for  the  fiscal 
year  ended  June  30,  1874,  were  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  millions  eighty  thou- 
sand, five  hundred  and  seventy  dollars,  being  an  increase  over  the  year  1871  of 
forty-one  million  nine  hundred  and  forty  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
dollars  and  thirty-four  cents  ($41,940,638.34). 

So  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Republican  Congresses  and  administrations  con- 
stantly increased  the  expenditures  from  year  to  year,  after  the  close  of  the  war, 
and  at  the  same  time,  that  the  purchasing  power  of  money  was  continuously  aug- 
menting! The  following  is  a  statement  of  the  net  ordinary  expenditure  of  the 
government  (excluding  public  debt,  principal,  interest  and  premiums,  and  exclud- 
ing also  pensions)  from  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1871,  to  the  fiscal  year 
ended  June  30,  1876,  being  years  appropriated  for  by  a  Republican  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives. 
Net  ordinary  expenses  exclusive  of  public  debt  and  pensions  : 

For  the  fiscal  year  1871 $133,139,933.00 

1873 134,668,453.43 

1873 151,139,310.04 

1874 165,080,570.34 

1875. 143,073,633.05 

1876 : 136,600,417.67 


DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY — REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE. 


511 


EXPENDITURES  APPROPRIATED  FOR  BY  THE  FORTY-SECOND  AND  FORTY-THIRD 
CONGRESSES,  COMPARED  WITH  FORTY-FOURTH  AND  FORTY-FIFTH — DEMOCRATIC 
HOUSE  REDUCTIONS. 

In  December.  1875,  a  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  came  into  power, 
and  the  attempt  was  successfully  made  to  cut  down  extravagant  expenditures. 
The  first  fiscal  years  appropriated  for  by  this  Democratic  House  were  those  ending 
June  30,  1877,  and  June  30,  1878.  Let  us  compare  these  with  the  two  previous 
years  appropriated  for  by  a  Congress  Republican  in  both  branches. 

The  actual  net  ordinary  expenditures,  exclusive  of  the  public  debt,  principal, 
premiums  and  interest,  and  exclusive  also  of  pensions  appropriated  for  by  the 
Forty-third  Congress  and  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  are  as  follows  : 


Republican  Forty-third 
Congress. 

1875 1143,073,633.05 

1876 136,600,417.67 


Total $378,674,049.73 


Forty-fourth  Congress,  Democratic 
House. 

1877---- $116,346,311.01 

1878 107,336,433.07 


Total-- $333,573,644.08 


Here,  then,  we  have  stated  for  each  fiscal  year  the  actual  net  ordinary  expendi- 
tures for  the  years  1875  and  1876  under  the  appropriations  made  by  a  Republican 
Congress,  against  which  we  place  the  expenditures  for  the  same  purposes  for  the 
years  1877  and  1878,  under  the  influence  of  a  Democratic  House,  showing  an  actual 
saving  of  $55,101,404.64,  made  under  the  greatest  difficulties  placed  in  the  way 
of  retrenchment  by  a  Republican  Senate  and  a  Republican  administration. 

Now  let  us  compare  the  expenditures  appropriated  for  by  the  Forty-second  Con- 
gress, Republican  in  both  branches,  and  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  when  the  House 
was  Democratic  :  The  actual  net  ordinary  expenditures,  exclusive  of  the  public 
debt,  principal,  premiums  and  interest,  and  exclusive  also  of  pensions,  appropriated 
for  by  the  Forty-second  and  Forty-fifth  Congresses,  are  as  follows  : 


Republican  Forty-second 
Congress. 

1873 - - -$151,139,310.04 

1874 165,080,570.34 


Forty-fifth  Congress,  Democratic 
House. 

1879 - -$136,498,453.14 

*1880 131,994,037.17 


Total $316,309,780.1 


Total $358,493,489.31 


This  exhibits  a  decrease  of  fifty-sewn  millions  seven  hundred,  and  seventeen 

thousand  dollars  in  round  numbers,  or,  to  be  exact,  of  $57,717,291.07. 

♦Partly  estimated.  This  includes  the  bills  passed  at  the  first  session  Forty-sixth  Congress, 
which  failed  to  become  laws  in  Forty-fifth  Congress. 

ECONOMY  INAUGURATED  BY  DEMOCRATIC  HOUSE. 

Taking  the  saving  effected  by  the  Democratic  Houses  of  the  Forty-fourth  and 
Forty-fifth  Congresses  over  the  expenditures  of  the  Forty-second  and  Forty-third 
Congresses,  when  both  branches  were  Republican,  and  adding  them  together,  the 
total  exhibits  a  saving  of  one  hundred  and  thirteen  millions  of  dollars  in 
round  numbers  (or,  to  be  exact,  of  $113,818,695.71),  in  the  four  years,  1877, 1878, 
1879  and  1880,  as  compared  with  the  previous  four  years,  1873,  1874,  1875  and 
1876. 

DEMOCRATIC  REDUCTIONS  IN    APPROPRIATIONS    IN  THE  FACE    OF    A  REPUBLICAN 
SENATE  AND  EXECUTITE. 

So  far  we  have  been  treating  of  actual  expenditures  only.  This  does  not  ex- 
hibit, however,  all  the  reductions  that  were  attempted  by  the  Democratic  House, 
but  represents  only  the  amounts  of  reduction  wrung  from  a  Republican  Senate 


512  APPROPRIATIONS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 

and  Executive  after  repeated  struggles  and  after  most  serious  opposition  in  the 
Republican  House,  Mr.  James  A.  Garfield  being  a  conspicuous  opponent  on  the 
floor  of  the  House.  In  treating  of  these  appropriations  at  present,  we  shall  only 
speak  of  the  eleven  great  appropriation  bills,  viz.  :  the  Military  Academy,  Fortifi- 
cation, Consular  and  Diplomatic,  Navy,  Post-Offlce,  Pension,  'Indian,  Army, 
Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial,  Sundry  Civil,  and  River  and  Harbor  Bills. 
The  Deficiency  and  Miscellaneous  Bills  will  be  treated  of  hereafter,  and  will  show 
a  still  greater  reduction. 

These  eleven  great  bills  for  the  years  1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880,  and  1873,  1874, 
1875  and  1876,  appropriated  the  following  amounts  : 


42d  Congress  j  1873 $160,320,113.11 

Republican  1  1874 181,587,054.61 

43d  Congress  J  1875 177.679,473,77 

Republican   |   1876 172,600,205.53 

Total $692,186,847.02 


44tli  Congress  J  1877 $145,997,956.72 

Dem.  House  1  1878 140,384,606.95 

45th  Congress]  1879 157,213,933.77 

*Dem.  House  1  1880 156,970,248.71 


Total $600,566,746.15 


♦Includes  bills  passed  at  extra  session  46th  Congree 

These  flares,  taken  from  the  official  records,  exhibit  a  REDUCTION  EX- 
CEEDING NINETY-ONE  MILLIONS  OF  DOLLARS,  secured  by  the  efforts  of 
the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  in  four  years  in  these  eleven  bills  alone, 
the  exact  figures  being  $91,620,100.87. 

Great  as  these  reductions  were  for  a  period  of  four  years,  they  by  no  means 
represent  all  that  was  attempted  by  the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  in 
the  Forty-fourth  and  Forty -fifth  Congresses.  Every  measure  of  economy  proposed 
by  the  House  was  fiercely  fought  by  the  Republicans  in  the  House  at  every  stage, 
and  a  Republican  Senate,  backed  by  a  Republican  administration,  refused  to 
sanction  the  economical  measures  proposed  by  the  Democratic  House.  The  fol- 
lowing, in  brief,  is  a  statement  of  the 

RECORD  OP  ATTEMPTED  REDUCTIONS 

by  the  Democratic  House  in  these  eleven  bills : 
For  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30, 1877  : 

Estimates  of  Departments $200,375,553  78 

Appropriations  as  passed  the  House 138,080,856  68 

Appropriations  as  increased  by  the  Senate 157,419,767  36 

Appropriations  as  reduced  by  the  House 145,997,956  72 

For  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1878  : 

Estimates  of  Departments , 184,182,005  14 

Appropriations  as  passed  the  House 131,309,.307  87 

Appropriations  as  increased  by  the  Senate , 148,988,885  75 

Appropriations  as  reduced  by  the  House 140,384,606  95 

For  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1879  : 

Estimates  df  Departments 176,226,348  31 

Appropriations  as  passed  the  House 147,687,739  94 

Appropriations  as  increased  by  the  Senate 161,852,269  41 

Appropriations  as  reduced  by  the  House 157,213,933  77 

For  the  fiscal  year  ended  June  30,  1880  : 

Estimates  of  Departments 159,861,836  58 

Appropriations  as  passed  the  House 153,331,949  01 

Appropriations  as  increased  by  the  Senate 160,475,194  97 

♦Appropriations  as  reduced  by  the  House  156,970,248  71 

Total  Estimates  of  Departments  for  1877,  1878, 1879  and  1880 720,645,743  81 

Total  as  passed  Democratic  House  for  1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880 574,048.152  70 

Total  as  increased  by  Republican  Senate  for  1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880 628,736,117  49 

Total  as  reduced  by  Democratic  House  for  1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880 600,566,746  15 

♦Included  bills  passed  at  extra  session  Forty -sixth  Congress. 

If  the  Republican  Senate  had  concurred  with  the  Democratic  House  in  passing 
these  bills  as  they  originally  passed  the  House,  there  would  have  been 

A  SAVING  OF  $146,597,591.11. 
as  compared  with  the  profligate  estimates  and  demands  of  the  Republican  officials, 
while  there  would  have  been  an 


DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE.  513 

ACTUAL   SAVING  OP   $118,138,694.32. 

in  these  eleven  bills  for  four  years— 1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880— as  compared  with 
the  appropriations  in  the  same  eleven  bills  for  the  years  1873, 1874,  1875  and  1876. 

APPROPRIATIONS  MADE  AT   SECOND  SESSION,  FORTY-SIXTH  CONGRESS,  FOR  FISCAL. 
YEAR  ENDING   JUNE   30,  1881. 

The  book  of  estimates  is  made  up  from  the  estimates  made  by  the  various  de- 
partments, and  is  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  for  revision  and  approval. 
It  is  then  presented  to  Congress  at  the  beginning  of  each  regular  session,  as  the 
estimates  of  the  administration  for  appropriations  necessary  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  the  government  for  the  incoming  fiscal  year.  Congress  is  in  no  way 
responsible  for  the  expenditures,  and  yet,  at  the  end  of  each  fiscal  year,  the  ad- 
ministration brings  in  long  lists  of  deficiencies,  which  represent  expenditures 
made  by  the  administration  in  excess  of  the  appropriations  and  in  violation  of  law. 

The  regular  estimates  presented  to  Congress  through  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1881,  amount  to  $184,559,042.17,  to 
which  must  be  added  the  sum  of  $8,500,000.00  for  estimates  sent  in  by  the  admin- 
istration to  the  Committeee  of  Appropriations,  and  the  sum  of  $11,000,000.00  sent 
in  to  the  Committee  on  Commerce  at  various  times,  thus  swelling  the  grand  total 
of  estimates  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1881,  to  $204,059,042.17.  The 
thirteen  great  appropriation  bills,  viz. :  The  Pension,  Military  Academy,  Fortifica- 
tions, Consular  and  Diplomatic,  Navy,  Post-Ofiice,  Indian,  Army,  Legislative, 
Executive  and  Judicial,  Sundry  Civil,  River  and  Harbor,  District  of  Columbia, 
and  Agricultural  (the  last  two  appearing  for  the  first  time  as  separate  bills),  amount- 
ed to  $168,730,945.04.  All  the  appropriations  made  (including  miscellaneous) 
for  all  net  ordinary  expenses,  arrears  of  pensions,  etc.,  and  excluding  only  per- 
manent annual  appropriations  for  the  public  del)t,  the  total  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1880,  were  $186,404,959.30,  while  the  estimates  amounted 
to  $204,059,042.17.  Thus  the  estimates  of  the  Republican  departments  exceeded 
the  appropriations  by  $17,654,082.87.  This  reduction  was  secured  by  Demo- 
cratic votes,  the  Republicans  uniformly  arguing  and  voting  for  increased  ex- 
penditures. 

From  this  grand  total  of  appropriations,  $186,404,959.30,  the  sum  of  at  least 
$18,000,000.00  should  be  deducted,  as  having  been  appropriated  for  unusual  or 
exceptional  objects,  not  annually  provided  for,  such  as  the  item  of  $14,000,000.00 
for  arrears  of  pensions,  $218,000.00  to  provide  clerical  force  connected  with  the 
arrears  of  pensions,  &c.  Of  the  whole  amount  appropriated,  $26,826,000  was  for 
the  arrears  of  pensions.  In  addition,  another  unusual  item,  not  occurring  an- 
nually, amounts  to  $2,960,000,  for  taking  the  census,  and  there  are  additional  un- 
usual items  for  monuments,  military  posts,  etc.,  making  the  sum  total  of  unusual 
items  amount  to  $18,000,000.00,  which,  taken  from  the  grand  total,  leaves 
$168,404,959.80  as  the  sum  of  the  net  ordinary  appropriations  (including  certain 
deficiencies)  for  the  next  fiscal  year. 

If  the  sum  of  one-half  million,  which  is  in  excess  of  the  usual  appropriations 
for  new  public  buildings,  and  of  $3,000,000,  which  is  in  excess  of  the  average 
amount  appropriated  for  rivers  and  harbors  in  the  Forty-third  and  other  Con- 
gresses, should  be  added  to  the  $18,000,000  of  extraordinary  appropriations,  we 
would  then  have  $21,500,000  of  unusual  appropriations,  which,  deducted  from  the 
grand  total,  would  leave  less  than  $165,000,000  as  the  true  net  ordinary  appropria- 
tions for  the  next  fiscal  year.  In  this  sum  of  $165,000,000  more  than  liberal 
allowances  are  made  for  public  buildings,  national  cemeteries,  life-saving  service, 


514 


APrROPRfATIONS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 


light-houses  and  Federal  courts.  The  net  ordinary  appropriations  for  the  first 
year  of  the  Forty-third  Congress,  the  last  term  that  the  distinguished  gentleman 
from  Ohio,  now  the  Republican  nominee  for  President,  sei-ved  as  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Appropriations  in  this  House,  were  $184,304,789.08.  The  appro- 
priations, ordinary  and  extraordinary,  amount  to  $186,405,058,  from  which  deduct, 
for  reasons  just  given,  $21,500,000,  and  there  remains  $164,905,058,  or  nearly 
$30,000,000  less  for  the  net  ordinary  appropriations  for  1881  than  were  appropriated 
for  1875. 

It  is  proper  to  place  in  the  same  category  of  "unusual  or  extraordinary"  the 
item  of  $1,200,000  of  deficiency  for  star  service,  so  called,  which  would  have 
brought  down  the  appropriations  for  net  ordinary  expenditures,  including  those 
less  abnormal  and  vastly  more  legitimate,  to  $163,705.58.  In  making  these  appro- 
priations due  and  scrupulous  regard  has  been  had  to  the  proper  and  legitimate 
demands  of  the  public  service.  No  estimate  has  escaped  notice  and  scrutiny,  and 
without  partisan  or  other  prejudice  eveiy  consideration  has  been  given  to  the  facts 
in  each  case,  and  such  appropriations  have  been  made  as  the  needs  of  the  public 
service  in  every  branch  of  it  seemed  to  require.  Large  increases  were  made  in 
the  pension,  adjutant-general's,  surgeon-general's  and  second  auditor's  offices 
each,  on  account  of  the  disposition  of  Congress  to  facilitate  those  Bureaus  in 
expediting  the  adjustment  and  settlement  of  the  claims  of  soldiers  for  pensions 
and  bounties.  Some  additions  were  made  to  the  force  in  the  Patent  Office  to  faci- 
litate the  work  in  that  bureau  in  perfecting  and  issuing  patents  to  the  inventors  of 
our  country,  who  seem  to  excel  the  citizens  of  all  other  countries  in  their  invent- 
ive genius  and  skill.  In  the  Post-Office  Department  a  heav}^  increase  of  force  has 
been  made,  owing  to  the  immense  growth  and  expansion  of  that  most  important 
branch  of  the  public  sei-vice  ;  the  growth  being  now  about  14  per  cent. ,  as  against 
a  year  or  two  back,  when  it  was  about  7  per  cent.  Considerable  increase  has  been 
made  in  the  appropriations  for  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau  on  account  of  its 
growth  and  its  constantly  augmenting  incomes.  So  in  other  branches  some 
increase  has  been  made,  but  in  no  instance  has  more  been  granted  by  the  House 
than  has  bfcen  asked  by  the  government ;  where  the  force  has  been  wanted  to 
facilitate  the  settlement  of  pension  claims  all  demands  of  the  departments  have 
been  fully  met  by  Congress. 

REDUCTIONS  IN   ONLY  POLITICAL   DEPARTMENT   CONTROLLED   BY  THE  DEMOCRATS. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Folding  Room  of  the  House  of  Representatives  was 
used  by  the  Republicans  for  their  party  purposes.  It  is  there  where  frankable 
speeches  and  documents  are  folded  during  a  campaign.  An  examination  of  the 
subjoined  table  shows  the  great  reduction  made  by  the  Democratic  House  in 
this  item. 

Statmient  ahowlnij  Uie  cost  of  employees,  and  for  folding,  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
for  the  Forty-second,  Forty-third,  Forty-fotorth  and  Forty-fifth  Corujresses;  tJvB  first 
two  v;ere  RepuUican,  and  of  the  last  two  the  House  V)as  Democratic. 


Folding 
Documents. 


42d 
Congress. 

43d 

Congress. 

Total. 
42d  &  43d 
Congresses 

44th 

Congress. 

45th 

Congress. 

Total 
44th  &  4.5th 
Congresses. 

$237,000 

$97,150.49 

$334,150.49 

$44,250 

$62,800 

$107,050 

Reduction 

made  by 

44th  &  45th 

Congresses. 


$227,100.49 


DEMOCKATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTKAA'AGANCE. 


515 


For  example  :  Take  the  Forty-second  Congress,  which  began  in  December, 
1871,  and  ended  in  March,  1873.  This  Congress  was  the  one  which  sat  during  the 
year  of  the  Presidential  election  of  1873,  and  in  the  Folding  ]loom  was  done  the 
campaign  work  of  the  Republican  party.  In  that  Congress  the  Folding  Room 
cost  $337,000,  whilst  the  Folding  Room,  as  operated  by  the  Democratic  House  of 
Representatives  in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  during  the  Presidential  election  of 
1876,  cost  but  $44,350,  a  reduction  of  $193,750,  or  a  reduction  exceeding  four 
hundred  and  thirty-five  per  cent. 

The  aggregate  of  the  expenses  of  the  Folding  Room  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives for  the  Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses — both  Republican — 
reached  $334,150.49,  whilst  that  for  the  Democratic  House  of  Representatives  for 
the  Forty-fourth  and  Forty-fifth  Congresses  aggregated  but  $107,050,  a  reduction 
of  $337,100.49. 

APPROPRIATIONS  FORTV-SECOND   AND   FORTY-THIRD   CONGRESSES. 

Detailed  statement  of  the  11  Appropriation  Acts  for  the  fiscal  years  1873,  1874,  1875  and  1876 , 
passed  by  the  Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses  (Republican  in  both  branches),  James  A, 
Garfield  then  being  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Appropriations. 


Title  or  Act. 


Military  Academy. . . 

Fortifications 

Consular  &  Diplomatic 

Navy 

Post-Oflice 

Pensions 

Indian  . . 

Army 

Legislative,  Executive, 

and  Judicial 

Sundry  Civil 

River  and  Harbor 

Total  


Fiscal  Year. 
1873. 


Fiscal  Year. 

1874. 


Fiscal  Year. 
1875. 


$326,10132 

•2,037,000  OOi 

1,219,659  00; 

18,296,733  95 

28,519.341  84; 

30,48o;ooo  oo; 

6,349,402  04l 
28,683,615  32, 


S344.317  56 
1,899,000  00 
1,311,359  00 
22,276.257  65 
32,529.167  00 
30,480,000  00 1 
5*541,418  90 
31,796,008  81 1 


Fiscal  Year. 
1876. 


Aggregate  for 
fiscal  years  '73, 
'74,  '75  and  '76. 


$339,835  00, 
904,000  00 

3,404,804  OOl 
20,813,946  20, 
35,7.56,091  00 
29,980,000  00 

5,680.651  96 


18,671,785  74  17,120,496  60 
20,148.413  90:  32,186.129  09 
5,588.000  00   6,102,900  00 


$160,320,113  11 


$181,587,054  61 


27,788,500  00 

20,783,900  80 

27,009.744  81 

5,218,000  00 


$17 


),473  77 


$364,740  00 
850,000  00 

1,374,9S5  00 
17,001,006  40 
37,524.985  00 
30,000.000  00 

5,360,554  55 
27,933,830  00 

18,902.236  99 

26,644,350  09 

6,643,517  50 


$172,600,205  53 


$692,186,847  02 


APPROPRIATIONS  FIRST   SESSION  FORTY-FOURTH  CONGRESS. 

History  of  the  eleven  Appropriation  Bills  for  the  stcpport  of  the  Government  for  the  fiscal  year 
ended  June  30,  1877,  passed  at  the  first  scssioii  of  the  Forty-Jourth  Congress. 


Title  of  Bills. 


Estimates  of    jBills  as  passed  Bills  as  passed ;  t  „,.,  t^-^  iQ^y-- 
Departments.       the  House.        the  Senate.      -i-aw  tor  I87v . 


Military  Academy  

Fortifications 

Consular  and  Diplomatic 

Navy 

Post-Ofiice 

Pensions 

Indian 

Army !    33,348,740  50 

Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial 20,836,307  00 

Sundry  Civil i    ,32,560,475  29 

River  and  Harbor ,     14,301,100  00 


$487,470  00 
3,406,000  00 
1,3.52,485  00 
20,871,666  40 
37,939,805  99 
29,533,500  00 
5.787,995  60 


Total 1  $200,425,545  78  $143,080,856  68i  $157,419,767  36 1 $145,997,956  72 


$259,231 

315,000 

912,747 

12,43  ?,855 

33,739,109 

29.533,500 

3,979,602 
28.179,819 
12,998,815 
14,857,326 

5,872,850 


$308,841  00 
315,000  00 

1,341,647  50 
14,857,855  40 1 
36,796,850  00 
29,533,500  00 

4,958,361  27 
27,715,877  20 
16,635.338  00 
19,956,496  99 

5,000,000  001 


$290,065  00 
315.000  00 

1,187,197  50 
12,742,155  40 
34,585,701  00 
29,533,500  00 

4,572,762  01 
25,987,167  90 
15,417,93;^  33 
16,351,474  58 

5,015,000  00 


516 


APPROPRIATIONS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 


APPROPRIATIONS  SECOND   SESSION  FORTY-FOURTH  CONGRESS. 

oftJie  eleven  Appropriatwn  Bills  for  the  support  of  the  Oovemmentfor  tJie  fiscal  year 
ended  June  30,  1878,  passed  at  the  second  session  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress. 


Title  of  Bills. 


Estimates  of    'Bills  as  passed 
Departments.  |    the  House. 


^lUlSL"*^  I-- '«»«». 


Military  Academy 

Fortifications 

Consular  and  Diplomatic 

Navy 

Post-Offlce 

Pension 

Indian 

Army 

Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial. 

Sundry  Civil 

River  and  Harbor 

Total 


$395,080  00 
2,828,000  00 
1,245,997  00 
19,430,012  69 
36,723,432  43 
28,533,000  00 
5,342,890  12 
31,896,915  90 
18,192,431  68 
26,974,105  82 
13,220,100  00 


$184,182,005  14 


$265,161  00 
250,000  00 

1,137,085  00 
12,497,952  40 
32,221,618  00 
28,533,500  00 

4,439,499  12 
21,993,749  00 
14,523,935  50 
15,446,807  35 


$299,505  00 
350,000  00' 

1,138,097  50 
17,049,452  40 
34,993,590  OOl 
28,538,500  OOi 

5,154,935  69! 
26,188,870  50 
16,311,986  89! 
18,968,947  77 


$286,604  00 

275,000  oa 

1,138,374  50 
13,541,024  40 
33,584,143  00 
28,533,000  00 

4,829,865  69 
25,612,500  00 
15,450,345  3a 
17,133,750  06 


$131,309,307  37 


$148,988,885  75 1  $140,384,606  96 


APPROPRIATIONS  FIRST  AND   SECOND   SESSIONS  FORTY-FIFTH  CONGRESS. 

History  of  the  eUven  App^'opHation  Bills  for  the  support  of  the  Oovernment  for  the  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30, 1879,  passed  by  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  first  and  second  sessions. 


Title  of  Bills. 


Estimates  of 
Departments. 


Bills  as  passed 
the  House. 


Bills  as  passed 
the  Senate. 


Law  for  1879. 


Military  Academy I  $540,425  00 

Fortifications 850,000  00 

Consular  and  Diplomatic 1,214,397  50 

Navy 16,233,234  40 

Post-Offlce 36,427,771  00 

Pensions • . . . .  i  29,500,000  00 

Indian '  5,415,891  20 

Army t  31,597,270  68 

Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial i  16,205,-572  41 

Sundry  Civil \  24,939,186  12 

River  and  Harbor i  13,302,600  00 


$265,155  00 
275,000  00 

1,038,435  00 
14.038.684  00 
33,140.373  00 
29,371,574  00 

4,769,475  70 
24,913,787  18 
14,991,370  00 
17,590,786  06 

7,293,700  00 


Total i$176,326,348  31  $147,687,739  94 


$348,621 
275,000 

1,120,635 
14,249,528 
33,996,373 
29,406,574 

4,721,475 
25,937,986 
15,598,184 
27,851,891 

8,346,000 


$161,852,269  41 


$282,805  00 
275,000  00 

1,076,135  00 
14,151,603  70 
33,256,373  00 
29,371,574  00 

4,721,275  70 
25,583,186  01 
15,438,881  30 
24,750,100  06 

8,307,000  00 


$157,213,933  77 


APPROPRIATIONS  THIRD   SESSION  FORTY-FIFTH  CONGRESS. 

History  of  the  principal  Appropriation  Bills,  1879-80,  passed  at  the  third  session  of  the  Forty- 
fifth  Congress,  and  the  first  session  oftlie  Forty-sixth  Congress. 


Title. 


Estimates. 


As  passed 
House. 


Pass'd  Senate. 


Law 

for  1880. 


Military  Academy 

Fortifications 

Consular  and  Diplomatic. 

Navy 

Post-Office 

Pension 

Indian 

Army 

Legislative,  &c 

Sundry  Civil 

River  and  Harbor 


$411. 

1,000, 

1,178! 
14,187: 
36,57i: 
29,616, 

4,933, 
29,084. 
16,520, 
21,342, 

5,015. 


790  09 
000  00 
635  00 
381  45 
900  00 
000  00 
244  20 
500  00 
601  91 
783  93 
000  00 


$316,647 
.  275,000 

1,045,735 
14,018,468 
35,914,400 
29,366,000 

4,681,278 
26,747,300 
18,184,553 
16,945,965 

5,836,600 


$322,347 

500,000 

1,127,835 

14,104,968 

37,348,400 

29,366,000 

4,740,035 

26,797,300 

18,484,823 

19,690,384 

7,993,100 


$319, 
275. 

1,087, 
14,029. 
36,121, 
29,366 

4,713 
26,797 
16,287, 
18,394 

9,577, 


547  33 
000  00 
8:35  00 
968  95 
400  00 
000  00 
478  58 
300  00 
457  73 
766  51 
494  61 


Total $159,861,aS6  58 


$153,331,949  01  $160,475. 194  97 1  $156,970,248  71 


DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE. 


517 


FORTY-FOURTH  AND  FORTY-FIFTH  CONGRESSES. 

Aggregate  of  the  11  great  Appropriations  Bills  passed  by  the  Forty-fourth  and 
Forty-fifth  Congresses  (Democratic  House  of  Representatives),  appropriating  for 
the  fiscal  years  ended  June 30, 1877,  1878, 1879,  and  1880,  showing:  1st.  Estimates 
of  the  Departments;  2d.  Bills  as  they  passed  the  Democratic  House;  3d.  Bills 
as  increased  by  the  Republican  Senate ;  4Lh.  Bills  as  finally  enacted. 


Title  of  Act. 


Military  Academy 

Fortifications 

Consular  and  Diplomatic 

Navy 

Post-Offlce 

Pensions 

Indian 

Anny 

Legi8lative,Executive  <fc  Judicial 

Sundry  Civil 

River  and  Harbor 

Total 


1877,  1877,  1879,  1877,  1878,  1879, 

1880.  1880. 

Estimates  of  the  Bills  as  passed 
Departments.         the  House. 


$1,784,765  00 
7,484,000  00 
4,991,505  00 

70,722,294  94 
147.662,909  42 
117,182,500  00 

21,480,030  12 
125,937,435  08 

71,754,913  00 
105,816,581  16 

45,838,800  00 


$720,655,733  72 


$1,106,194  33 

1,115,000  00 

4,134,002  50 

52,987,960  75 

135,015,500  00 

116,804,574  00 

17,869,855  51 

96,834,655  70 

60,698,674  71 

64,840,285  50 

19,003,150  00 


$570,409,853  00 


3 

1877,  1878,  1879, 

1880. 

Bills  as  passed 

the  Senate. 


$1,279,314  79 

1,440,000  00 

4,728,215  00 

60,264,805  45 

143,135,213  00 

116,839,594  00 

18,863,932  23 

106,640,033  71 

67,030,332  70 

86,467,720  35 

21,279,100  00 


Laws  for 

1877,  1878,  1879, 

1880. 


$1,179,021  33 

1,140,000  00 

4,489,542  00 

54,464,7.52  45 

137,547,617  00 

116,804,074  00 

18,837,381  98 

103,980,153  91 

62,594,617  66 

76,630,091  21 

22,899,494  61 


$627,968,261  23  $600,566,746  15 


DEMOCRATIC   HOUSE   REDUCTIONS. 

Aggregate  of  Reductions  in  the  11  great  appropriations  for  the  support  of  the 
government  for  the  fiscal  years  1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880  (passed  by  a  Democratic 
House),  showing  : 

1st,  Reductions  made  in  bills  as  originally  passed  the  House  of  Representatives 
under  the  amounts  estimated  for  by  the  Departments  ;  2d,  The  amounts  added 
by  the  Republican  Senate  ;  3d,  Reductions  under  amounts  appropriated  for  the 
years  1873,  1874, 1875  and  1876,  Congress  then  being  Republican  in  both  branches. 


Title  op  Act. 


Military  Academy . 
Fortifications 


Consular  and  Diplomatic 

Navy 

Post-Office . .' 

Pensions 

Indian 

Army '. 

Legislative,  Executive  and  Judicial. 

Sundry  Civil 

Biver  and  Harbor 


Reductions  made  by 
the  House  under 
the  Amount  Esti- 
mated for  by  the 
Departments. 


$678,570  67 

6,369,000  00 

857,502  50 

17,734,334  19 

12,647,409  42 

377,926  00 

3,610,174  61 

29,102,779  38 

11,056,238  29 

40,976,295  66 

26,835,650  00 


Amounts  added  to 
the  House  Bills  by 
the  Senate. 


$173,120  46 

325,000  00 

594,212  50 

7,276,844  70 

8,119,713  00 

35,020  00 

994,076  72 

9,805,378  01 

6,331,657  99 

21,627,434  85 

2,275,950  00 


House  Reductions 
for  four  years ; 
1877,  1878,  1879 
and  1880.  Under 
four  years ;  1873, 
1874, 1875  and  1876 


$268,799  55 
4,575,000  00 
3,176,804  50 
25,399,983  45 
* 

4,135,426  00 
5,062,231  94 
19,367,298  43 
14,779,745  43 
41,148,352  39 
4,549,267  50 


Lees  increase. 


$150,245,880  72 


$57,558,408  23 


$122,462,909  18 
*685,915  16 

$121,776,994  03 


DEMOCRATIC   LAW   REDUCTIONS. 

For  the  44th  and  45th  Congress  (Republican  Senate  and  Democratic  House  of 
Representatives),  in  the  appropriations  for  the  fiscal  years  ended  June  30,  1877, 
1878,  1879  and  1880. 

1. — Under  the  amounts  estimated  for  by  the  Republican  administration. 


518 


APPEOPRIATIONS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 


2.  —Increased  amounts  added  by  the  Republican  Senate  to  the  bills  as  they 
passed  the  Democratic  House. 

3.— Actual  reductions  in  the  laws  for  1877,  1878,  1879  and  1880  under  laws 
for  1873,  1874,  1875  and  1876. 


Title  of  Acts. 


Military  Academy 

Fortifications 

Consular  and  Diplomatic 

Navy 

Post-Office 

Pension 

Indian 

Army 

Legis.,  Ex.  and  Judicial. . 

Sundry  Civil 

River  and  Harbor 


1. 

Reduction  under 
the  amounts 

estimated  for  by 

the  Deparments, 
for  the  fiscal 

years  ended  June 
30,  1877,  1878, 
1879  and  1880. 


S605. 

6,344, 

501. 

16,257; 

10,115; 

378, 

2,642, 
21,957. 

9,160, 
29,186, 


743  67 
000  Oo 
953  00 
.^42  49 
292  42 
426  00 
648  14 
281  17 
295  34 
489  95 
305  39 


$120,088,987  57 


2. 

Increased 
amount  secured 

by  action  of 
the  Senate  over 
bills  as  passed 
by  the  House 
for  fiscal  years 
ended  June  30, 
1877,  1878,    1879 
and    1880. 


$72,827  00 
25,000  00 

355,539  50 
1,476,791  70 
2,532,117  00 


967,526  46 

7,145,498  21 

1,895,942  95 

11,789.805  71 

3,896,344  61 


$30,157,393  15 
Less  increase.. 

Net  Reduction 


3. 

Reductions  in 

laws  for 
1877,  1878,    1879 
and  1880,  under 

laws  for 

1873,  1874,   1875 

and  1876. 


$195 
4,550, 

2,821 ; 

23,923 


,972  55 
000  00 
265  00 
191  75 


4,135, 

4,094; 

12.221, 

12,883; 

29,358. 

652; 


926  00 
,705  47 
800  22 
802  47 
546  68 


$94,838,133  03 
3,218,032  16 


$91,620,100  87 


Increase. 


$3,218,032  1& 


$3,218,032  16 


*$500.  00  decrease. 


DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE     519. 


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DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE. 


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522 


APPROPRIATIONS    AND    EXPENDITURES. 


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DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY REPUBLICAN    EXTRAVAGANCE. 


523 


CIVIL  LIST  AND  NET  ORDINARY  EXPENDITURES  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES  GOV- 
ERNMENT, BY  PERIODS  OF  FOUR  YEARS,  AND  ADMINISTRATIONS  FROM  THE 
ORGANIZATION  OP  THE  GOVERNMENT. 


Administration. 

Datbs. 

Civil  List. 

Net  Ordinary 
Expenditures. 

1  Washington 

1789  to  Dec.  31,  1792 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1796 
4  years,  Dec  31,  1800 
4years,  Dec.  31,  1804 
4year!^,  Dec,  31,  1808 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1812 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1816 
4years,  Dec.  31,  1820 
4years,  Dec.  31,1824 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1828 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1832 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1836 
4  years,  Dec.  31,  1840 
4  years,  June  30, 1845 
4years,  June  30, 1849 
4  years,  June  30, 1853 
4  years,  June  30, 1857 
4  years,  June  30, 1861 
4  years,  June  30, 1865 
4  years,  June  30, 1869 
4  years,  June  30, 1873 
4  years,  June  30, 1877 

$1,138,052  03 

1,607,969  07 

2,329,433  08 

2,297,648  17 

2,616,772  77 

2,887,197  98 

3,768,342  61 

4,494,606  42 

4,665,602  11 

5,271,124  34 

6,081,307  73 

7,659,086  86 

9,899,496  58 

11,508,546  86 

10,615,571  14 

14,214,458  90 

25,036,171  74 

25,180,671  33 

30,765,508  71 

66,412,391  61 

69,989,774  16 

69,313,353  23 

$3,797,493  20 

2  Washington 

12,093,205  35 
21,348,351  19 
17,174,432  96 

4  Jefferson    .                  .... 

25,926,355  72 
36,117,357  98 

6  Madison 

7  Madison 

108,537,086  89 

8  Mnnroe...7 

57,698.0S7  71 

9  Muuroe  

45,665,421  88 

10  J.  O.  Adams 

11  Jackson 

12  Jackson 

50,501,913  31 
56,270,480  62 
89,522,286  68 

13  Van  Buren 

121,729,801  16 

104,360,163  10 

15  Polk  

165,381,026  34 

16  Taylor 

165,684,050  48 

17  Pierce , 

18  Buchanan 

232,820,632  35 
261,165,809  62 

19  Lincoln  

3,176,017,346  93 

20  Johnson  

1,012,420,202  14 

21  Grant 

656.066,892  39 

22  Grant  . . ; 

684,716,609  91 

For  one  year  ending  June  30, 
Hayes 

1878: 

15,450,345  30 
15,430,781  30 
16,287,457  73 

153,608,681  28 

June  30,  1879 
June  30,  1880 

163,406,493  27 
161,360,037  17 

ARMY,    NAVY  AND   PENSION   APPROPllIATIONS. 

It  is  not  infrequently  the  case  that  the  charge  is  made  by  Republicans  in  Con- 
gress and  by  the  Republican  press  that  the  Democracy  are  not  disposed  to  make 
liberal  appropriations  for  the  army  and  navy  and  for  the  pensions  of  soldiers.  As 
facts  and  figures  are  more  convincing  than  argument  and  expostulation,  we  sub- 
mit the  following  table  carefully  prepared  from  the  statutes: 

APPROPRIATIONS  ON  ACCOUNT  OP  THE  ARMY,  NAVY  AND  PENSIONS  FOR  THE 
TEN  FISCAL  YEARS  COMMENCING  1871  AND  ENDING  1880. 


Years. 

Army. 

Navy. 

Total  Army 
and  Navy, 

Pensions. 

Total  each 
Year. 

1871 

$29,321,367  22 
27,719,580  00 
28,6a3,615  32 
31,796,008  81 
27,788,500  0 ) 
27,933,830  00 
25,987,167  90 
25,612,500  00 
25,593,486  01 
26,788,300  00 
15,675,447  00 

$19,250,290  29 
19,832,317  25 
18,296,733  95 
22,276,257  65 
20,813,946  20 
17,001,006  40 
12,742,1.55  40 
13,541,024  40 
14,152,603  70 
14,029,968  95 
7,630,160  00 

$48,571,657  51 
47,551,897  25 
46,980,349  27 
54,072,266  46 
48,602,446  20 
44,934,836  40 
38,729,323  30 
39,153,524  40 
39,746,089  71 
40,818,268  95 
23,305,607  00 

$30,000,000  00 
29,050,000  00 
30,480,000  00 
30,480,000  00 
29,!'8O,0O0  00 
30,000,000  00 
29,533,500  00 
28,533,000  00 
29,-371,574  00 
56,233,200  00 
9,930,000  00 

$78,571,657  51 
76,601,897  25 
77,460,349  27 
84,552,266  46 
78,.582  446  20 

1872 

1873 

1674  

1875 

1876  

74,934,836  40 
68,262,823  30 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 

67,686,524  40 
69,117,663  71 
97,051,468  95 
33,2:35,607  00 

Deficiencies.... 

Grand  Totals... 

$292,899,802  26 

$179,566,464  19 

$472,466,266  45 

$333,591,274  00 

$806,057,540  45 

Estimating  the  average  population  of  the  country  for  the  past  ten  years  at 
44,807,000,  a  liberal  estimate,  the  pei'  capita  cost  of  the  army  during  that  period 
has  been  $6.53,  of  the  Navy  $4.01,  and  of  pensions  $7.44,  or  $17.98  for  the  three 
combined,  which  is  equal  to  a  per  annum  cost  pei'  capita  ©f  $1.79. 


524  PATRONAGE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES    GOVERNMENT. 


PATRONAGE  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES  . 
GOYERNMENT.  i 


[From  the  Express  Almanac.'\ 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  following  table  that  the  Navy  Department  contains  a 
list  of  only  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  civilians  in  its  employ.  It  is  difficult 
to  account  for  this  glaring  omission,  but  by  accepting  the  statement  of  a  politi- 
cian who  remarked  that  (politically)  a  late  Secretary  of  the  Navy  "knew  how  to 
run  his  department."  A  careful  estimate  of  the  number  of  civil  employees  in 
this  department,  shows  that  in  times  of  peacr,  wtich  means  that  portion  of  the 
year  in  which  elections  do  not  occur,  it  does  not  vary  much  from  10,500. 

In  the  table  of  Post-Office  Department,  page  i)0,  the  total  number  of  employees, 
as  recorded  in  the  "Official  Register,"  is  63,672.  This  is  probably  only  about 
two-thirds  of  the  number  of  persons  (contractors  excepted)  who  are  employed, 
directly  and  indirectly,  in  this  branch  of  the  government  service.  In  giving  its 
list  of  employees,  this  department  only  records  those  which  it  directly  pays,  and 
has  no  definite  knowledge  of  the  deputy  clerks,  which  are  generally  hired  by 
postmasters.  It  has  been  estimated  by  some  officers  in  the  Postmaster-General's 
office  that  the  number  of  deputy  clerks  in  post-offices  are  equal  to  the  number  of 
postmasters,  or  an  average  of  one  to  each  post-office  in  the  country.  As  the 
number  of  postmasters  at  the  close  of  the  present  fiscal  year  was  40,855,  this 
would  swell  the  patronage  of  the  Post-office  Department  to  the  enormous  figures 
of  100,000  employees.  But,  casting  this  estimate  aside,  the  number  officially 
known  to  the  department,  as  recorded  in  table  on  page  30  of  Official  Register, 
is  766,500. 

In  the  Treasury  Department,  the  tables  on  page  29,  are  short  over  three  thou- 
sand names,  as  compared  to  the  number  which  were  employed  at  the  end  of  the 
present  fiscal  year. 

In  the  Judiciary  Department,  the  "  Register  "  contains  the  record  of  only  six- 
ty-five United  States  marshals,  and  not  one  supervisor  of  elections.  A  careful 
estimate  shows  that  there  are,  altogether,  fully  2,500  deputy  marshals  and  clerks 
in  marshals'  oflices.  It  is  also  not  an  overestimate  to  say  that  in  times  of  Con- 
gressional elections  there  are  about  six  thousand  United  States  supervisors.  In 
addition  to  all  these,  there  are  some  five  thousand  men  employed  in  the  different 
international  improvements  prosecuted  by  the  government.  Taking  all  these 
facts,  we  have  the  following  as  the  total  of  the  patronage  of  the  national  admin- 
istration : 


PUBLIC    DEBT PRINCIPAL    AND    INTEREST.  525 

Number  of  Employees  recorded  in  ' '  Register  " 74,431 

Deficiency  as  to  Naval  Department 10,500 

Deficiency  as  to  Post-OfBce  Department 6,500 

Deficiency  as  to  Treasury  Department _  3,000 

Deficiency  as  to  Deputy  Marshals  and  Clerks. 2,500 

Deficiency  as  to  Supervisors  of  Election 6,000 

Deficiency  as  to  Employees  on  Internal  Improvements 5,000 

Total - - 107,931 


INTEREST  ON  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT. 

The  interest  paid  on  the  public  debt  for  the  fiscal  years  from  1873  to  1879  in- 
clusive, is,  according  to  the  official  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  as  fol- 
lows: 

1873 $104,750,688  44 

1874 107,119,815  31 

1875 103,093,544  77 

1876 100,243,271  23 

1877 . 97,124,511  58 

1878 - - 102,500,874  05 

1879..-. .- 105,327,949  00 


PRINCIPAL  OF  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT. 

In  the  oMcial  report  of  the  Secretaiy  of  the  Treasury  is  the  following  statement 
of  outstanding  principal  of  the  public  debt  on  July  1st,  from  1869  to  1879,  in- 
clusive : 

1869. $2,588,452,213  94 

1870 2,480,672,427  81 

1871 2,353,211,332  32 

1872. 2,253,251,328  78 

1873.. 2,234,482,993  20 

1874 2,251,690,468  43 

1875. • 2,232,284,531  95 

1876 2,180,395,067  15 

1877... 2,205,301,392  10 

1878 2,256,205,892  53 

1879.... 2,349.567,482  04 


526 


TERRITORY    OF   THE    UNITED    STATES    GOVERNMENT. 


THE  TERRITORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  SHOWING  ITS  ORIGINAL  EXTENT; 
HOW,  WHEN,  AND  UNDER  WHAT  ADMINISTRATION  IT  HAS  BEEN  IN- 
CREASED; ALSO  AREA  OF  THE  STATES  AND  TERRITORIES  BY  SQUARE 
MILES  AND    ACRES. 


(Taken from  the  9th  official  census.) 

State 

or 

Territory. 

*  GO 

LouisianaPurchase, 

1803. 
By  Thos.  Jefferson. 

1  § 

PQ 

11. 

m 
ill 

%    I 

u 

PhSc 

Alaska  Purchase, 

1868. 
Andrew  Johnson. 

Total 
Square 
Miles. 

Total 
Acres. 

AlnhflTnfl 

48,422 

2,300 

50,722 
113,916 
52  198 

32  462  080 

Arizona 

82,381 

31,.535 

72,'906!240 

Arkansas 

52,198 

^^  aoR  79n 

577,390 

577.390     369;529;606' 
188,981     120,947,840 
104,500      66,880,000 
4,750         3,^40,000 
150.932      96,596.480 
2,120        1,356,800 
64 1            40,960 
59,268      37,931,520 
58,000      37,120,000 
86,294      55,228,160 
55,410'      35,462,400 
33,809!      21,637,760 
68,991!      44,154,240 
55,045      35,228,800 
81,318      52,043,520 
37,680       24,115,200 
41,346       26,461,440 
35,000       22,400,000 

California 

188,981 
47,500 

57,000 

4,750 

Dakota 

150,932 

2,120 
64 

District  of  Columbia 

59,268 

Georffia 

58,000 

Idaho               

86,294 

Illinois 

55,410 
33,809 

Indian  Territory 

68,991 

55,045 
73,542 

Kansas 

7,776 

Kentucky 

37,680 

Louisiana        

37,602 

3,744 

Maine 

35,666 
11,124 
7,800 
56,451 
26,000 
43,556 

11,124         7.119..«lf>n 

Massachusetts 

7,800 
56,451 
83,531 
47,156 
65,350 

143,776 
75,995 

104,125 

4,992,000 
36,128,640 
53,459,840 
30,179,840 
41,824.000 
92,016,640 

Minnesota 

57,531 

3,600 

Missouri       

65,350 
143,776 

Montana 

75,995 

...   . 

48,636,800 
fififi4nnno 

Nevada 

104,125 

New  Hampshire 

9,280 
8,320 

9,280        5,939,200 

8,3?20        5,324,800 

121,201  ,    77,568.640 

107,201 

14,000 

New  York 

47,000 
50,704 
39,964 

47,000      30,080,000 

North  Carolina 

50,704       .^2.4.50 .560 

Ohio   

39,964 
95,274 
46,0U0 
1,306 
34,000 
45,600 
274,356 

25,576,960 

Oregon           

95,274 

60,975,360 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode  Island 

46,000 

1,306 

34,000 

45,600 

29.440,000 

835,840 

South  Carolina    .  . 

21,760,000 
29,184,000 

17.'S.!iR7fi4n 

Texas     

274,356 

Utah 

84,476 

84,476      54,064,640 

Vermont  

ib,2i2 

38,348 

■'23,666 
53,924 

10,212        6,535,680 

Virginia 

Washington  Territory 
West  Virginia 

38,348      24,542,720 

69,994 

69,994       44,796,160 

23,000      14,720,000 

53,924       34,511,360 

Wyoming  Territory. . 

83,563 

14,320 

97,883       62,645,120 

827,844 

1,173,087 

68,912 

274,356 

636,760 

45,535 

577,390 

3,603,884 

2,306,485,760 

SQUANDERING    THE    PUBLIC    DOMAIN. 


529 


Maine 35,000 

New  Hampshire 9,300 

Vermont 10,200 

Maspachiisetts 7,800 

Rhode  Island 1,300 


AREAS  IN   SQUARE   MILES. 

Connecticut 4,700 

NewYork 47,000 

New  Jersey 8,000 

Pennsylvania 46,000 

Delaware 2,100 


Maryland 11,000 

Ohio 40,000 

Indiana 33,800 

Total........  256,200 


Republican  land  grants,  294,758  square  miles. 
Valuation  per  acre,  average,  $2.50. 
Total  valuation,  $736,895,000. 


34 


530 


LOANING    THE    PUBLIC    CREDIT    TO    CORPORATIONS. 


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SOMe  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK  S  ORDERS.  5(.l 


SOME  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK'S  ORDERS 

WHILE  IN  COMMAND  OF  THE  FIFTH  MILITARY  DISTRICT, 


AGAINST  REMOVAL  OP  CIVIL  OFFICERS  BY  MILITARY-PROHIBITING  MILITARY 
INTERFERENCE  IN  SELECTION  OF  JURORS  — SUSTAINING  JURISDICTION  OF 
CIVIL  COURTS  — PROHIBITING  MILITARY  AT  THE  POLLS -AGAINST  STAY  OF 
CIVIL  PROCESS— AGAINST  MILITARY  COMMISSIONS-ON  ELECTIONS-DISCLAIM- 
ING JUDICIAL  FUNCTIONS -DECLINES  TO  EXERCISE  RIGHT  OF  EMINENT  DO- 
MAIN-REVOKING ORDERS  INTERFERING  WITH  REGISTRATION— CONCERNING 
TAXATION-LETTER  AGAINST  USURPATION  OF  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 


The  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to  direct  the  attention  of  those  whom,  for 
political  or  other  reasons,  it  may  concern,  to  the  services  of  General  Hancock  in 
maintaining  the  civil  rights  of  citizens.  The  celebrated  order  No.  40  and  also 
General  Hancock's  letter  to  Gov.  Pease  have  been  produced  in  the  Life  of  the 
General,  which  will  be  found  in  another  part  of  this  book.  The  object  here  is  to 
present  a  few  from  a  large  number  of  General  Hancock's  orders  and  letters, 
which  exhibit  his  exalted  statesmanship  on  all  the  questions  of  importance  upon 
which  he  was  called  upon  to  act  in  his  civil  career  in  Louisiana  and  Texas.  The 
documents  selected  are  but  a  few  out  of  a  mass  of  similar  material.  But  they  will 
be  sufficient  to  illustrate  the  principles  upon  which  his  administration  of  public 
affairs  was  conducted. 

ORDER  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK  REVOKING  A  SUMMARY  REMOVAL 
FROM  OFFICE,  MADE  BY  HIS  PREDECESSOR,  AND  REFERRING 
THE  COMPLAINT  TO  THE  JUDICIAL  TRIBUNALS. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  December  4,  1867.      ) 
Special  Orders  No.  203. 

[extract.] 
«  *  *  *  *  «  *  *  *  * 

2.  Paragraph  3,  of  special  orders  No.  188,  from  these  headquarters,  dated  No- 
vember 16th,  1867,  issued  by  Brevet  Major-General  Mower,  removing  P.  R. 
O'Rourke,  Clerk  of  Second  District  Court,  JParish  of  Orleans,  for  malfeasance  in 
office,  and  appointing  R.  L.  Shelly  in  his  stead,  is  hereby  revoked,  and  P.  R. 
O'Rourke  is  reinstated  in  said  office. 
If  any  charges  are  set  up  against  the  said  O'Rourke,  the  judicial  department  of 


532  SOME  OF  GENERAL 

the  government  is  sufficient  to  take  whatever  action  may  be  necessary  in  the 
premises. 

********** 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 
[Official.] 

ORDER  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK  REVOKING  THE  ORDER  OF  HI^ 
PREDECESSOR  WHICH  INTERFERED  WITH  THE  SELECTION 
OF  JURORS,  AND  DEFINING  THE  TRUE  AND  PROPER  USE  OF 
MILITARY  POWER. 


Special  Orders  No.  203. 


Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  December  5,  1867.      j" 


[extract.] 
*  * 


2.  The  true  and  proper  use  of  military  power,  besides  defending  the  national 
honor  against  foreign  nations,  is  to  uphold  the  laws  and  civil  government,  and  to 
secure  to  every  person  residing  among  us,  the  enjoyment  of  life,  liberty  and 
property.  It  is  accordingly  made,  by  act  of  Congress,  the  duty  of  the  commander 
of  this  district  to  protect  all  persons  in  those  rights,  to  suppress  disorder  and 
violence,  and  to  punish,  or  cause  to  be  punished,  all  disturbers  of  the  public  peace 
and  criminals. 

The  Commanding  General  has  been  officially  informed  that  the  administration 
of  justice,  and  especially  of  criminal  justice,  in  the  courts,  is  clogged,  if  not 
entirely  frustrated,  by  the  enforcement  of  paragraph  No,  2,  of  the  military  order 
numbered  special  orders  125,  current  series,  from  these  headquarters,  issued  on 
the  24th  of  August,  A.  D.  1867,  relative  to  the  qualifications  of  persons  to  be 
placed  on  the  jury  lists  of  the  state  of  Louisiana. 

To  determine  who  shall,  and  who  shall  not  be  jurors,  appertains  to  the  legis- 
lative power  ;  and  until  the  laws  in  existence  regulating  this  subject  shall  be 
amended  or  changed  by  that  department  of  the  civil  government,  which  the  con- 
stitutions of  all  the  states  under  our  republican  system  vest  with  that  power,  it 
is  deemed  best  to  carry  out  the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed  in  the  last  legis- 
lative act  upon  this  subject. 

The  qualification  of  a  juror,  under  the  law,  is  a  proper  subject  for  the  decision 
of  the  courts.  The  Commanding  General,  in  the  discharge  of  the  trust  reposed 
in  him,  will  maintain  the  just  power  of  the  judiciary,  and  is  unwilling  to  permit 
the  civil  authorities  and  laws  to  be  embarrassed  by  military  interference  ;  and  as 
it  is  an  established  fact  that  the  administration  of  justice  in  the  ordinary  tribunals 
is  greatly  embarrassed  by  the  operations  of  paragraph  No.  2,  special  orders  No. 
125,  current  series,  from  these  headquarters,  it  is  ordered  that  said  paragraph, 
which  relates  to  the  qualifica!  ions  of  persons  to  be  placed  on  the  jury  lists  of  the 
state  of  Louisiana,  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  revoked,  and  that  the  trial  by  jury 
be  henceforth  regulated  and  controlled  by  the  constitution  and  civil  laws,  with- 
out regard  to  any  military  orders  heretofore  issued  from  these  headquarters. 
********** 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 
[Official.] 


SOME  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK's  ORDERS.  533 

ORDER  SUSTAINING  THE  JURISDICTION  OF  THE  CIVIL   COURTS 
OVER  THE  RIGHTS  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY. 


Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District, 
New  Orleans,  La.,  December  16,  1867. 


Special  Orders  No.  311. 


EXTRACT. 

*  * 


4  Paragraph  3,  of  special  orders  No.  197,  current  series,  from  these  headquar- 
ters, issued  by  Brevet  Major-General  J.  A.  Mower,  in  the  matter  of  the  estate  of 
D.  B.  Staats,  is  hereby  revoked,  the  local  tribunals  possessing  ample  power  for 
the  protection  of  all  parties  concerned.  The  property  in  dispute  will  be  restored 
to  the  possession  of  the  party  entitled  to  the  same  by  order  of  court. 

********** 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 
[Official.] 

ORDER  TO  SECURE  THE  PURITY  OF  ELECTIONS,  AND  TO  PRE- 
VENT MILITARY  INTERFERENCE  AT  THE  POLLS. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  December  18,  1867.      ) 
Special  Orders  No.  213. 

extract. 
I.  In  compliance  with  the  supplementary  act  of  Congress  of  March  23d,  1867, 
notice  is  hereby  given  that  an  election  will  be  held  in  the  state  of  Texas  on  the 
10th,  11th,  12th,  13th  and  14th  days  of  February,  1868,  to  determine  whether  a 
convention  shall  be  held,  and  for  delegates  thereto,  "to  form  a  constitution  "  for 
the  state  under  said  act. 

********** 

IX.  Military  interference  with  elections,  "unless  it  shall  be  necessary  to  keep 
the  peace  at  the  polls,"  is  prohibited  by  law,  and  no  soldiers  will  be  allowed  to 
appear  at  any  polling  place,  unless  as  citizens  of  the  state  they  are  registered  as 
voters,  and  then  only  for  the  purpose  of  voting  ;  but  the  commanders  of  posts 
will  be  prepared  to  act  promptly  if  the  civil  authorities  fail  to  preserve  the  peace. 

X.  The  sheriff  and  other  peace  officers  of  each  county  are  required  to  be  pres- 
ent during  the  whole  time  the  polls  are  kept  open,  and  until  the  election  is  com- 
pleted, and  will  be  made  responsible  that  there  shall  be  no  interference  with 
judges  of  election,  or  other  interruption  of  good  order. 

As  an  additional  measure  to  secure  the  purity  of  the  election,  each  registrar  or 
clerk  is  hereby  clothed,  during  the  election,  with  authority  to  call  upon  the  civil 
officers  of  the  county  to  make  arrests,  and  in  case  of  failure  of  the  aforesaid  civil 
officers,  are  empowered  to  perform  their  duties  during  the  election.  They  will 
make  full  report  of  such  failures  on  the  part  of  civil  officers  to  the  Commanding 
General,  Fifth  Military  District,  through  the  headquarters.  District  of  Texas,  for 
orders  in  each  case. 

********** 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 
[Official]. 


534 

ON  THE  STAY  OF  CIVIL  PROCESS. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  V 

Office  of  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs.  y 

New  Orleans,  La.,  December  20,  1876.  ) 

The  Hon.  E.  Heath,  Mayor  of  New  Orleans : 

Sir: — In  answer  to  your  communication  of  the  30th  ult.,  requesting  his  inter- 
vention in  staying  proceedings  in  suits  against  tlie  city  on  its  notes,  the  Major- 
General  Commanding  directs  me  to  respectfully  submit  his  views  to  you  on  that 
subject,  as  follows : 

Such  a  proceeding  on  his  part  would,  in  fact,  be  a  stay-law  in  favor  of  the  ^ 
city  of  New  Orleans,  which,  under  the  Constitution,  could  not  be  enacted  by  ther^^ 
legislature  of  the  state,  and  in  his  judgment  such  a  power  ought  to  be  exercised      ^ 
by  him,  if  at  all,  only  in  a  case  of  the  most  urgent  necessity.  ^ 

That  the  notes  referred  to  were  issued  originally  in  violation  of  the  charter  of 
the  city,  cannot  be  denied ;  but  the  illegal  act  has  since  been  ratified  by  the  legis- 
lature. The  corporation  is  therefore  bound  to  pay  them ;  and-  even  if  a  defense 
could  be  made  on  technical  grounds,  it  would  be  disgraceful  for  the  city  to  avail 
itself  of  it.  Why,  then,  should  the  creditors  of  the  city  be  prevented  from  resort- 
ing to  the  means  given  them  to  enforce  the  obligation  ? 

In  support  of  your  application  you  state  that  the  city  is  unable  to  pay  its  debts. 
This  is  unfortuately  the  case  with  most  debtors;  and  on  that  ground  nearly  all 
other  debtors  would  be  equally  entitled  to  the  same  relief. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  this  state  has  decided  that  taxes  due  a  municipal  corpo- 
ration cannot  be  seized,  under  execution,  by  a  creditor  of  the  corporation,  nor  is 
any  other  property  used  for  municipal  purposes  liable  to  seizure.  If,  therefore,  a 
constable  levies  an  execution  on  such  property,  he  is  a  trespasser,  and  the  city 
has  its  remedy  against  him  in  the  proper  tribunal. 

It  does  not,  therefore,  seem  to  the  Major-General  Commanding  that  there  is  an 
urgent  necessity  which  would  justify  his  interference  in  the  manner  required.  Be- 
sides, the  expediency  of  such  a  measure  is  more  than  questionable  ;  for,  instead  of 
reinstating  the  confidence  of  the  public  in  city  notes,  it  would  probably  destroy  it 
altogether. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col.,  U.  8.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 

ON   THE   TRIAL   OF   OFFENDERS   AGAINST   THE   LAWS    OF   THE 

STATE. 


Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District, 
Office  of  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs, 
New  Orleans,  La,,  December  28. 


aRS,      y 
,  1876.  ) 


His  Excellency  E.  M.  Pease,  GoDernor  of  Texas: 

Sir  :  Brevet  Major-General  J.  J.  Reynolds,  commanding  District  of  Texas,  in  a 
communication  dated  Austin,  Texas,  November  19,  1867,  requests  that  a  military 
commission  may  be  ordered  "for  the  trial  of  one  G.  W.  Wall,  and  such  other 
prisoners  as  may  be  brought  before  it,"  and  forwards,  in  support  of  the  request, 
the  following  papers: 

1st,  A  printed  account  taken  from  a  newspaper  dated  Uvalde,  October , 

1867  (contained  in  a  letter  of  James  H.  Taylor,  and  in  another  from  Dr.  Ansell, 
U.  S.  Surgeon  at  For  t  Inge),  of  the  murder  of  R.  W.  Black,  on  the day  of 


635 

October,  1867.  In  this  account  it  is  stated  Mr.  Black  was  shot  through  the  heart 
by  G.  W.  Wall  "while  lying  on  the  counter  at  Mr.  Thomas'  store." 

2d.  A  letter  of  Judge  G.  H.  Noonan  to  Governor  Pease,  dated  November  10, 
1867,  informing  him  that  "Wall,  Thacker  and  Pulliam  are  in  confinement  in 
Uvalde  county  for  murder."  In  this  letter  it  is  asked,  "Would  it  not  be  best  to 
try  them  by  military  commission?" 

3d.  A  letter  from  Governor  Pease,  dated  "Executive  of  Texas,  Austin,  Novem- 
ber 11,  1867,"  in  which  the  governor  states  that  he  received  a  telegram  from 
Judge  G.  H.  Noonan,  an  extract  from  which  I  transmit  herewith.  In  the  letter 
of  the  governor  the  further  statement  is  made  that  "  Uvalde  county,  where  the 
prisoners  are  confined,  is  on  the  extreme  western  frontier  of  the  state,  and 
lias  only  about  one  hundred  voters  in  a  territory  of  about  nine  hundred 
square  miles;"  and  he  then  adds,  "It  is  not  probable  that  they  (meaning 
the  prisoners)  can  be  kept  in  confinement  long  enough  ever  to  be  tried  by 
the  civil  courts  of  that  county  ;  and  express  the  opinion  that  they  never  "can  be 
brought  to  trial  unless  it  is  done  before  a  military  commission. "  And  he  there- 
fore asks  that  a  military  commission  be  ordered  for  their  trial. 

From  an  examination  of  the  papers  submitted  to  the  commander  of  the  Fifth 
Military  District,  it  does  not  appear  that  there  is  any  indisposition  or  unwilling- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  local  civil  tribunals  to  take  jurisdiction  of  and  to  try  the 
prisoners  in  question  ;  and  a  suggestion  made  by  the  governor  that  it  is  not  prob- 
able that  the  prisoners  can  be  kept  in  confinement  long  enough  to  be  tried  by  the 
civil  courts  (and  which  is  apparently  based  on  the  fact  that  Uvalde  county  is  a 
frontier  county,  and  does  not  contain  more  than  a  hundred  voters),  seems  to  be  the 
only  foundation  on  which  the  request  for  the  creation  of  a  military  commission  is 
based.  This,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Commanding  General,  is  not  sufficient  to  justify 
him  in  the  exercise  of  the  extraordinary  power  vested  in  him  by  law  "  to  organize 
military  commissions  or  tribunals  "  for  the  trial  of  persons  charged  with  offenses 
against  the  laws  of  a  state. 

It  is  true  that  the  third  section  of  "  An  Act  to  provide  for  the  more 
efficient  government  of  the  Rebel  States,"  makes  it  the  duty  of  the 
commanders  of  military  districts  "to  punish,  or  caused  to  be  pun- 
ished, all  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  and  criminals ; "  but  the 
same  section  also  declares  that  "  to  that  end  he  may  allow  local  civil  tribunals  to 
take  jurisdiction  of  and  to  try  offenders. "  The  further  power  given  to  him  in 
the  same  section,  "  when  in  his  judgment  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  trial  of  of- 
fenders," to  organize  military  commissions  for  that  purpose,  is  an  extraordinary 
power,  and  from  its  very  nature  should  be  exercised  for  the  trial  of  offenders 
against  the  laws  of  a  state  only  in  the  extraordinary  event  that  the  local  civil  tri- 
bunals are  unwilling  or  unable  to  enforce  the  laws  against  crime. 

At  this  time  the  country  is  in  a  state  of  profound  peace.  The  state  government 
of  Texas,  organized  in  subordination  to  the  authority  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  is  in  the  full  exercise  of  all  its  proper  powers.  The  courts,  duly 
empowered  to  administer  the  laws,  and  to  punish  all  offenders  against  those  laws, 
are  in  existence.  No  unwillingness  on  the  part  of  these  courts  is  suggested  to  in- 
quire into  the  offenses  with  which  the  prisoners  in  question  are  charged,  nor  are 
any  obstructions  whatever  in  the  way  of  enforcing  the  laws  against  them  said  to 
exist.  Under  such  circumstances  there  is  no  good  ground  for  the  exercise  of  the 
extraordinary  power  vested  in  the  commander  to  organize  a  military  commission 
for  the  trial  of  the  persons  named. 

It  must  be  a  matter  of  profound  regret  to  all  who  value  constitutional  govern- 


536 

ment,  that  there  should  be  occasions  in  times  of  civil  commotion,  when  the  public 
good  imperatively  requires  the  intervention  of  the  military  power  for  the  repres- 
sion of  disorders  in  the  body  politic,  and  for  the  punishment  of  offenses  against 
the  existing  laws  of  a  country  framed  for  the  preservation  of  social  order  ;  but 
that  the  intervention  of  this  power  should  be  called  for,  or  even  suggested,  by 
civil  magistrates,  when  the  laws  are  no  longer  silent  and  civil  magistrates  are 
possessed,  in  their  respective  spheres,  of  all  the  powers  necessary  to  give  effect 
to  the  laws,  excites  the  surprise  of  the  commander  of  the  Fifth  Military 
District. 

In  his  view  it  is  of  evil  example,  and  full  of  danger  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and 
good  government,  that  the  exercise  of  the  military  power,  through  military 
tribunals  created  for  the  trial  of  offenses  against  the  civil  law,  should  ever  be  per- 
mitted, when  the  ordinary  powers  of  the  existing  state  governments  are  ample  for 
the  punishment  of  offenders,  if  those  charged  with  the  administration  of  the  laws 
are  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties. 

If  the  means  at  the  disposal  of  the  state  authorities  are  insuflacient  to  secure  the 
confinement  of  the  persons  named  in  the  communication  of  the  governor  of  the 
state  of  Texas  to  the  general  commanding  there,  until  they  can  be  legally  tried,  on 
the  fact  being  made  known  to  him,  the  commander  of  the  district  will  supply  the 
means  to  retain  them  in  confinement,  and  the  commanding  ofllcer  of  the  troops  in 
Texas  is  so  authorized  to  act.  If  there  are  reasons  in  existence  which  justify  an 
apprehension  that  the  prisoners  cannot  be  fairly  tried  in  that  county,  let  the 
proper  civil  officers  have  the  "  venue  "  changed  for  the  trial,  as  provided  for  by 
the  laws  of  Texas. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  commander  of  the  Fifth  Military  District,  the  existing 
government  of  the  state  of  Texas  possesses  all  the  powers  necessary  for  the 
proper  and  prompt  trial  of  the  prisoners  in  question  in  due  course  of  law 

If  these  powers  are  not  exercised  for  that  purpose,  the  failure  to  exercise  them 
can  be  attributed  only  to  the  indolence  or  culpable  inefficiency  of  the  officers  now 
charged  with  the  execution  and  enforcement  of  the  laws  under  the  authority  of 
the  state  government ;  and  if  there  is  such  a  failure,  in  the  instance  mentioned, 
on  the  part  of  those  officers  to  execute  the  laws,  it  will  then  become  the  duty  of 
the  commander  to  remove  the  officers  who  fail  to  discharge  the  duties  imposed 
on  them,  and  to  replace  them  with  others  who  will  discharge  them. 

Should  these  means  fail,  and  it  be  found,  on  further  experience,  that 
there  are  not  a  sufficient  number  of  persons  among  the  people  now 
exercising  political  power  in  Texas,  to  supply  the  public  with  officers 
who  will  enforce  the  laws  of  the  state,  it  will  then  become  necessary  for  the  com- 
mander of  the  Fifth  Military  District  to  exercise  the  powers  vested  in  him,  by  the 
acts  of  Congress  under  which  he  is  appointed,  for  the  purpose  of  vindicating  the 
majesty  of  the  law.  But  until  such  necessity  is  shown  to  exist,  it  is  not  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Commanding  General  to  have  recourse  to  those  powers  ;  and  he  deems 
the  present  a  fitting  occasion  to  make  this  known  to  the  governor  of  Texas,  and 
through  him  to  the  people  of  the  state  at  large. 

I  am  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col.,  U.  8.  A.,  Sec'yfor  Civil  Affairs, 


SOME  OF  genp:]ral  Hancock's  orders.  537 

ON  ELECTIONS  BY  TPIE  PEOPLE. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 

Office  op  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs,      [ 
New  Orleans,  La.,  December,  28,  1867.  ) 
Lieutenant-Colonel    W.   H.   Wood,     Commanding   District   of  Louisiana,   New 

Orleans,  La.: 

Colonel  : — I  am  directed  by  the  Major-General  Commanding  to  ac- 
knowledge receipt  of  a  letter  from  Nelson  Durand  (forwarded  by  you), 
stating  that  the  treasurer  of  Avoyelles  parish,  Louisiana,  refused  an  election  to 
be  held  to  ascertain  if  the  citizens  of  the  township  were  in  favor  of  selling  a 
school  section  belonging  to  the  parish,  and  requesting  an  opinion  as  to  the  legality 
of  said  election. 

In  reply  to  said  letter,  I  am  directed  by  him  to  state  that  if  the  provision  of  the 
law  were  complied  with  in  regard  to  advertisements,  the  manner  of  taking  the 
sense  of  the  inhabitants  and  legal  voters  only  were  admitted  to  take  part,  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the  action  should  be  considered  a  nullity.  It  was  not, 
properly  speaking,  an  election,  but  a  way  prescribed  by  law  of  arriving  at  the  will 
of  the  community  as  regards  the  disposition  to  be  made  of  certain  school  lands 
belonging  to  the  parish. 

The  previous  authorization  of  the  Major-General  Commanding  is  not  considered 
necessary.  But  if  the  sense  of  the  people  was  not  duly  regarded  (on  the  previous 
occasion)  as  to  the  foregoing  requirements,  the  matter  should  be  again  referred  to 
them  for  a  free  and  legal  expression  of  their  opinion. 

I  am.  Colonel,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col.  U.  S.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 

ON  REMOVALS  FROM  OFFICE  WITHOUT  JUDICIAL  INVESTIGATION 
AND  DETERMINATION. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 

Office  of  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs,      [• 

New  Orleans,  La.,  December  30th,  1867.  ) 

His  Excellency  B,  F.  Flanders,  Governor  of  Louisiana: 

Governor  : — I  am  directed  by  the  Major-General  Commanding  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  your  commifhication  of  the  11th  inst.,  with  papers  and  documents 
accompanying  the  same,  charging  the  Police  Jury,  parish  of  Orleans,  right  bank, 
with  appropriating  to  their  own  use  and  benefit  the  public  funds  of  said  parish, 
and  with  being  personally  interested  in  contracts  let  by  them,  and  recommend- 
ing the  removal  from  ofiice  of  the  president  and  members  of  said  Police  Jury; 
and  in  reply  to  state  that  these  charges  present  a  proper  case  for  j  udicial  investi- 
gation and  determination ;  and  as  it  is  evident  to  him  that  the  courts  of  justice 
can  afford  adequate  relief  for  the  wrongs  complained  of,  if  proved  to  exist,  the 
Major-General  Commanding  has  concluded  that  it  is  not  advisable  to  resort  to  the 
measures  suggested  in  your  excellency's  communication. 

I  am.  Governor,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieu ;. -Col.  U.  S.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 


538 

ORDER   OF   GENERAL   HANCOCK    DISCLAIMING   JUDICIAL   FUNC 
TIONS  IN  CIVIL  CASES. 

ri^^.^    ..  r\^^^^c  AT^   1  Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 

General  Orders  No.  1.  ^^^  0^1^^^3^  La.,  January  1,  1868.      \ 

Applications  have  been  made  at  these  headquarters  implying  the  existence  of 
an  arbitrary  authority  in  the  Commanning  General  touching  purely  civil  contro- 
versies. 

One  petitioner  solicits  this  action,  another  that,  and  each  refers  to  some  special 
consideration  of  grace  or  favor  which  he  supposes  to  exist,  and  which  should  in- 
fluence this  Department. 

The  number  of  such  applications  and  the  waste  of  time  they  involve,  make  it 
necessary  to  declare  that  the  administration  of  civil  justice  appertains  to  the  regu- 
lar courts.  The  rights  of  litigants  do  not  depend  on  the  viewr  of  the  general — 
they  are  to  be  adjudged  and  settled  according  to  the  laws.  Arbitrary  power,  such 
as  he  has  been  urged  to  assume,  has  no  existence  here.  It  is  not  found  in  the  laws 
of  Louisiana  or  of  Texas — it  cannot  be  derived  from  any  act  or  acts  of  Congress — 
it  is  restrained  by  a  constitution  and  prohibited  from  action  in  many  particulars. 

The  Major-General  Commanding  takes  occasion  to  repeat  that  while  disclaiming 
judicial  functions  in  civil  cases,  he  can  suffer  no  forcible  resistance  to  the  exe- 
cution of  process  of  the  courts. 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 

[Official.] 

COMMUNICATION    CONCERNING    AN    APPLICATION    BY    A    RAIL- 
ROAD  COMPANY. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  J 

Office  of  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs,  V 

New  Orleans,  La.,  January  2d,  1868.  ) 

Henry  Van  Vleet,  Esq.,  Chief  Engineer : 

Sir: — In  reply  to  your  communication,  requesting  the  Major-General  com- 
manding to  issue  a  certain  order  relative  to  the  New  Orleans,  Mobile  and  Chat- 
tanooga Railroad  Company,  I  am  directed  by  him  to  state : 

That  the  order  asked  for  embraces  questions  of  the  most  important  and  delicate 
nature,  such  as  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  eminent  domain,  obstruction  of  navi- 
gable rivers  or  outlets,  etc.,  and  it  appears  to  him  very  questionable  whether  he 
ought  to  deal  with  questians  of  that  kind;  nor  is  it  clear  that  any  benefit  could 
result  to  the  company  from  such  an  order. 

So  far  as  the  state  of  Louisiana  is  concerned,  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  ob- 
taining a  decree  of  appropriation  of  the  land  which  may  be  required  for  the  en- 
terprise, according  to  the  existing  laws,  as  the  company  has  been  regularly  incor- 
porated under  the  general  corporation  act.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  the 
question  oi  power,  \Yhich  the  company  desires  solved  by  the  proposed  order,  be- 
longs properly  to  the  j  ad  iciary  and  therefore  the  Major-General  Commanding 
declines  to  take  action  in  this  matter. 

If  you  desire,  the  papers  in  this  case,  together  with  a  copy  of  this  letter,  will  be 
forwarded  to  the  Secretary  of  War. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col.  U.  S.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 


SOME  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK's  ORDERS.  53& 

ORDER  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK  REVOKING  CERTAIN  INSTRUC- 
TIONS ISSUED  BY  HIS  PREDECESSOR  TO  THE  BOARDS  OF  REG- 
ISTRATION, AND  RELATING  TO  THE  DUTIES  OF  BOARDS  OP 
REGISTRATION. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District.         ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  January  11,  1868.  j" 
General  Orders  No.  3. 

Printed  "Memoranda- of  disqualifications  for  the  guidance  of  the  Board  of 
Registrars,  und.r  the  Military  bill  passed  March  2,  1867,  and  the  bill  supplement- 
ary thereto,"  and  "Questions  to  be  answered  by  persons  proposing  to  register,'* 
were  distributed  from  these  headquarters  in  the  month  of  May,  1867,  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Boards  of  Registration,  then  in  existence  in  the  states  of  Louisiana 
and  Texas,  for  the  registration  of  "  the  male  citizens  of  the  United  States  "  who 
are  qualified  to  vote  for  delegates  under  the  acts  entiled  "  An  Act  to  provide  for 
the  more  efficient  government  of  the  rebel  states. " 

These  "  Memoranda  "  and  "  Questions  "  are  as  follows  : 

[The  Memoranda,  being  lengthy,  are  ommitted.] 

Grave  differences  of  opinion  exist  among  the  best  informed  and  most  consci- 
entious citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  the  highest  functionaries  of  the  national 
government,  as  to  the  proper  construction  to  be  given  to  the  acts  of  Congress 
prescribing  the  qualifications  entitling  persons  to  be  registered  as  voters, and  to  ex- 
ercise the  right  of  suffrage  at  the  elections  to  be  holden  under  the  act  entitled 
"An  Act  to  provide  for  the  more  efficient  government  of  the  rebel  states  "  and  the 
acts  supplementary  thereto.  Such  differences  of  opinion  are  necessary  incidents 
to  the  imperfection  of  human  language  when  employed  in  the  work  of  legisla- 
tion. 

Upon  examining  those  acts,  the  Commanding  General  finds  himself  constrained 
to  dissent  from  the  construction  given  to  them  in  the  "Memoranda"  re- 
ferred to.  This  construction  would  of  course  necessarily  exclude  all  officers 
holding  offices  created  under  special  acts  of  the  state  legislatures,  including  all 
officers  of  municipal  corporations,  and  of  institutions  organized  for  the  dispensa- 
tion of  charity,  under  the  authority  of  such  special  laws.  Such  a  construction,  la 
the  opinion  of  the  Major-General  Commanding,  has  no  support  in  the  language  of 
the  acts  of  Congress  passed  on  the  2d  and  23d  of  March,  1867,  which  were  the 
only  acts  in  existence  when  these  "  Memoranda  "  were  distributed.  Since  that 
time,  however,  what  was  before,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Commanding  General, 
only  an  error  of  construction,  would  now  be  a  contravention  of  the  law,  as  amended 
and  defined  in  the  Act  of  July  19, 1867. 

The  Major-General  Commanding  also  dissents  from  various  other  points  in  the 
construction  given  to  the  disqualifying  clauses  of  the  acts  in  question,  as  shown 
by  the  "Memoranda"  referred  to,  but  he  will  add  nothing  further  to  what  he  has 
already  said  on  the  subject,  because  his  individual  opinions  cannot  rightfully 
have,  and  ought  not  to  have,  any  influence  upon  the  Boards  of  Registration  in  the 
discharge  of  the  duties  expressly  imposed  upon  and  intrusted  to  them  by  these 
acts  of  Congi-ess  as  they  now  stand.  The  Boards  of  Registration  are  bodies 
created  by  law  with  certain  limited  but  well-defined  judicial  powers.  It  is  made 
their  especial  duty  "  to  ascertain,  upon  such  facts  as  they  can  obtain,  whether  any 
person  applying  is  entitled  to  be  registered  "  under  the  acts.  Their  decisions 
upon  the  cases  of  individual  applicants  are  final  as  to  the  right,  unless  appeals 
are  taken,  in  the  proper  form,  and  carried  bofore  competent  superior  authority 
for  revision ;  and,  like  the  members  of  ordinary  courts  engaged  in  the  exercise  of 


540  SOME  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK's  ORDERS. 

judicial  functions,  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  the  members  of  the  Boards  of  Reg- 
istration to  decide  upon  the  questions  as  to  the  right  of  any  applicant,  on  the 
facts  before  them,  and  in  obedience  to  the  provisions  of  the  law. 

Since  the  passage  of  the  act  of  July  19,  1867,  it  is  not  only  the  right,  but  the 
solemn  duty  of  the  members  of  these  boards,  each  for  himself,  and  under  the 
sanction  of  his  oath  of  office,  to  interpret  the  provisions  of  the  acts  from  which 
the  authority  of  the  boards  was  derived,  and  to  decide  upon  each  case  according 
to  the  best  of  his  own  judgment. 

The  distribution  of  the  above  "Memoranda"  was  well  calculated  to  produce 
the  impression  in  the  minds  of  the  members  of  Boards  of  Registration,  that  they 
constituted  rules  prescribed  to  them  for  their  government  in  the  discharge  of  Iheir 
official  duties  which  they  were  required  to  obey ;  and  it  seems  certain  from  va- 
rious communications  of  facts  in  relation  to  the  mode  of  carrying  out  the  regis- 
tration, that  they  were  so  regarded  by  the  members  of  the  boards,  and  that  they 
not  only  influenced,  but  in  point  of  fact,  controlled  the  proceedings  of  the  diJBfer- 
ent  boards. 

In  consequence  of  this,  and  as  the  time  for  the  revision  of  the  registration  in 
the  state  of  Texas  is  now  at  hand,  and  the  duty  of  making  the  revision  will,  it  is 
probable,  in  a  great  degree  be  performed  by  persons  who  are  members  of  the 
Boards  of  Registration,  to  which  the  "Memoranda"  in  question  w^ere  distributed 
for  their  guidance,  the  Major-General  Commanding  deems  it  of  importance  that 
the  members  of  the  Boards  of  Registration,  and  the  people  at  large,  should  be 
informed  that  the  "Memoranda"  before  referred  to,  distributed  from  the  head- 
quarters of  this  Military  District,  are  null  and  of  no  effect,  and  are  not  now  to  be 
regarded  by  the^  Boards  of  Registration  in  making  their  decisions ;  and  that  the 
members  of  the  Boards  are  to  look  to  the  laws,  and  to  the  laws  alone,  for  the  rules 
which  are  to  govern  them  in  the  discharge  of  the  delicate  and  important  duties 
imposed  upon  them. 

For  this  purpose  they  will  be  furnished  with  copies  of  the  acts  of  Congress  re- 
lating to  this  subject,  and  of  the  amendment  (known  as  Article  XIV.)  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States. 

In  case  of  questions  arising  as  to  the  right  of  any  individual  to  be  be  registered, 
the  person  deeming  himself  aggrieved,  is  entitled  to  his  appeal  from  the  decision 
of  the  Board,  and  the  Boards  are  directed  to  make  a  full  statement  of  the  facts 
in  such  cases,  and  to  forward  the  same  to  these  headquarters  without  unnecessary 
delay. 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 
[Official.] 

ORDER  FOR  CONVENING  A  SPECIAL  CIVIL  COURT  FOR  THE  TRIAL 
OF  CRIMINAL  CASES. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  January  2,  1868.      ) 

SpeclAlL  Orders  No.  1. 

[extract.] 
********** 

3.  Whereas,  The  presence  of  an  epidemic  at  Corpus  Christi  has  prevented  the 
holding  of  the  usual  term  of  the  District  Court  of  Nueces  county,   Texas;  and 

Whereas,  A  large  number  of  criminal  cases  are  on  the  docket  of  said  court  that 
should  be  tried  without  delay : 

It  is  therefore  ordered,  That  a  special  term  of  the  District  Court   for  Nueces 


541 

county  shall  be  held  on  Monday,  the  thirteenth  day  of  January,  1868,  for  the 
trial  of  all  criminal  cases  that  may  be  brought  before  it. 

Such  court  shall  continue  in  session  for  three  weeks,  unless  the  business  before 
it  is  sooner  disposed  of. 

All  process  in  criminal  cases  shall  be,  and  they  are  hereby  made,  returnable  to 
the  said  special  term  of  said  court. 

The  proper  officers  of  that  county  will  cause  the  usual  number  of  jurymen  to 

be  drawn  and  summoned. 

********** 

By  command  of  Major-General  Hancock. 
[Official.] 

CONCERNING  THE  LEVY  OF  A  SPECIAL  TAX. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  ) 
Office  op  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs,      y 
New  Orleans,  La.,  January  13,  1868.  ) 
His  Excellency  E.  M.  Pease,  Governor  of  Texas,  Austin,  Texas : 

Governor :  I  am  directed  by  the  Major-General  Commanding  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  your  letter  and  accompanying  documents  relative  to  an  application 
from  the  Mayor  and  City  Council  of  Houston,  for  authority  to  hold  an  election 
to  determine  whether  a  special  tax  shall  be  levied  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
means  with  which  to  cut  a  ship's  channel  to  Galveston  Bay,  and  to  state  that  if 
the  power  to  hold  such  election  was  not  conferred  upon  the  city  of  Houston  by 
its  act  of  incorporation,  nor  by  any  act  of  the  legislature,  no  such  election,  and 
no  tax  levied  for  such  a  purpose  would  be  legal. 
I  am,  governor,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col.  U.  S.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 


RELATING  TO  THE  COLLECTION  OF  TAXES. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,  \ 
Office  of  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs,      v 
New  Orleans, La.,  January  15,  1868.  ) 
H.  Peralta,  Esq.,  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts,  New  Orleans,  La: 

8ir :  I  am  directed  by  the  Major-General  Commanding  to  acknowledge  receipt 
of  your  letter  of  the  13th  inst.,  in  which  you  state  that  the  "taxes  imposed  by 
the  Constitutional  Convention  cannot  be  collected  through  the  ordinary  process 
of  collecting  taxes  in  this  State,"  and  "refer  the  whole  matter  to  him  for  his 
action ;"  and  in  reply  to  state  that  the  tax-collectors  of  the  parishes  of  Orleans 
and  Jefferson,  in  their  report  to  you  of  the  same  date,  say  that  "  the  tax-payers 
have  generally  refused  to  pay  the  tax."  By  reference  to  the  ordinance  of  the 
convention,  you  will  find  "  that  the  Auditor  of  Public  Accounts  of  the  state 
shall,  as  under  existing  laws  in  relation  to  the  collection  of  taxes,  superintend 
and  control  the  collection  of  said  tax  of  one  mill  per  cent.,  and  shall  give  imme- 
diate notice  and  instructions  to  the  different  sheriffs  and  tax  collectors." 

It  does  not  appear,  from  your  statement,  that  any  process  for  the  collection  of 
this  tax  has  issued,  or  that  any  other  steps  have  been  taken,  except  giving  notice 
in  the  newspapers,  and  a  demand  to  pay,  which  has  been  refused.  No  resort  has 
been  made  to  those  coercive  means  to  enforce  the  payment  of  taxes  pointed  out 
by  the  laws  of  the  state  ;  this  it  is  your  duty  to  direct  the  tax-collector  to  do. 
When  that  is  done,  and  forcible  resistance  should  be  made,  the  Major-General 


[RS,  f- 


542  somp:  of  general  hancock  s  orders. 

Commanding  will,  upon  it  being  reported  to  liim,  take  prompt  measures  to  vindi- 
cate the  supremacy  of  the  law. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col,  U.  S.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 

RELATING  TO   THE  COLLECTION  OF  TAXES. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District, 
Office  of  the  Secretary  for  Civil  Affairs, 
New  Orleans,  La.,  January  21,  1868. 

Hon.  Wm.  p.  McMillan  and  Hon.  M.  Vidal,  Special  Committee: 

Gentlemen  :  The  Major-General  Commanding  directs  me  to  acknowledge  the  re- 
ceipt of  your  letter  of  the  17th  instant,  and  to  state  in  reply  that  the  second  or- 
dinance of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  adopted  on  the  4th  of  January,  1868, 
provides  a  new  mode  for  the  collection  of  the  tax,  and  imposes  penalties  on  de- 
faulting taxpayers. 

You  request  the  Commanding  General  to  state  what  his  action  would  be  should 
the  civil  courts  of  Louisiana  interfere  with  the  collectors  in  the  discharge  of  tbeir 
duties. 

In  this  connection  the  Commanding  General  deems  it  unnecessary  to  repeat 
what  he  has  already  stated  in  reply  to  a  previous  letter  concerning  his  author- 
ity on  this  subject. 

It  would  be  highly  improper  for  him  to  anticipate  any  illegal  interference  of 
the  courts  in  the  matter. 

Whenever  a  case  arises  for  the  interposition  of  the  powera  vested  in  the  Com- 
manding General  by  the  acts  of  Congress,  he  will  promptly  exercise  them  for  the 
maintenance  of  law  and  order. 

I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  G.  MITCHELL, 
Bvt.  Lieut. -Col.  U.  S.  A.,  Sec'y  for  Civil  Affairs. 

LETTER  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK  TO   GENERAL  HOWARD  ON  THE 
USURPATIONS  OF  THE  FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU. 

Headquarters  Fifth  Military  District,      ) 
New  Orleans,  La.,  February  24,  1868.  ) 

Major-General  O.  O.  Howard,  Commissioner  of  Bureau  Refugees,  Freedmen,  and 
Abandoned  Lands,  Washington,  D.  C. : 

Gene7'al :  Referring  to  the  report  of  Captain  E.  Collins,  Seventeenth  infantry, 
sub-assistant  commissioner  of  the  Bureau  refugees,  freedmen,  and  abandoned 
lands,  at  Brenham,  Texas,  dated  December  31,  1867,  and  transmitted  by  you  for 
my  information,  I  have  the  honor  to  state  that  I  do  not  understand  how  any  orders 
of  mine  can  be  interpreted  as  interfering  with  the  proper  execution  of  the  law 
creating  the  Bureau.  It  is  certainly  not  my  intention  that  they  should  so  inter- 
fere. Anything  complained  of  in  that  letter,  which  could  have  lawfully  been 
remedied  by  the  exercise  of  military  authority,  should  have  received  the  action  of 
General  Reynolds,  who,  being  military  commander,  and  also  Assistant  Commis- 
sioner for  Texas,  was  the  proper  authority  to  apply  the  remedy,  and  to  that  end  was 
vested  with  the  necessary  power. 

A  copy  of  the  report  of  Captain  Collins  had  already  been  forwarded  to  me  by 
General  Reynolds  before  the  receipt  of  your  communication,  and  had  been  re- 
turned to  him  January  1 6th,  with  the  following  indorsement:  "  Respectfully  re- 


543 

turned  to  Brevet  Major-General  J.  J.  Reynolds,  commanding  District  of  Texas. 

"  This  paper  seems  to  contain  only  vague  and  indefinite  complaints,  without 
specific  action  as  to  any  particular  cases.  If  Captain  Collins  has  any  special 
cases  of  the  nature  referred  to  in  his  communication,  which  require  action  at 
these  headquarters,  he  can  transmit  them,  and  they  will  receive  attention." 

No  reply  has  been  received  to  this — a  proof  either  of  the  non-existence  of  such 
special  cases,  or  of  neglect  of  duty  on  the  part  of  Captain  Collins  in  not  report- 
ing them.  It  is,  and  will  be  my  pleasure  as  well  as  duty,  to  aid  you  and  the  offi- 
cers and  agents  under  your  direction,  in  the  proper  execution  of  the  law.  I  have 
just  returned  from  a  trip  to  Texas.  Whilst  there  I  passed  through  Brenham 
twice,  and  saw  Captain  Collins,  but  neither  from  him  nor  from  General  Reynolds, 
did  I  hear  anything  in  regard  to  this  subject,  so  far  as  I  recollect. 

There  are  numerous  abuses  of  authority  on  the  part  of  certain  agents  of  the 
Bureau  in  Texas,  and  General  Reynolds  is  already  investigating  some  of  them. 

My  intention  is  to  confine  the  agents  of  the  Bureau  within  their  legitimate  au- 
thority, so  far  as  my  power  as  district  commander  extends;  further  than  that,  it 
is  not  my  intention  or  desire  to  interfere  with  the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  I  can  say, 
however,  that  had  the  district  commander  a  superior  control  over  the  Freedmen's 
affairs  in  the  district,  the  Bureau  would  be  as  useful,  and  would  work  more  har- 
moniously, and  be  more  in  favor  with  the  people.  At  present  there  is  a  clashing 
of  authority.     I  simply  mention  the  facts  without  desiring  any  such  control. 

The  reconstruction  acts  charge  district  commanders  with  the  duty  of  protect- 
ing all  persons  in  their  rights  of  person  and  property;  and  to  this  end  authorize 
them  to  allow  local  civil  tribunals  to  take  jurisdiction  of,  and  try  offenders ;  or  if 
in  their  opinion  necessary,  to  organize  a  military  commission  or  tribunals  for  that 
purpose. 

They  are  thus  given  control  over  all  criminal  proceedings  for  violation  of  the 
statute  laws  of  the  states,  and  for  such  other  offenses  as  are  not  by  law  made  triable 
by  the  United  States  courts.  The  reconstruction  acts  exempt  no  class  of  per- 
sons from  their  operation,  and  the  duty  of  protecting  all  persons  in  their  rights  of 
person  and  property,  of  necessity  invests  district  commanders  with  control  over 
the  agents  of  the  Bureau,  to  the  extent  of  at  least  enabling  them  to  restrain  these 
agents  from  any  interference  with,  or  disregard  of  their  prerogatives  as  district 
commanders. 

The  district  commanders  are  made  responsible  for  the  preservation  of  peace 
and  the  enforcement  of  the  local  laws  within  their  districts ;  and  they  are  the 
ones  required  to  designate  the  tribunals  before  which  those  who  break  the 
peace  and  violate  these  laws  shall  be  tried. 

Such  being  the  fact,  many  of  the  agents  of  the  Bureau  seem  not  to  be  aware  of 
it.  In  Texas  some  are  yet  holding  courts,  trying  cases,  imposing  fines,  taking 
fees  for  services,  and  arresting  citizens  for  offenses  over  which  the  Bureau  is  not 
intended  by  law  to  have  jurisdiction. 

General  Reynolds  is  aware  of  some  of  these  cases,  and  is,  as  I  have  already 
mentioned,  giving  his  attention  to  them. 

In  Louisiana,  this  state  of  affairs  exists  to  a  less  extent,  if  at  all. 

I  am,  General,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

W.  S.  HANCOCK, 
Major-General  XJ.  S.  Army,  Commanding. 

About  the  date  of  the  preceding  letter,  however,  the  time  had  arrived  when  it 
was  thought  necessaiy  by  the  controlling  powers  at  Washington  to  supersede 


544  SOME  OF  GENERAL  HANCOCK's  ORDERS. 

General  Hancock's  administration  in  Louisiana  and  Texas,  it  being  deemed  an  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  the  congressional  plan  of  reconstruction,  which  contemplated 
the  complete  suppression  of  the  civil  authorities  of  those  states  and  the  substi- 
tution of  military  commissions.  Gen.  Garfield,  the  Chairman  of  the  Military 
Conmiittee  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  introduced  a  bill  to  reduce  the  num- 
ber of  major-generals  in  the  army  with  the  avowed  object  of  getting  rid  of  Han- 
cock, and  thus  punish  him  for  his  steadfast  subordination  of  the  military  to  the 
civil  jurisdiction.  This  bill,  however,  was  never  pressed  to  its  passage,  being 
deemed  by  those  friendly  to  its  object  as  too  likely  to  excite  a  popular  demonstra- 
tion in  favor  of  the  persecuted  individual. 

A  safer  method  was  adopted.  General  Grant,  having  been  invested  by  Con- 
gress vnth  extraordinary  powers,  so  as  to  be  no  longer  responsible  to  the  Presi- 
dent, his  constitutional  commander-in-chief,  was  induced  to  interfere  in  such 
manner  with  Gen.  Hancock's  official  action  as  to  humiliate  him  before  the  people 
he  was  sent  to  govern.  This  naturally  soon  led  to  Gen.  Hancock's  application  to 
be  relieved  of  his  command. 

About  this  time  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Congress,  as  follows: 

*  *  *  "I  hope  to  be  relieved  here  soon.  The  President  is  no  longer  able  to 
protect  me.  So  that  I  may  expect  one  humiliation  after  another,  until  I  am  forced 
to  resign.  I  am  prepared  for  any  event.  Nothing  can  intimidate  me  from  doing 
what  I  believe  to  be  honest  and  right." 

His  letter  to  Governor  Pease,  in  which  Gen.  Hancock  vindicated  the  justice 
and  policy  of  his  administration,  bears  date  the  9th  of  March,  1868,  and  on  the 
16th  of  the  same  month  (seven  days  afterwards,  he  was  relieved  of  his  command. 


CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.       546 


CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHII 
SETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND. 


The  attention  of  the  Senate  committee  charged  "to  inquire  whether  any  citizen 
of  any  state  has  been  dismissed  or  threatened  with  dismissal  from  employment  or 
deprivation  of  any  right  or  privilege  by  reason  of  his  vote  or  intention  to  vote  at 
the  recent  elections,  or  has  been  otherwise  interfered  with,  and  whether  citizens  of 
the  United  States  were  prevented  from  exercising  the  elective  franchise,  or  forced 
to  use  it  against  their  wishes,  by  *  *  *  any  unlawful  means  or  prac. 
tices,"  was  directed  to  the  states  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  by  a  large 
number  of  affidavits  from  citizens  of  those  states.  The  specific  allegation  was  made 
that  employers  of  labor  in  those  states  coerced  their  employees  to  vote  as  the  em- 
ployers wished,  and  that  deprivation  of  employment  was  the  penalty  for  refusal 
to  do  so.  Among  the  data  submitted  to  the  committee  in  proof  of  this  allegation 
was  a  circular,  which  was  in  these  words  . 

Dear  Sir :  Your  co-operation  with  the  Massachusetts  Republican  State  Central  Committee  is 
most  earnestly  requested.  It  is  in  your  power,  by  the  authority  you  can  exercise  over  those  em- 
ployed by  you,  to  maintain  the  honor  of  Massachusetts,  and  keep  it  out  of  the  hands  of  spoilers  and 
political  knaves  who  have  selected  General  Butler  as  their  candidate.  His  election  would  disgrace 
oar  state,  and  ruin  our  standing  at  home  and  abroad.  A  thorough  canvass  of  those  you  employ,  and 
an  early  report  to  the  secretary  of  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee,  will  be  thankfully  re- 
ceived. 

This  was  issued  in  the  canvass  of  1878,  but  by  whom  the  committee  could  not 
ascertain. 

MEETINGS  OF  MANUFACTURERS  HELD  TO  mTDtflDATE  VOTERS. 

A  meeting  of  manufacturers  was  held  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  in  the  office  of  Mr. 
Washburne,  Chairman  of  the  Republican  City  Committee.  The  purpose  of  this 
meeting  was  to  urge  the  employers  of  labor  there  ^present  to  exercise  their  influ- 
ence. They  were  asked  to  call  their  employees  together  and  address  them  on  the 
issues.  This  was  done  in  at  least  one  case.  The  action  taken  at  this  meeting  was 
spoken  of  by  the  employees  affected  as  being  prejudicial  to  their  freedom  of  action. 
Fear  of  loss  of  work  if  they  voted  or  acted  against  their  employers'  wishes  was 
frequently  expressed.  The  result  of  the  meeting,  and  its  action,  was  a  degree  of 
intimidation  to  the  employee.  A  witness  said  the  meeting  was  held  for  the  pur- 
pose of  "forcing  their  help,  through  dread  of  non-employment,  to  vote  contrary 
to  their  wishes  and  according  to  the  wishes  of  their  employers."  And  still  an- 
other described  it  thus : 

?\.  What  was  the  effect,  as  ^ou  gathered  it  from  the  employees  themselves,  upon  their  minds  ? 
ts  effect  was  this  :  that  while  up  to  that  date  the  operatives  and  employees,  as  a  general  rule,  in 
Worcester  County,  had  been  enthusiastic,  had  thronged  our  rooms,  the  Democratic  headquarters, 
day  and  evening  almost.  A  great  many  of  them  then  came  and  expressed  doubts  as  to  whether  they 
would  be  able  to  vote  or  act  openly  for  this  reason;  that  they  understood  that  this  meeting  had  been 
held,  and  that  that  was  the  policy  that  would  be  adopted.  In  consequence  of  that,  there  was  a  de- 
cided coolness  at  that  time  on  the  part  of  this  class  of  men.  A  great  many  upon  whom  we  had 
counted  with  absolute  certainty  up  to  that  time,  were  missing  or  else  voted  against  us. 


546       CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND. 

Senator  Wallace,  in  behalf  of  the  committee,  reported  upon  several  of  these 
cases  as  follows  : 

OPERATORS   INTIMIDATED   AND  DISCHARGED. 

Your  committee  are  of  opinion  that  in  very  many  instances  during  that  elec- 
tion the  ballot  was  cast  by  operatives  against  their  own  deliberate  convictions, 
and  in  favor  of  the  candidates  of  their  employers,  and  that  this  was  the  result  of 
a  fear  of  loss  of  work  at  the  beginning  of  winter. 

This  policy  of  keeping  "  inside  the  law  "  was  publicly  proclaimed  in  the  Her- 
ald, a  leading  and  influential  newspaper  in  Boston,  which  earnestly  and  effective- 
ly aided  the  cause  of  those  who  called  and  held  those  meetings  of  employers,  in 
these  words  : 

There  will  probably  be  a  good  deal  of  "  bulldozing  "  done  in  Massachusetts  this  year  of  a  civ- 
ilized tj;pe.  The  laborers  employed  by  General  Butler  in  his  various  enterprises— mills,  quarries, 
&c.— will  be  expected  to  vote  for  him  or  give  up  their  situations.  The  same  rule  will  hold  good 
on  the  other  side.  There  will  be  no  shot-guns  or  threats.  Everything  will  be  managed  with  de- 
corum, adorned  by  noble  sentiments.  But  the  men  who  oppose  Butler  employ  three-fourths,  if 
not  seven-eighths,  of  the  labor  of  the  state.  They  honestly  believe  that  Butler's  election  would  in- 
jure their  property.  They  know  that  idle  hands  are  waiting  to  do  their  work.  It  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  they  will  look  on  indifferently  and  see  their  employees  vote  for  a  destructive  like  But- 
ler. Human  nature  is  much  the  same  in  Massachusetts  and  Mississippi.  Only  methods  are  dif- 
ferent. Brains,  capital,  and  enterprise  will  tell  in  any  community.  It  is  very  improper,  of  course, 
to  intimidate  voters,  but  there  is  a  way  of  giving  advice  that  is  quite  convincing. 

This  action  was  described  before  your  committee  as  "civilized  bulldozing," 
audits  occurrence  was  said  to  be  much  more  frequent  and  effective  in  the  manu- 
facturing villages  than  in  the  cities. 

It  is  impossible  that  there  should  be  so  much  in  the  cities  as  in  towns.  It  is  easier  to  bring  to 
light  the  wrong-doings  of  an  employer  there;  it  is  harder  to  cover  them  up,  because  of  the  public 
press  and  because  of  the  number  of  the  people  who  would  become  cognizant  of  them.  In  a  fac- 
tory town  it  is  different.  There  is  no  newspaper  there;  the  operative  lives  in  a  tenement  belonging 
to  the  manufacturer;  his  wages  are  small;  his  wife  probably  works  in  the  mill;  his  children  proba- 
bly work  in  the  mill;  and,  if  he  is  anyway  fractious,  or  opposed  to  voting  in  a  way  that  these  peo- 
ple dictate,  his  wife,  children,  and  himself  are  turned  oat  of  the  mill,  out  of  the  tenement,  and  out 
of  the  means  of  earning  a  livelihood. 

The  case  of  the  Manchaug  Manufacturing  Corporation,  in  the  county  of  Wor- 
cester, was  cited  as  one  of  those  in  which  this  policy  of  "  civilized  bulldozing  " 
was  pursued.  The  testimony  disclosed  the  following  facts:  Manchaug  is  a  man- 
ufacturing village,  wherein  the  real  estate,  mills,  houses,  churches,  halls  and 
public  buildings  were  owned  by  the  stock  company  which  there  manufactured 
muslin  fabrics.  They  employed  a  large  number  of  persons  as  workmen,  many 
of  whom  were  French  Canadians.  The  number  of  voters  at  the  mills  were  up- 
wards of  100  in  1878,  of  whom  three-fourths  were  Democrats.  All  of  the  man- 
aging force,  superintendents  and  bookkeepers,  were  Republicans.  Many  young 
people  of  both  sexes  were  employed  at  the  mills,  and  their  homes  were  with 
their  parents  in  the  tenement  houses  of  the  corporation.  One  case  was  shown  in 
which  a  man  who  had  served  during  the  war  occupied  one  of  the  company's 
houses,  whilst  his  son  and  three  nieces  worked  in  the  factory  and  lived  with  him. 
He  describes  what  occurred  as  follows : 

I  was  not  working  for  the  corporation,  but  I  was  active  in  the  campaign.  I  was  one  of  the  sign- 
ers of  the  Butler  call  and  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  Butler  Club.  I  contributed  two  or  three 
dollars  to  the  Butler  flag-raising,  when  we  were  going  to  have  a  good  time.  Mr.  Waters,  who  had 
asked  for  the  hall,  came  to  my  house  when  I  was  not  at  home  ;  my  wife  told  me  of  his  being  there. 
Immediately  after  this,  a  notice  came  from  the  mill  that  I  must  vacate  my  tenement  within  two 
weeks.  It  was  signed  by  Robert  McArthur  and  by  Charleg  A.  Chase,  clerk.  For  two  or  three  days 
nothing  was  said,  and  they  sent  for  me  to  come  to  the  shop. 

The  son  was  notified  to  quit  work,  and  did  quit.  The  effect  of  this  notice  to 
leave,  upon  men  who  had  families  dependent  upon  them,  was  to  take  away  their 
freedom  of  action,  and  they  were  obliged  to  vote  as  their  employers  required,  for 
they  had  no  place  to  go  with  their  families. 


CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.       547 

Its  effect  appears  to  have  been  decided  upon  the  voters.     Their  timidity  was 

described  as  follows : 

They  spoke  to  me  about  making  arrarigements  about  raising  a  flag,  as  I  did  not  work  for 
the  company  and  cared  nothing  for  the  company.  They  were  afraid  to  take  an  active  part  in  it, 
but  agreed  to  contribute  toward  defraying  the  expense.  I  had  a  list  of  some  twenty-four  names 
of  those  who  contributed— some  a  dollar  and  some  two  dollars— toward  hiring  the  band  and  pay- 
ing the  expense  of  a  French  speaker.  After  Mr.  Waters  came  with  a  notice  of  Mr.  Thayer's  and 
Mr.  Mellen's  meeting,  this  notice  which  followed,  from  Mr.  McArthur  to  my  father,  made  a  change. 
Those  men  did  not  seem  to  dare  to  speak  to  me  on  the  front  street  there  ;  they  would  come  around 
after  dark  and  call  me  out  to  speak  to  me  :  they  would  pass  me  on  the  street  without  speaking, 
and  they  told  me,  two  or  three  different  ones,  that  it  was  coming  near  winter,  and  they  did  not  wish 
to  lose  their  jobs  ;  still  they  wished  to  vote  for  Butler. 

BALLOTS  TAKEN  AWAY  FROM  VOTERS  AND  OTHERS  FORCED  UPON  THEM. 

The  selectmen  of  the  town  have  charge  of  the  ballot-box  on  election  day. 
McArthur,  an  employee  of  the  company,  was  in  charge  of  such  in  1878.  Chase 
and  Knox,  two  other  employees  of  the  company,  were  in  attendance.  The  work- 
men were  provided  with  Republican  tickets  at  the  works,  hauled  in  wagons  to 
the  polling  place,  and  voted  under  the  direct  supervision  of  McArthur,  Chase  and 
Knox.     A  witness  describes  the  process  thus  : 

My  attention  was  called  to  the  peculiar  way  they  had  of  mangaging  the  voters  there.  I  stepped 
up  to  the  little  railing  that  they  had  there  to»  go  around  and  up  to  the  polls,  and  I  saw  two  men 
stationed  at  the  entrance  where  the  voters  went  in.  One  was  a  Mr.  Chase,  the  other  was  a  Mr, 
Knox.  I  saw  that  the  help  of  the  village  (I  was  acquainted  with  a  great  por'ion  of  them)  came 
along  in  a  sort  of  rotation.  Mr.  Chase  was  on  one  side  and  this  Mr.  Knox  was  on  the  other,  and 
as  each  man  came  up  they  would  take  hold  of  the  ticket  that  the  man  had,  and  say,  "  That  is  right, 
pass  on."  Another  would  come  up,  and  they  would  say:  "  That  is  right,  pass  on."  Another 
would  come  up,  and  they  would  say:  "  Hold  on,  that  is  not  the  vote  you  want  to  cast."  "  Why, 
yes,  it  is  the  vote  I  want  to  cast."  "  No,  it  is  not."  "Why,  certainly,  this  is  my  vote."  "O,  no;" 
and  he  got  it  out  of  the  man's  hand,  tore  it  up  and  threw  it  on  the  floor.  He  said,  "You  do  not 
want  to  vote  such  a  damned  vote  as  that."  He  then  handed  the  voter  another  one.  The  man 
then  remarked,  "  I  don't  want  to  cast  this  vote. "  The  reply  was,  "  Go  right  along  ;  that  is  the  vote 
you  want."  The  man  went  right  along  and  put  it  in  the  box.  Mr.  Hastings,  the  constable,  stood 
right  opposite,  and  1  stood,  perhaps,  four  feet  from  this  Mr.  Knox. 

Another  instance  is  given  thus : 

Q.  Who  was  at  the  polls  to  receive  the  employees  in  November  last  ?    A.  Mr.  Chase. 

Q,.  Is  he  connected  with  the  corporation  ?    A.  He  is  the  book-keeper  there. 

Q.  Who  takes  them  from  the  mills  to  the  polls  ?  A.  The  teams  of  the  corporation  take 
them. 

Q.  What  have  yoii  seen  in  regard  to  tickets  when  they  have  got  to  the  polls  ?  A.  I  have  seen 
Mr.  Chase  change  their  tickets.  He  generally  stands  at  one  side  there  where  there  is  a  small 
place  to  go  through,  and,  as  they  come  along,  he  always  has  the  ballots  there,  and  I  have  seen  him 
change  them,  and  have  seen  them  get  tickets  from  him  and  carry  them  in. 

Q,.  The  specific  tickets  you  speak  of,  did  they  examine  those  ?  A.  I  do  not  know  whether  they 
could  or  not.  Pretty  nearly  all  of  those  who  work  there  are  French,  and  I  do  not  know  whether 
they  could  examine  them. 

Q,.  Do  you  know  whether  those  tickets  were  in  envelopes  or  open?  A.  I  have  seen  Mr.  Chase 
give  tickets  to  them  that  were  open. 

Q.  Did  you  see  this  occur  in  November,  1878?    A.  Yes,  sir. 

Q..  Specify  an  instance  and  describe  how  this  occurred,  if  you  can?  A.  As  they  passed  along  he 
was  standing  there  on  this  side,  and  as  they  would  come  up  to  the  polls  he  would  stop  them,  hand 
them  one  of  the  tickets,  and  say,  "Here,  carry  it  in."  They  might  have  had  an  envelope  or  some- 
thing of  that  kind.    I  have  seen  them  have  envelopes.    I  have  seen  that  occur. 

The  ballot-boxes  were  open  boxes  and  those  in  charge  could  see  the  form  and 
appearance  of  the  ballot  voted,  and  they  were  easily  distinguishable  apart. 

The  result  of  this  close  supervision  of  the  votes  of  the  operatives  by  their 
employers,  and  the  fears  which  prevailed  among  them  lest  they  should  be  dis- 
charged, very  naturally  affected  the  result  in  the  district  in  which  they  voted, 
and  gave  to  the  candidates  favored  by  the'  employer  a  large  number  of  votes  they 
would  not  have  received  if  perfect  freedom  of  action  had  been  allowed  to  the 
workmen. 

Your  committee  examined  a  number  of  witnesses  in  regard  to'  the  manage- 
ment and  manner  of  voting  at  Webster,  Worcester  County,  by  the  employees  of 
the  Slater  Manufacturing  Company,  where  several  hundred  men  are  employed  ; 
a  majority  of  whom  are  Irishmen,  and  the  proof  showed  about  the  same  state 
of  facts  as  existed  in  Manchaug. 


548       CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND. 

The  same  was  the  case  at  the  Douglass  Axe  Factory,  where  the  agents  of  the 
company  stood  at  the  door  of  the  election-house,  watched  every  one  of  the  em- 
ployees who  came  in,  passed  him  the  Republican  ticket,  and  told  him  it  would  be 
to  his  interest  to  vote  that  ticket. 

The  Boston  Elastic  Fabric  Company  employs  a  large  number  of  hands,  most 
of  whom  were  Democrats,  but  under  the  orders  of  their  employer,  Mr.  McBirney, 
they  were  nearly  all  required  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket  in  November,  1878. 
The  foreman  of  the  factory  stood  at  the  polls  in  Chelsea  all  day  on  election  day 
between  the  door  and  the  ballot-box,  and  required  the  men  employed  nnder  him 
to  vote  the  Republican  ticket.  Another  of  the  employees  was  directed  to  tell  them 
that  this  was  their  employer's  wish,  and  they  must  govern  themselves  accordingly. 
This  was  done  and  the  men  very  generally  obeyed  the  orders  given.  One  testi- 
fied that  he  did  not  and  was  soon  driven  out  of  that  employment. 

THE  AID   OF  THE   CHURCH  INVOKED. 

The  campaign  of  1878,  in  Massachusetts,  seems  to  have  been  anomalous.  For 
the  first  time,  so  far  as  your  committee  could  learn,  ministers  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion were  openly  invited  to  aid  in  the  campaign  by  furnishing  the  names  and 
post-office  address  of  their  church  members,  to  the  end  that  documents  containing 
the  dogmas  of  a  political  party  might  be  sent  to  them  through  the  mails. 

A  circular  in  the  following  form  was  sent  to  every  clergj'man  in  the  state, 
whose  name  and  address  could  be  found  from  the  religious  monthlies: 

Republican  State  Committee  or  Massachusetts,  ) 

Adin  Thatbb,  Chairman.  )  Headquarters,  376  Washington  Street,    V 

S.  B.  Stbbbins,  Treasurer.  >•  Boston,  September,  26,  1878.  ) 

George  C.  Crocker,  Secretary.        ) 

Bear  Sir :  In  order  to  enable  us  to  distribute  documents  effectively,  will  you  kindly  furnish 
us  immediately  with  a  list  of  the  male  members  of  your  church  and  parish,  and  with  such  other 
names  as  you  may  deem  expedient.  By  so  doing,  you  will  aid  us  in  saving  the  honor  of  our  com- 
monwealth. 

With  esteem,  yours,  ADIN  THAYER,  Chairman. 

George  C.  Crocker,  Secretary. 

There  were  a  large  number  of  responses,  and  documents  were  sent  to  the 
names  and  addresses  furnished.  Of  the  character  of  the  documents  furnished  to 
the  members  of  the  churches,  your  committee  did  not  learn,  but  it  is  fair  to  sup- 
pose that,  as  the  following  circular  seeks  to  arouse  the  alarm  and  indignation  of 
"  Christian  citizens,"  it  was  forwarded  to  church  members  : 

Republican  State  Committee  op  Massachusetts, 
Adin  Thayer,  Chairman.  )  Headqfarters,  376  Washington  Street, 

S.  B.  Stebbins,  Treasurer.  V  Boston,  September  19,  1878. 

George  C.  Crocker,  Secretary.  ) 

Dear  Sir  :  A  desperate  attempt  is  being  made,  under  a  hypocritical  pretense  of  state  reform,  to 
deliver  Massachusetts  over  to  the  Repudiationists,  Greenbackers,  and  Communists. 

This  attempt  should  excite  the  alarm  and  indignation  of  every  Christian  citizen,  and  call  forth 
the  active,  earnest,  and  persistent  opposition  of  every  lover  of  the  fair  fame  of  Massachusetts. 

It  must  be  mot  defiantly  and  vigorously  at  once  by  private  and  public  appeal  to  the  intelligence, 
honor,  and  conscience  of  Massachusetts. 

The  state  ticket  nominated  by  the  Republican  party  stands  for  public  and  private  honesty  and 
national  good  faith. 

We  earnestly  invoke  your  active  aid  in  securing  its  election,  and  thus  saving  the  "  old  common- 
wealth" from  the  control  of  unscrupulous  and  self-seeking  demagogues. 

Per  order  of  the  Republican  State  Committee.  ADIN  THAYER,  Chairman. 

George  P.  Crocker,  Secretary. 

Your  committee  deems  this  system  of  electioneering  dangerous  and  vicious, 
calculated  as  well  to  bring  the  Christian  religion  into  the  mire  of  politics  as  to 
arouse  sectarian  animosity  among  the  people. 

CrVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  RHODE  ISLAND. 

In  pursuing  another  duty  enjoined  by  the  Senate  in  Rhode  Island,  this  subject 
of  controlling  the  votes  of  employees  by  the  employers,  through  fear  of  loss  of 
work,  was  incidentally  examined. 


>f 


CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.       549 

AtWesterly,  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  state,  there  are  two  corporations  known 
as  the  New  England  Granite  Company  and  the  Smith  Granite  Company.  They 
employed  in  1876  about  150  men  in  getting  out  and  preparing  granite.  Direct  in- 
fluence was  brought  to  bear  upon  these  employees  about  a  week  before  the  Presi- 
dential election  of  1876  by  these  corporations  issuing  a  handbill  and  circulating 
it  where  the  men  worked,  which  stated  that  the  election  of  Mr.  Tilden  would  be 
a  great  injury  to  their  business,  and  by  the  concluding  paragraph,  which  declared 
they  would  secure  tJieir  own  interest  by  voting  against  Mr.  Tilden.  The  «ircular 
was  in  these  words: 

TO  ALL  VOTERS 

Employed  by  the 

N.  E.  GRANITE  WORKS  AND  THE  SMITH  GRANITE  CO. 

Having  become  fully  convinced  that  the  election  of  Samuel  J.  Tilden  and  a  Democratic  Con- 
gress, on  the  7th  of  November,  will  do  a  great  injury  to  our  business,  and  will  also  be  a  National 
Calamity,  we  do  most  earnestly  advise  all  VOTERS  IN  OUR  EMPLOY  to  vote  the  Republican 
Ticket,  more  especially  for  a  Republican  Member  of  Congress.  You  will,  by  so  doing,  secure  your 
own  interest,  our  interest  and  the  interest  of  your  country. 

The  N.  E.  GRANITE  WORKS. 
The  SMITH  GRANITE  CO. 

The  plain  implication  from  the  language  here  used  is  that  the  injury  to  the 
business  of  the  corporation  would  result  in  loss  of  employment  to  the  workmen, 
and  it  undoubtedly  had  the  effect  to  intimidate  voters. 

It  was  shown  that  at  Hope  Village  in  the  Congressional  election  the  Republicans 
used  a  colored  ballot  of  a  very  distinctly  marked  color.  At  that  time  there  were 
a  number  of  Democrats  employed  in  the  works  who  attended  Democratic  meet- 
ings and  desired  to  vote  that  ticket,  but  when  these  men  came  to  vote  on  election 
day,  men  in  the  employ  of  the  Hope  Manufacturing  Company  stood  at  the  ballot- 
box  and  watched  the  ballots  all  day.  Some  of  these  Democrats  declared  that  they 
did  not  dare  to  vote. 

At  Woonsocket  there  are  seven  or  eight  large  manufacturing  establishment^.. 
They  employ  many  workmen,  a  majority  of  whom  are  of  foreign  birth,  and  among 
the  employees  are  many  whose  political  opinions  are  Democratic.  It  was  shown 
that  at  almost  every  election  for  years  these  men  voted  under  the  eye  of  their  em- 
ployers' agents  who  were  Republicans,  and  in  very  many  cases  under  circumstances 
showing  intimidation  and  fear  of  loss  of  work. 

companies'   agents  IN  CHARGE   OF  POLLING  PLACES. 

One  witness  described  the  acts  which  he  thought  amounted  to  intimidation,  in 
this  language : 

From  the  Woonsocket  Machine  Company  at  the  last  Congressional  election,  they  had  their 
overseer  posted  about  two  feet  from  the  ballot-box,  and  he  was  handing  ballots  to  the  operatives  as 
they  came  up  to  vote.  His  name  is  Charles  A.  Chase.  I  remember  now  a  party  who  did  work  for 
the  Woonsocket  Machine  Company,  who  told  me,  shortly  after  the  election,  that  he  was  going  to 
lose  his  position,  and  he  did  lose  it.  About  a  month  after  that  they  discharged  him  because  he 
would  not  peddle  Republican  ballots  in  the  shop. 

Another  witness  describes  it  thus : 

I  have  known  men  employed  in  the  Woonsocket  machine  shop  to  be  marched  up,  in  the  hall,  in 
squads  by  a  man  named  Chase,  who  had  some  position  there— I  do  not  know  whether  it  was  that 
of  engineer  or  what  it  was— and  compelled  to  hold  their  hands  up  with  the  ballots  in  them  in  this 
manner.  [The  witness  elevated  his  right  hand  to  a  level  with  his  head.]  They  walked  along 
and  he  went  with  them,  watching  them  until,  as  each  man  dropped  the  ballot  in,  he  took  his  eye 
off  the  man.  At  the  last  Congressional  election  I  saw  him  march  up  two  sqaads  from  the  machine 
shop.  I  know  one  man  up  there  who,  at  the  same  election,  informed  me  that  he  wanted  to  vote 
the  Democratic  ticket,  but  was  obliged  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket,  because  he  had  been  given  to 
understand  that  it  would  be  for  his  interest  to  do  so.  His  property  was  mortgaged,  and  a  party  who 
ran  on  the  Republican  ticket  controlled,  or  his  intimate  friend  controlled  the  mortgage  at  the  time. 
The  man  was  afraid  to  vote  otherwise,  he  informed  me.  They  have  come  to  me,  for  instance,  and 
to  other  Democrats  in  my  hearing  and  sight  and  said,  "  We  want  a  ticket."  This  was  the  evening 
before  the  election.  And  they  gave  us  a  ticket  and  said  that  they  had  to  carry  it  or  they  would  lose 
their  job.  There  is  a  strong  feeling  in  their  minds  that  if  they  do  not  vote  the  ticket  that  is  given 
to  them  by  their  employers  they  are  liable  to  be  turned  off,  that  they  are  spotted,  and,  if  anybody 
is  turned  off,  it  will  be  them.    These  employees  who  are  Democrats,  who  have  been  furnished  with 


550       CIVILIZED  BULLDOZING  IN  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  ERODE  ISLAND. 

tickets  or  who  say,  "  We  shall  be  furnished  with  a  ticket  by  the  boss  or  the  manufacturing  com- 
pany's agents,"  come  to  our  headquarters  and  say,  "  We  want  a  ticket  in  our  pockets  that  is  of  our 
kind,  so  that  we  can  vote  it  if  we  change  it  for  the  other."  Well,  the  employers  have  found  that 
they  were  being  cheated  by  the  men;  that  the  men,  in  spite  of  their  convincing  advice,  had  got  the 
tickets  that  they  wanted  to  vote  and  had  put  them  in.  That  accounts  for  their  compelling  the  men 
to  hold  their  hands  up.  They  give  them  their  ticket  when  they  get  out  of  the  carriage  and  compel 
them  to  hold  it  up  in  their  hands  as  they  march  along  through  the  crowd. 

company's  TIME-KEEPER  NOTES  HOW  EACH  EMPLOYEE  VOTES. 

It  was  shown  that  in  the  Tenth  Ward  of  Providence,  at  the  Presidential  election  of  1876,  the  time- 
keeper employed  by  The  Corliss  Steam  Engine  Company  was  at  the  polls  with  his  book,  and  as 
every  man  working  for  his  establishment  would  cast  his  ballot  he  would  check  his  name  or  write 
his  name  down  upon  the  book.  He  was  not  there  as  .m  official  of  the  election.  He  would  watch  to 
see  which  way  a  man  voted  and  then  take  memoranda  in  his  book.  Employees  complained  of  this 
and  said  they  were  afraid  to  vote.  The  ward  was  largely  Democratic,  and  this  action  produced  distur- 
bance on  the  part  of  citizens  who  sought  to  have  the  time-keeper  removed,  because  the  employees 
of  the  Corliss  Steam  Engine  Company  were  afraid  if  they  voted  their  principles,  they  would  be  dis- 
charged from  the  works,  and  he  was  finally  removed  from  the  place.  This  company  employed 
several  hundred  men  at  that  time. 


REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  FOREIGN  BORN  CITIZENS.       551 


REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMIMTION  AGAINST 
FOREIGN-BOM  CITIZENS. 


Extracts  from  a  report  of  the  United  States  Senate  Committee  submitted  by 
Mr.  Wallace  in  the  Senate  : 

Your  Special  Committee  was  directed  to  inquire  and  report  to  the  Senate  con- 
cerning the  denial  or  abridgement  of  the  right  of  suffrage  to  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  now  reports  the  result  of  its  labors. 

Article  11  of  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  prescribes  the  quali- 
:fications  of  electors  in  that  state,  which  are  further  fully  set  forth  in  the  General 
Statutes  of  the  state,  passed  in  pursuance  of  said  article,  from  which  we  quote  as 
follows  : 

CHAPTER  V. 

OF  THE  RIGHTS  AND  QUALIFICATIONS  OF  VOTERS. 

Section  1.  The  two  following  classes  of  persons  have  bv  the  Constitution— the  first  as  regis- 
tered and  the  second  as  unregistered  voters— a  right  to  vote  m  the  election  of  all  civil  officers,  and 
on  all  questions,  in  all  legally  organized  town,  ward,  or  district  meetings. 

First.  Every  native  male  citizen  of  the  United  Second.  Every  male  citizen   of  the   United 

States  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  who  States  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  who  has 
has  had  his  residence  and  home  in  this  state  had  his  residence  and  home  in  this  state  for 
two  years,  *  *  *  whose  name  shall  one  year,  *  *  *  and  who  is  really 
be  registered  in  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the  and  truly  possessed  in  his  own  right  of  real  es- 
town  where  he  resides  on  or  before  the  last  day  tate  in  such  town  or  city  of  the  value  of  one 
of  December  in  the  year  next  preceding  the  hundred  and  thirty- four  dollars  over  and  above 
time  of  his  voting,  and  who  shall  show  by  legal  all  incumbrances,  or  which  shall  rent  for  seven 
proof  that  he  has,  for  and  within  the  year  next  dollars  per  annum  over  and  above  any  rent  re- 
preceding  the  time  he  shall  offer  to  vote,  paid  a  served,  or  the  interest  of  any  incumbrances 
tax  or  taxes  assessed  against  him  in  any  town  thereon,  being  an  estate  in  fee  simple,  fee-tail 
or  city  in  this  state  to  the  amount  of  one  dollar,  for  the  life  of  any  person,  or  an  estate  in  rever- 
including  in  such  tax  or  taxes  a  tax  upon  his  sion  or  remainder,  which  qualifies  no  other  per- 
property  in  the  town  in  which  he  shall  offer  to  son  to  vote,  the  conveyance  of  which  estate,  if 
vote  valued  at  least  at  one  hundred  and  thirty-  by  deed,  shall  have  been  recorded  at  least  nine- 
four  dollars.  ty  days. 

Sec.  2.  The  two  following  classes  of  persons  have,  by  [the  Constitution,  as  registered  voters,  a 
right  to  vote  in  all  elections,  and  on  all  questions  as  aforesaid.  *  *  ♦  ♦  * 

First.  Every  male  native  citizen  of  the  United  States  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  *  *  * 
and  whose  name  shall  be  registered  in  the  town  where  he  resided  at  the  time  of  such  registry  on  or 
before  the  last  day  of  December  in  the  year  next  preceding  the  time  of  his  voting,  and  who  shall 
show  by  legal  proof  that  he  has,  for  and  within  the  year  next  preceding  the  time  he  shall  offer  to 
vote,  paid  a  tax  or  taxes  assessed  against  him  in  any  town  or  city  in  this  state,  to  the  amount  of 
one  dollar. 

Sec.  3.  The  following  class  of  persons  have,  by  the  Constitution,  as  unregistered  voters,  a  right 
to  vote  in  the  election  of  all  general  officers,  and  members  of  the  general  assembly,  in  the  town  or 
city  in  which  they  shall  have  had  their  residence  and  home  for  the  term  of  six  months  next  preced- 
ing the  election. 

Every  male  native  citizen  of  the  United  States  of  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,      *  *  * 

and  shall  own  any  such  real  estate  within  this  state,  but  out  of  the  town  or  city  in  which  he  resides 
as  is  described  in  the  second  clause  of  the  first  section  of  this  chapter,  and  who  shall  j)roduce  a  cer- 
tificate from  the  clerk  of  the  town  or  city,  in  which  his  estate  lies,  bearing  date  within  ten  days  of 
the  time  of  his  voting,  setting  forth  that  such  person  has  a  sufficient  estate  therein  to  qualify  him  as 
a  voter,  and  that  the  deed,  it  any,  has  been  recorded  ninety  days. 


552       REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  FOREIGN-BORN  CITIZENS^ 

CHAPTER  VI. 

OP  THE  REGISTERING,    LISTING,  AND  RETURNING  LISTS  OF  VOTERS,   AND   OP 
PROOF  OF   THEIR  QUALIFICATION  TO  VOTE. 

Sec.  2.  The  town  clerk  shall  register  in  such  hook,  with  the  date  of  the  registry,  the  name  of 
every  male  inhabitant  of  the  town  who  shall  demand  such  registry  and  who  shall  declare  that  he 
is  qualified  by  birth  *  *  * 

Sec.  10.  The  assessors  of  taxes  in  each  town  shall,  within  five  days  after  said  second  Monday  of 
January  in  every  year,  assess  upon  every  person  whose  name  shall  have  been  registered  as  afore- 
said, as  his  registry  tax,  a  tax  of  one  dollar,  or  such  sum  as  with  his  other  taxes  shall  amount  to 
one  dollar  *  *  *. 

The  distinction  herein  made  between  the  rights  of  native  born  and  foreign  bom 
citizens  to  vote,  is  so  broad  and  well  marked  that  at  the  outset  of  our  inquiry  the 
attention  of  your  committee  was  arrested  by  it,  as  an  anomaly  in  the  American 
system,  and  we  have  given  it  careful  examination  and  thought. 

Carl  W.  Ernst,  an  intelligent  Republican  foreign  born  citizen,  gives  an  esti- 
mate, after  a  careful  examination,  and  places  the  number  of  disfranchised  foreign 
born  citizens  at  not  less  than  10,000  to  15,000.     He  testifies  as  follows: 

Rhode  Island  contains  not  less  than  75,000,  probably  80,000  males  twenty-one  j'ears  old  or  more. 
The  highest  vote  ever  polled  in  this  state  is  that  of  1876,  for  President,  when  26,627  votes  were  cast. 
The  state  census  of  1875  gave  42,741  as  the  number  of  legally  qualified  voters,  and,  approximately, 
72,257  as  the  number  of  males  of  21  years  or  more.  It  appears,  then,  that  in  1875  nearly  30,000  males 
were  either  disfranchised  citizens  or  aliens.    It  is  reasonable  to  assume  the  following  as  correct: 

Number  of  possible  voters 80,000  or  100  per  cent. 

Number  of  legal  voters 45,000  or   56  per  cent. 

Number  of  disfranchised  citizens 17,500  or   22  per  cent. 

Number  of  aliens 17,500  or   22  per  cent. 

The  Chairman :  You  have  been  called  at  my  instance,  because,  having  observed  some  statistics 
in  the  paper  which  you  edit,  I  wish  to  get  some  information  from  you  upon  the  subject  of  which 
they  treated. 

The  witness:  The  result  of  the  last  calculation  that  I  made  was  that  the  state  must  have  now 
about  300,000  inhabitants.  Applying  the  ordinary  rate  of  voters  which  obtains  throughout  the 
country,  it  would  follow  that  we  ought  to  have  very  nearly  70,000  persons  entitled  to  vote.  The 
registered  voters  was  42,000  and  something.  So  that  that  shows  there  are  at  least  24,000  not  ac- 
counted for.  In  Dr.  Snow's  report  the  persons  enumerated  as  qualified  voters  are  not  persons  actu- 
ally qualified,  but  persons  who  have  the  constitutional  qualifications  to  vote.  They  include,  for 
instance,  the  unregistered  registry  voters,  the  explanation  which  he  gives  himself.  And,  therefore, 
1  am  obliged  to  infer  that  the  number  of  persons  who  are  either  alien  residents  or  who  are  disfran- 
chised citizens  is  very  much  greater  than  is  commonly  supposed.  The  United  States  census  of  1870 
enumerates  about  43,000  voters  in  this  state.  Dr.  Snow's  census,  taken  five  years  later  (that  of 
1875),  enumerates  about  42,000.  We  have  in  Rhode  Island  the  extraordinary  phenomenon  of  a  con- 
stant decrease  in  the  number  of  voters  (who  are  almost  exclusively  natives),  while  the  number  of 
residents  who  are  disfranchised  increases.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  Rhode  Island  has  now 
more  people  of  foreign  birth  or  foreign  parentasre  than  it  has  of  people  who  are  natives,  and  that 
fact  applies  as  emphatically  to  this  city  of  Providence  and  to  some  of  the  principal  towns  of  the 
state  as  it  does  any  other  portion  of  the  state.  I  speak  of  the  whole  state.  I  say  that  of  the  popu- 
lation of  tlse  whole  state  there  must  be  to-day  at  least  thirty  per  cent,  of  persons  born  abroad,  and  at 
least  thirty  per  cent,  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage;  the  remaining  forty  per  cent,  being  of  per- 
sons who  are  natives  of  this  country.  We  have  at  least  75,000  males  in  this  state  over  twenty-one 
years  of  age.  Of  these  75,000  about  40,000  (I  hardly  think  more  than  that)  are  registered  voters,  or 
persons  who  can  appear  at  any  election.  That  leaves  35,000  to  be  accounted  for.  Of  these  not  less 
than  5,000  are  persons  who  are  constitutionally  qualified  to  vote,  but  who  have  failed  to  register  or 
pay  their  taxes,  and  in  that  way  are  thrown  out.  Of  the  30,000  remaining  to  be  accounted  for  a 
large  number  are  undoubtedly  natives  of  this  country  or  of  other  states,  aliens,  and  a  floating  popu- 
lation, the  latter  being  made  up  of  persons  who  come  here  for  certain  periods;  for  instance,  Cana- 
dians who  work  in  our  factory  villages,  jewelers  who  work  in  our  shops,  and  others,  mainly  young 
men,  who  come  here  for  temporary  employment.  These  30,000  cover  also  certainly  a  number  of 
alien  residents  who  eventually,  undoubtedly,  would  take  out  their  naturalization  papers  if  they 
could  vote,  but  who  have  now  no  interest  in  becoming  citizens  of  the  country.  We  come  now  to 
the  number  of  disfranchised  citizens.  Making  a  liberal  allowance  for  the  floating  population,  I 
think  that  the  number  disfranchised  in  this  state  cannot  be  less  than  10,000,  and  it  may  be  15,000.  I 
speak  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  are  in  the  same  position  in  which  I  am,  who  are  citizens 
of  the  country,  but  who  are  not  allowed  to  vote  because  they  do  not  have  the  necessary  real  estate. 

In  order  to  aid  in  ascertaining  the  probable  number  of  persons,  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  who  were  denied  the  privilege  of  voting  because  of  their  nativity, 
or  by  reason  of  the  restrictive  laws  before  quoted,  the  state  census  of  Rhode 
Island  of  1875  has  been  taken  by  your  committee  as  a  basis  of  calculation. 

The  total  population  in  1875  was 258,239 

•'     number  born  in  the  United  States 186,609 

"      "  "  "      foreign  countries i ._     71,630 

The  total  number  of  votes . 42,741 

"        native  born 37,377 

foreign 5,364 


REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  FOREIGN-BORN  CITIZENS.       553 

or  one  to  every  thirteen  born  abroad,  while  one  to  every  five  in  the  whole  popu- 
lation is  the  general  rule. 
Of  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  Rhode  Island  there  were  : 

Native  born - 72. 22  per  cent. 

Foreign  born -.  27.67    "      " 

Of  American  parentage ._.  52.17    '*      " 

Of  foreign  parentage ^ 47.83    "      " 

Of  the  whole  number  of  voters  there  were  : 

Native  born. 87.45  per  cent. 

Foreign  born - 12.55    "     " 

The  whole  male  population  over  twenty  years  of  age  was  74,753,  of 
whom  52.17  per  cent,  were  voters.  Comparing  Rhode  Island  with  Massachu- 
setts we  find  that  the  percentage  of  votes  to  the  male  population  over  twenty 
years  of  age  was  as  follows. 

Rhode  Island _ _ 57. 17  per  cent. 

Massachusetts - 76.34    "      " 

Of  the  whole  number  of  voters  in  these  states  there  were  : 

In  Massachusetts,  native  born 80. 03  per  cent. 

In  Rhode  Island        "         "    87.45    "      " 

In  Massachusetts,  foreign  born. 19.07    "      " 

In  Rhode  Island,        "  "    .._ 12.55    "      " 

Of  the  whole  number  of  male  persons  the  following  percentage  were  voters  : 

In  Massachusetts 44.00  per  cent. 

In  Rhode  Island 34.04    "      " 

In  Massachusetts  in  the  whole  number  persons  there  are  voters.  _.  21.25    "     " 
In  Rhode  Island      "  "  *'  "  "      "        "     ...  16.55    "      " 

Or  a  loss  of  4.70  per  cent,  as  compared  with  Massachusetts,  which  would  be  a 
loss  of  12,000  votes  as  compared  with  that  state. 

This  comparison  with  Massachusetts  is  more  favorable  to  Rhode  Island 
than  if  made  with  any  other  state,  owing  to  the  educational  qualification  there 
existing. 

In  the  light  of  the  testimony  taken  by  the  committee,  the  discrepancy  between 
the  voting  population  of  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  .Island  is  readily  accounted 
for.  It  is  the  result  of  the  practical  denial  of  suffrage  to  citizens  of  the  United 
States  of  foreign  birth,  and  of  impediments  to  the  exercise  of  the  electoral  fran- 
chise by  poor  natives,  under  constitutional  provisions,  executed  under  rigid  reg- 
istry laws. 

From  the  figures  given  by  witnesses  brought  before  the  committee  it  is  possible 
that,  under  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  and  the  Act  of  1872,  Rhode  Island  might 
rightfully  have  been  deprived  of  one  representative  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress,  and  that  her  additional  vote  in  the  Electoral  College 
thus  secured,  decided  the  question  of  the  presidency  in  1877,  the  vote  as  returned 
by  the  Electoral  Commission  being  185  to  184,  and  it  might  again  decide  it. 

As  instancing  the  peculiar  hardship  of  the  real  estate  qualification  in  Rhode 
Island  the  following  facts  culled  from  the  testimony  are  interesting. 

Rhode  Island  has  a  less  number  of  acres  of  land  than  any  state  in  the  Union,  yet 
she  is  the  only  one  where  real  estate  votes. 

Total  mimber  of  square  miles  in  Rhode  Island 1, 054. 

Total  number  of  acres  in  Rhode  Island 674,560. 

Total  number  of  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile 244. 90 

Total  number  of  inhabitants  to  the  acre 2.61 

According  to  the  census  of  1870  the  total  value  of  real  estate  and  improvements 


554       REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  FOREIGN-BORN  CITIZENS. 

in  Ehode  Island  was  $132,876,581,  being  in  the  proportion  of  $611  to  each  inhabi- 
tant. According  to  the  census  of  1875  and  the  Rhode  Island  Manual  the  total 
valuation  of  real  estate  and  improvements  in  that  year  was  $190,279,473,  or  $736 
to  each  inhabitant.  The  total  number  of  acres  in  farms  480,928,  leaving  but 
193,682  otherwise  classified,  the  total  number  being  6,363  fanns,  valued  at  $28,892,- 
836,  the  farms  averaging  75.58  acres  at  $4,540  per  farm.  Of  the  real  estate  improve- 
jnents  not  classified  as  farming  land  the  total  valuation  was  $161,387,137,  or  an 
average  of  $833.47  per  acre.  The  total  number  of  dwelling-houses  in  the  state 
was  only  38,875  in  1875.  The  testimony  shows  that  a  large  part  of  the  foreign 
population  was  employed  in  the  manufacturing  establishments  of  the  state,  and 
that  a  small  house  suitable  for  an  operative  and  his  family  would  cost  $2,000,  and 
upwards. 

Restricted  suffrage,  registry  taxes  upon  poor  men  alone,  statutory  closing  of  the 
poUs  at  sunset,  instead  of  at  eight  o'clock,  as  formerly,  by  which  the  operatives  in 
the  mills  are  prevented  from  voting,  and  the  compulsory  payment  of  the  registry 
tax  ten  months  prior  to  the  general  election,  in  a  presidential  year,  cause  great 
complaints  upon  the  part  of  the  poor  men  and  foreign  born  citizens  in  Rhode 
Island  ;  and  to  these  features  of  her  laws  many  intelligent  witnesses  ascribe  the 
small  percentage  of  voters  among  her  people  and  the  large  amount  of  coiTupt 
practices  in  the  elections  of  the  state.  A  foreign-born  soldier,  breveted  a  major 
for  gallantry,  said,  under  oath,  ' '  I  have  never  qualified  myself  to  vote  for  the 
reason  that  I  consider  the  principle  wrong;  that  suffrage  ought  to  be  based  on 
manhood,  and  not  on  real  estate ;  and  that  no  qualification  was  required  for 
negroes,  their  color  being  suflacient  passport,  provided  they  vote  right."  In  reply 
to  the  question,  what  action  the  government  of  the  United  States  could  take  to 
remove  the  disqualifying  features  of  the  state  constitution,  he  said,  "that  by  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
universal  suffrage  Vas  forced  upon  the  South,  and  that  the  rule  ought  to  work 
just  as  well  on  the  North."  Another  foreign-born  soldier,  breveted  at  Missionary 
Ridge  as  Lieutenant-Colonel,  testified  that  he  had  tried  to  get  many  foreigners  to 
become  naturalized,  telling  them  that  in  time  they  would  become  voters,  but  they 
would  not  do  so,  as  they  declared  they  would  feel  more  degraded  in  becoming 
citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  not  having  the  privilege  of  voting  then  they  felt 
that  they  were  without  naturalization;  lie  said  that  was  his  own  feeling,  and 
although  he  owned  no  real  estate  now,  but  did  when  he  voted,  he  felt  that  one 
who  had  for  so  long  been  a  soldier  in  the  service  of  the  country  ought  not  to  need 
any  such  qualification. 

The  owner  of  real  estate  gets  upon  the  registry  of  voters  by  virtue  of  his  real 
estate.  The  native  born,  owner  of  personalty,  pays  his  taxes  of  over  one  dollar 
and  thus  he  gets  upon  the  registry,  but  the  native  who  owns  no  taxable  property 
must  personally  register  himself  and  pay  his  taxes  or  he  cannot  vote ;  the  foreign 
born  citizen  may  own  personalty,  but  cannot  vcte  unless  he  owns  real  estate,  and 
of  course,  he  cannot  get  upon  the  registry.  If  registry  taxes  for  one  year  are 
not  paid  the  Constitution  forbids  the  vote  until  the  arrears  for  two  years  are 
paid  up. 

This  is  the  explanation  of  the  fact  proved  in  this  testimony  that  out  of  42,741 
voters  shown  by  the  census  of  1875,  to  be  in  the  state  and  qualified  to  vote,  but 
26,627  actually  did  vote  in  the  hotly  contested  presidential  election  of  1876  ; 
16,114  voters,  or  about  three-eighths  of  the  whole  voting  population,  actually  ab- 
stained from  voting.  No  such  percentage  of  non-voters  is  found  anywhere, 
l^orth  or  South,   in  that  election.    In  the  great  central  belt  of  states  North, 


REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  FOREIGN-BORN  CITIZENS.       555 

over  90  per  cent,  of  the  whole  vote  therein  was  polled  at  that  election,  whilst 
in  Rhode  Island  but  about  63  per  cent,  finds  its  way  to  the  polls. 

Naturalized  citizens  may  own  any  amount  of  personal  property,  and  pay  any 
amount  of  taxes  thereon,  but  they  cannot  vote  unless  possessed  of  a  certain 
amount  of  real  estate.  Foreign  born  citizens  who  were  naturalized  and  voted  in 
Ehode  Island  long  before  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  who  served  the  United 
States  and  the  state  of  Rhode  Island,  in  Rhode  Island  regiments  throughout  the 
war,  and  who  have  been  shown  to  have  lost  this  real  estate,  have  been  deprived 
of  the  right  to  vote  by  that  loss. 

As  a  specimen  case  your  committee  refers  to  that  of  Col.  James  Moran,  of 
Providence.     An  abstract  of  his  testimony  is  as  follows : 

Lived  here  twenty-eight  years;  foreigner;  naturalized;  entered  service  of  United  States  from 
Rhode  Island  under  promises  made  by  the  state  officials  that  foreigners  who  went  into  the  service 
could  vote  when  they  came  back;  commissioned  as  second  lieutenant;  promoted  to  captaincy; 
served  three  years;  honorably  discharged;  held  an  election  for  officials  m  Rhode  Island  in  his 
company  in  the  army,  but  could  not  vote  himself;  was  a  voter  once  because  he  owned  real  estate; 
has  lost  it  and  cannot  vote  now;  been  colonel  in  militia,  and  notary  public;  majority  of  the  opera- 
tives in  the  mills  are  foreigners;  are  changed  about  and  can't  save  money  to  buy  homes. 

A  similar  case  is  that  of  Col.  John  M.  Duffy,  who  had  been  a  resident  of  Providence  for  twenty 
years.  He  entered  the  service  of  the  United  States  in  May,  1861,  in  the  Second  Rhode  Island  Volun- 
teers, as  a  private,  being  promoted,  subsequently,  to  sergeant,  2d  lieutenant,  and  1st  lieutenant  of 
that  regiment.  After  same  service  in  the  Second  Rhode  Island  Volunteers,  he  was  honorably  dis- 
charged to  accept  the  commission  in  the  United  States  Regular  Army,  as  first  lieutenant  in  the 
13th  Infantry,  being  brevetted  lieutenant-colonel  for  gallantry  at  the  battle  of  Missionary  Ridge. 
He  remained  in  the  a'-my  until  1869,  when  he  was  discharged  for  disability,  and  received  a  pension 
of  S15  per  month.  Col.  Duffy  acquired  real  estate  after  his  return  from  the  army,  and  upon  becom- 
ing naturalized,  was  permitted  to  vote.  Having  lost  his  real  estate  from  the  vicissitudes  of  for- 
tune, he  has  lost  his  right  to  vote. 

The  case  of  Hon.  Thomas  Davis,  formerly  a  member  of  Congress  from  Rhode 
Island,  is  given  in  the  following  condensation  of  his  testimony : 

Live  in  Providence  ;  foreigner ;  naturalized  forty-five  years  ago ;  seventy-five  years  old  ;  a 
manufacturing  jeweler  ;  been  in  both  branches  of  the  legislature  a  number  of  times  ;  member  of 
Congress  from  Rhode  Island  in  1853-'4  ;  then  owned  real  estate  ;  I  am  not  now  a  qualified  voter  ; 
I  failed  in  business  and  the  title  to  my  property  passed  to  my  assignees,  and  I  cannot  now  vote  ; 
colored  men  now  vote  here  like  native-bom  whites,  while  every  foreign-born  citizen  is  excluded 
unless  he  owns  real  estate  ;  the  effect  of  this  is  bad  ;  it  makes  the  voters  mercenary  ;  wealth  con- 
trols suffrage  in  Rhode  Island  ;  money  is  all-powerful  here  ;  it  can  overwhelm  public  sentiment  at 
any  time  here  ;  have  been  both  a  Republican  and  a  Democrat,  but  always  advocated  the  repeal  of 
this  restriction. 

Thomas  McMurrough.— Naturalized  ;  cannot  vote  ;  no  real  estate  ;  am  president  of  the  Rhode 
Island  Suffrage  Association  ;  presented  a  memorial  praying  for  extension  of  suffrage  to  foreign- 
born  citizens ;  father  lived  in  Massachusetts,  a  naturalized  citizen  and  a  voter  there ;  the  line 
between  the  states  was  changed  and  we  were  thrown  into  Rhode  Island  we  cannot  vote  now,  for 
we  own  no  land  ;  at  least  5,000  naturalized  citizens  in  the  state  who  cannot  vote. 

Daniel  Donovan.— Naturalized  ;  came  from  Connecticut ;  lived  in  United  States  since  five  years 
old ;  am  a  skilled  mechanic ;  ten  of  us  work  together  in  one  room  in  our  factory  ;  the  highest 
grade  room  in  it ;  six  of  the  ten  are  foreigners  and  cannot  vote  for  want  of  land  ;  a  house  and  lot 
to  suit  my  family  would  cost  me  $3,000. 

Repeated  efforts  have  been  made  to  secure  the  alteration  of  the  Constitution  of 
Rhode  Island  in  regard  to  property  qualifications  for  foreign-born  citizens,  but 
they  have  always  been  defeated.  In  the  case  of  the  submission  of  the  question 
of  the  extension  of  suffrage  to  soldiers  and  sailors  who  had  served  in  Rhode 
Island  regiments  during  the  war,  submitted  during  the  presidential  canvass  of 
1876,  the  testimony  shows  that  it  was  made  a  party  question  at  the  polls. 

Witnesses  testify  that  a  minority  of  her  people  has  ruled  Rhode  Island  for 
more  than  fifteen  years  past,  and  that  the  opposition  to  the  extension  of  suffrage 
came  mainly  from  those  now  in  power,  who  fear  the  loss  of  place  that  would 
follow. 


556       REPUBLICAN  DISCPvIMINATJON  AGAINST  FOREIGN-BORN  CITIZENS. 

The  average  vote  cast  in  each  Congressional  district  in  the  New  England 
States  in  past  four  Congressional  elections,   is  as  follows  : 


States. 

1872. 

1874. 

1876. 

1878 

Massachusetts                 

17,521 
14,333 
18,101 
24,232 
22,964 
9,465 

16,467 
12,940 
19,565 
26,528 
26,295 
3,381 

23,609 
21,448 
25,357 
30,539 
26,708 
13,026 

22,707 
16,358 
25,749 

Vermont 

Maine      .     .                 

26,089 

New  Hampshire 

25,257 

Rhode  Island         .  .                     

9.198 

It  is  thus  seen  that  the  average  vote  to  the  Congressional  district  in  Rhode 
Island  of  the  combined  Democrat  and  Republican  candidates  was  only  3,381  in 
1874,  whilst  in  the  remainder  of  New  England  it  was  20,359  to  the  Congressional 
district  ;  and  while  Connecticut  in  the  presidential  contest  polled  30,539  votes  in 
each  of  her  Congressional  districts,  Rhode  Island  polled  but  13,313  votes  to 
choose  a  Congressman. 

Florida  and  Rhode  Island  have  each  two  Congressmen.  The  population  of  the 
former  in  1870  was  187,748,  of  the  latter  217,353  ;  yet  in  the  presidential  election 
of  1872  Florida  polled  33,190  votes,  or  one  to  every  five  and  a  third,  whilst  Rhode 
Island  polled  but  18,994,  or  one  to  every  eleven  and  a  half.  In  1876  Florida 
polled  a  total  of  46,772  votes,  and  Rhode  Island  but  26,627. 

At  the  Congressional  elections  the  comparison  is  as  follows  :  in  each  Congres- 
sional district  the  average  vote  in — 


States. 

1872. 

1874. 

1876. 

1878. 

Rhode  Island 

Florida 

9,497 
16,595 
19,036 
28,970 

3,381 
17,639 
28,952 
20,560 

13,313 
23,386 
36,555 
27,798 

9,198 
19,549 

South  Carolina 

34,439 

Pennsylvania 

24,281 

The  tables  of  the  votes  in  these  years  show  some  curious  facts  when  we  con- 
sider the  drift  of  newspaper  sentiment  in  the  past  eight  years  as  to  the  whole 
people  voting  in  certain  localities.  They  are  worthy  of  careful  examination  and 
furnish  proof  of  the  most  positive  character  that  the  repeated  charge  that  suffrage 
is  denied  in  the  South  to  any  class  or  race  is  untrue. 


REPUBLICAN  DISCRIMINATION  AGAINST  FOREIGN-BORN  CITIZENS.       557 

TABLES   OF   VOTES    FOR  PRESIDENT  AND    CONGRESS.   SHOWING  AVERAGE   PER 
CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICT. 


II 

Presidential  Election. 

States. 

1872. 

1876. 

Average  per  District. 

1872. 

1876. 

Rhode  Island 

2 
11 
2 

10 
3 
•      5 
6 
5 

1 

9 
8 
4 
9 
6 
13 
8 

18,994 
192,732 
33,190 
191,135 
53,001 
95,180 
128,692 
90,509 
96,928 
68,892 
185,164 
169,716 
79,300 
142,906 
129,463 
273,059 
164,863 

26,627 
259,703 

46,775 
259,608 

64,346 
182,776 
159,349 
116,786 
122,156 

80,124 
235,228 
170,232 

97,029 
180,534 
164.778 
351,765 
233,844 

9,497 
17,521 
16,595 
19,113 
14,333 
19,036 
21,448 
18,101 
24,232 
22,964 
20,573 
21,214 
19,825 
15,878 
21,577 
21,004 
20,607 

13,313 
23,609 

Florida               ....           

23,386 

Kentncky 

25,960 

21,448 

South  Carolina      .• 

36,555 

26,558 

Maine 

Connecticut             .          

25,357 
30,539 

26,708 

Virginia          

26.203 

Alabama 

2i;279 

24,257 
20,059 

Georgia         

Mississippi 

27.463 

87,058 

North  Carolina 

29,230 

States. 


Vote  for  Congressmen. 


1874. 


Total 
Votes. 


Average  to 
District. 


1878. 


Total 
Votes. 


Average  to 
District. 


Maine 

New  Hampshire 

Vermont 

Massac  hussetts 
Rhode  Island  . . 
Connecticut  .... 

Alabama , 

Arkansas 

Florida 

Georgia  

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi , 

Missouri 

North  Carolina. , 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

West  Virginia.., 


10 


13 


*78,263 
78,885 
38,822 

181,142 
6,763 

106,112 

55*,  lie 
34,279 

tll5,574 
128,462 

^121,554 
120,891 
855.614 
253,451 

§124,381 
144,760 
154,106 

1.  . 
178,611 


19,565 
26,295 
12,940 
16,467 
3,381 


18,372 
17,639 
14,447 
12,846 
24,311 
20,148 
27,807 
19,496 
24,896 
28,952 
15,410 

19,846 
22,088 


128,746 
75,773 
49,075 

ai9,783 
18,396 

104,357 
88,306 
42,558 
39,098 

125,511 

159,905 


120,315 

illl51,f''?l 
322,120 
129,426 
172,198 
146,572 
216,392 
126,287 
94,907 


25,749 
25,257 
16,358 
22,707 
9,198 
26,089 
11,039 
14,186 
19,549 
13,946 
15,990 

20,052 
8,6013 
24,778 
ttl6,178 
34,439 
14,627 
27,040 
14,032 
31,635 


*  Vote  of  four  districts. 

§  Vote  of  five  districts. 


No  opposition.    H  No  contest  in  eighth  district. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE.. 

Platform  oriDEMOCRATic  National  Co^fYENTiON,  1880 3 

General  Hancock's  Letter  or  Acceptance 4r 

Hon.  Wm.  H.  English's  Letter  of  Acceptance 6 

Life  of  General  Winfield  S.  Hancock 9 

General  Hancock  at  Gettysburg 13 

General  Hancock's  Civil  Record 16 

The  Celebrated  General  Order  No.  40 17 

President  Johnson's  Message  Relative  to  General  Order  No.  40 18 

General  Hancock's  Letter  to  Governor  Pease,  of  Texas 19 

General  Hancock's  Address  and  Motion  in  the  Babcock  Case 26 

General  Hancock's  Speech  to  the  Citizens  of  Washington 28 

General  Hancock's  Letter  to  General  Sherman,  Dec.  28,  1876 29 

Life  of  Hon,  Wm.  H.  English    33 

The  Record  of  James  A.  Garfield 53 

1.  The  Credit  Mobilier  Fraud 55 

2.  The  District  of  Columbia  Ring  and  the  De  Golyer  Bribe 80 

(a)  Decision  of  Chicago  Circuit  Courti  on  De  Golyer  Bribe 120 

3.  The  Sanborn  Frauds  124r 

4.  The  Back-Pay  Grab  and  Salary  Steal 131 

5.  The  Indian  Ring— Garfield's  Services  in  its  Behalf 139 

6.  Encouraging  and  Defending  Petit  Larceny 143 

7.  Garfield  the  Champion  of  O.  O.  Howard 147 

8.  The  Black  Friday  Scandal— Garfield's  Efforts  to  Suppress  the  Truth 151 

9.  Garfield  the  Friend  of  Robeson 15& 

10.  Garfield  Champions  Geo.  F.  Seward 18a 

11.  Garfield  and  the  Electoral  Fraud— As  Chief  of  the  Conspirators,  he  was 

Counsel,  Congressman  and  Judge 186 

12.  Three  Monstrous  Grievances ,. 189 

1.  Troops  at  the  Polls. 

2.  Partisan  Jury  Laws. 

3.  Partisan  Election  Laws— Supeivisors  and  Deputy  Marshals. 

13.  The  Pacific  Mail  Steal 233 

14.  The  Moth  Swindle 240 

15.  Garfield  and  the  Laboring  Men 244 

16.  Some  of  Garfield's  Votes 245 

17.  Garfield  and  General  Shields 250 

18.  Garfield  Against  Free  Salt 250 

19.  Judgment  of  his  Republican  Constituents 251 

20.  Garfield  Against  the  Shipbuilders  of  New  England 254 

21.  Garfield  Against  the  Tax-paying  Distillers  of  his  own  State 256 

22.  Garfield  on  Chinese  Immigration 258 

23.  Garfield  Opposes  Reduction  of  Duty  on  Printing  Paper 264 

24.  Garfield's  Opposition  to  Foreigners 264 

25.  Garfield's  Religious  Intolerance  . . .". 265 

26.  Garfield  on  Civil  Tenure  and  Impeachment 266 

Chester  A.  Arthur's  Civil  Record 269 

1.  Arthur  falls  out  with  the  Hayes'  Administration 270 

2.  John  Sherman  demands  Arthur's  removal  from  CoUectorship  of  the  Port  of 

New  York 271 

3.  Hayes  removes  Arthur  on  the  ground  that  he  is  dishonest,  incompetent, 

and  a  Machine  Politician 273 

4.  Sherman  arraigns  Arthur  for  "unlawful  practices  "  and  "gross  abuses  of 

administration  " 273 

CmL  Service  Reform 278 

1.  Hayes'  famous  Civil  Service  Order  No.  1 280 


11  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

Civil  Service  Reform  :  page. 

2.  How  John  Sherman  Manipulated  Ofllceholders  in  the  South 282 

3.  Gorham  Squeezes  $106,000  out  of  Poor  Department  Clerks 284,  285 

4.  Returning  Board  Thieves  and  their  Friends  Rewarded  with  Money  and 

Offices  to  Keep  them  from  Squealing 286,  291 

5.  Republican  Civil  Service  Reform  a  Sham,  and  what  it  Cost  the  People 292-3 

The  Great  Fraud  of  1876 294 

1.  A  Midnight  Conspiracy  Formed 294 

2.  How  the  Votes  of  Florida,  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina  were  Stolen  for 

Hayes 296-323 

Treasury  Book-keeping  : 

How  Balances  were  forced  by  Interlineations,  Erasures  and  Mutilations  of  the 

Treasury  Books 327 

War  Claims— Democrats  Opposed  to  Paying  them 333 

The  Xlllth,  XlVth  and  XVth  Amendments 342 

(Held  by  Gen.  Hancock  and  the  Democratic  Party  to  be  Inviolable,  pp.  3-4.) 

The  Democrats  and  the  Soldiers 344 

Republican  Insult  to  the  Mexican  Veterans 362 

The  "  Rebel  Brigadier  " — Fit  for  the  highest  honors  as  a  Republican,  but  danger- 
ous as  a  Democrat 365 

The  Negro  Exodus 371 

How  the  Poor  Freedmen  were  Swindled 377 

Twelve  Years  of  Fraud,  Peculation  and  Plundering: 

The  Emma  Mine  Swindle 398 

The  Whisky  Ring 400 

The  Belknap  Impeachment 405 

The  Venezuela  Scandal 410 

The  San  Domingo  Job 415 

History  of  a  Carpet-Bag  Government 421 

Plundering  the  South 439 

Frauds  in  the  Post-Office  Department 442 

Petit  Larceny  in  the  Post-Office  Department 458 

Government  Printing  Frauds 459 

Frauds  in  the  Construction  of  Public  Buildings 4 465 

Frauds  of  the  Pension  Office 467 

Frauds  in  the  Department  of  Justice 476 

Favoritism  in  the  Enforcement  of  Judgments 479 

Expenses  of  United  States  Courts 480 

Sherman's  Pet  Bank 481 

SCHURZ   AND   the  InDIAN  BUREAU 484 

Another  Ex-Cabinet  Officer  Brought  to  Grief 487 

Presidential  Luxuries  : 

How  the  People  are  Taxed  to  Pay  for  Dogs,  Horses,  Carriages,  Croquet  Sets, 

China  Dinner  Service,  etc.,  for  the  White  House 492 

The  Executive  Mansion 499 

Expenses  of  the  White  House 500 

The  Botanical  Garden — the  Official  Bouquet  Shop 501 

Expenditures  for  the  District  op  Columbia 503 

Appropriations  and  Expenditures  : 

Democratic  Economy  and  Republican  Extravagance 506 

Territory  Acquired  under  Democratic  Rule 506 

Squandering  the  Public  Domain 526 

Loaning  the  Public  Credit  to  Corporations 528 

Some  of  General  Hancock's  Orders 530 

Civilized  Bulldozing 531 

Republican  Discrimination  against  Foreign-born  Citizens 545 

Tables  of  Votes  for  President  and  Congressmen,  showing  Average  Vote  for 

Each  Congressional  District 557 

Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses  compared  with  Forty-fourth  and 

Forty-fifth  Congresses 510,  511 

History  of  Appropriation  Bills,  Forty-fourth  and  Forty-fifth  Congresses, 

SHOWING  Economies  Inaugurated  by  the  Democratic  House 510 

Table  of  Appropriations  from  1868  to  1881,  inclusive 519 

Appropriations  for  Army,  Navy,   and  Pensions,  March,  1871,  to  1880,  in- 
clusive    520 

E3u»ENDiTURES— Seventy-two  years  Cost  Less  than  Ten  Years  Republican  Ex- 
travagance    506 

Seven  Years  of  Democratic  Frugality  compared  with  Seven  Years  of  Re- 
publican Profligacy 509-10 

Expenditures  growing  greater  as  we  recede  from  the  War  Period 510 

$100,000,000  Saved  by  the  Democratic  House 511 

Table  of  Civil  List  and  Net  Ordinary  Expenditures  by  Administrations..  520 
Detailed  Statement  of  Expenditures,  by  Years,  prom  March,  1789,  to  June 

30,  1879 521 


INDEX.  Ill 


INDEX 


PAGE. 
ACCEPTANCE  : 

Gen.  Hancock's  Letter  of 4 

Hon.  Wm.  H.  English's  Letter  of 6 

AMENDMENTS : 

Thirteenth,  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth,  to  the  Constitution 342 

Held  by  Gen.  Hancock,  English  and  the  Democratic  party  to  be  Inviolable 3-4 

APPROPRIATIONS  AND  EXPENDITURES: 

Democratic  Economy  and  Republican  Extravagance  Contrasted 506-18 

Extravagance  of   Forty-second  and  Forty-third  Congresses,  compared   with 

Economy  of  Forty-fourth  and  Forty-fifth 511 

History  of  Appropriation  Bills  Forty-fourth  and  Forty-fifth  Congresses,  show- 
ing Economy  Inaugurated  by  Democratic  House 511 

Saving  of  $146,000,000  under  the  Profligate  Estimates  of  the  Republicans  At- 
tempted    513 

Seventy-two  Years  from  the  Beginning  of  the  Government  to  1861  Cost  less  than 
ten  Years  of  Republican  Extravagance  since  1867,  the  Era  of  Extrava- 
gance Inaugurated  by  the  Republicans 506-7 

Seven  Years  of  Democratic  Economy,  Contrasted  with  Seven  Years  of  Repub- 
lican Profligacy,  $1.94  per  capita  under  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  and  3.45  per 

capita  under  Grant 509-510 

Expenses  of  the  House  Folding  Room  decreased  by  the  Democrats 514 

Table  of  Civil  List— Net  Ordinary  Expenditures 520 

Statement  of  Expenditures  of  the  United  States  from  4th  of  March  1789  to 

June  30,  1880,  inclusive,  by  Years 521 

Struggle  with  Republican  Senate  in  favor  of  Economy 512 

$91,(X^,000  finally  saved  to  the  Tax-payers  by  the  persistent  efforts  of  a  Demo- 
cratic House 512 

Tables  of  Appropriations  from  1868  to  1881  inclusive 519 

Appropriations  for  Army,  Navy  and  Pensions  from  March,  1871  to  1880  inclusive  520 
APPROPRIATIONS    GROW    GREATER   AS    WE  RECEDE   FROM  THE  WAR 

PERIOD 510 

ARMY  RECORD : 

Of  General  W.  S.  Hancock 9  to  16 

Of  General  James  A.  Garfield 53 

ARTHUR,  CHESTER  A.,  RECORD  OF  : 

Appointed  Collector  of  the  Port  of  New  York 269 

The  Jay  Commission — Receipts  and  Expenditures  in  New  York  Custom-house  270 
Hayes  suspends  Arthur  because  he  is  a  Machine  JMUician,  and  Incompetent  and 

Dishonest 270 

Sherman  aiTaigns  him  for  ''Gross  Abuses  of  Administration,"  and  "Unlaw- 
ful Practices  " 271 

Arthurs'  Favoritism— Genteel  Smuggling — Deadheads  and  Bribe-Takers  re- 
tained by  him — Increased  Cost  of  Collecting  Revenue 271 

Arthurs'  Compensation,  $155,860.36 — Sherman  says  no  Reform  possible  under 

Arthur 272 

The  New  York  Custom-house  a  Political  Machine— Other  Charges  by  Sherman. 27^-4 

Fraudulent  Claims  Allowed — Arthur  neglects  his  Duties 276-7 

Arthur  as  a  Civil  Service  Reformer 279-280 

ASSESSMENTS,  POLITICAL.: 

One  per  cent,  levied  on  Salaries  of  Government  Employees  in  1870,  one  per 

cent,  in  1878,  and  two  per  cent,  in  1880 278-284 

How  Gorham  squeezed  $106,000  out  of  Poor  Department  Clerks 284^5 

BABCOCK,  0.  E. : 

General  Hancock's  Motion  in  Case  of 26 

Babcock's  Connection  with  the  District  Ring 92 

His  Lightning  Calculations 113-114 

Babcock  and  the  Whiskey  Ring— The  "  Sylph  "  Telegrams 402-403 

36 


V  INDEX. 

PAGE. 
BABCOCK,  O.  E. : 

Indicted  at  St.  Louis — Grant  Shields  him  from  Punishment 403^04 

Master  of  Horse  to  Grant — Certifies  Accounts  for  Boarding  the  Official  Dog 

.    and  for  Repairing  the  Official  C  irriage,  etc 493 

BACK  PAY  STEAL  AND  SALARY  GRAB  : 

How  it  got  into  an  Appropriation  Bill 181 

By  Duplicity  and  Double  Dealing  Garfield  forces  its  Passage 132 

He  Votes  for  the  Bill  and  Pockets  the  Plunder 136-7-8 

BATTLES.     {See  Life  General  Hancock.) 
BELKNAP   IMPEACHMENT,   THE: 

The  Case  against  Belknap — The  Arrangement  between  Evans  and  Marsh 405-6 

Marsh's  Letter  to  Belknap — Belknap  and  Marsh  charge  Evans  $12,000  a  year 

for  the  Post-tradership 406 

United  States  Soldiers  Robbed  for  Post-Traders'  Benefit 407 

The  Payments  Marsh  made  to  Belknap  408 

Argument  of  Hon.  Jeremiah  S.  Black  in  the  Belknap  Case 408-9 

BLACK  FRIDAY  SCANDAL : 

How  General  Garfield  sought  to  Suppress  the  Truth— Grant's  first  Meeting" withv 

Fisk  and  Gould '.....  151 

Gould  and  Grant's  Brother-in-law  select  an  Assistant  Treasurer 152 

Grant  Hides  himself 153 

The  Conspirators  Jubilant— $25,000  to  Mrs.  Grant 154 

Garfield  tries  to  make  $250  out  of  $25,000 155 

Grant  Frightened  by  Fisk 155 

That  Awful  Day  . .  .* 157 

BOTANICAL  GARDEN,  THE: 

Mr.  Garfield  Increases  the  Appropriations  for  Bouquets  and  Floral  Gifts 501 

Expenditures  for  Botanical  Garden  for  Twenty  Years 502 

BULLDOZING  ("  CIVILIZED  ") : 

In  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island 545 

Operatives  Intimidated— Compelled  to  vote  the  Republican  Ticket  or  be  dis- 
charged    546 

Ballots  taken  away  from  Voters  and  others  forced  upon  them 547 

The  Aid  of  the  Church  invoked  by  the  Republican  State  Committee  of  Massa- 
chusetts    548 

Circular  sent  to  Operatives  in  Westerly  by  their  Employers — Company  Agents 
in  charge  of  Polling  Places,  and  tKe' Company's  Timekeeper  checking  off 

Voters 549 

BURLINGAME  TREATY— ITS  EFFECT —  259 

CARPET-BAG  GOVERNMENT,  HISTORY  OF  A  : 

How  South  Carolina  was  Robbed — Investigation  by  a  Committee  of  the  Legis- 
lature   421 

How  John  J.  Patterson  was  made  Senator— His  Subsequent  History  as  told  by 

himself— Patterson's  Racy  Letters  to  his  Friend  Worthington 422-7 

"Don  Cameron's  Order  Means  Biz." 426 

A  Model  Carpet-Bag  Legisislature,  and  How  it  Reveled  in  Luxuries  at  the 
People's  Expense — A  Wonderful  Bar-Room— Diamonds,  Dresses,  Furni- 
ture and  Supplies  Bought  by  the  State 427 

Bustles,  Chignons  and  Palpitators  Purchased 429 

How  the  Bills  were  Paid 429 

Imaginary  Expenses 430 

Legislative  Expenses  $1,500,000  Per  Annum  under  Republicans— $84,000  Per 

Annum  under  Democrats 431-2 

The  Printing  Swindle 431-2 

The  Greenville  and  Columbia  Railroad  Swindle— Wholesale  Bribery 432-3 

The  Impeachment  Swindle 433 

The  Blue  Ridge  Railroad  Scrip  Frauds 434 

The  Thieves'  Agreement^The  Ku-Klux  Rewards— The  Phosphate  Steal 435 

Armed  Force  and  Constabulary 436 

Petty  Pilfering— Hardy  Solomon's  Claim 437 

How  the  Plunderers  were  Finally  Deposed 438 

CARRIAGES,   OFFICIAL: 

For  Department  of  Justice — Recommended  by  Garfield 144 

Coup6  and  Rockaway  for  the  White-House 495 

The  Official  Carriage  for  the  Pension  Office 

The  Official  Carriage  of  the  Post-Office  Department 

CA8SANAVE,  G. : 

One  of  the  Louisiana  Returning  Board— He  Threatens  Hayes  and  Sherman, 

who  Pay  him  $1,750  to  Keep  Quiet \ 290 

CHARITABLE  ASSOCIATIONS: 

Garfield  Opposes  Aid  to  them 265 


INDEX.  V 

PAGE. 

•CHINESE  IMMIGRATION— GARFIELD  OPPOSED  TO  ITS  RESTRICTION : 

Garfield's  Letter  of  Acceptance 258 ' 

Burlingame  Treaty— its  Effect— Wren's  Bill  to  Restrict— Willis' Report' 259 

Garfield  Opposes  it — Vetoed  by  Hayes — The  Message — Garfield  Votes  to  Sus- 
tain the  Veto 260 

Morton  Favors  Chinese  Suffrage 261-2 

CINCINNATI  GAZETTE : 

What  it  said  about  Credit  Mobilier  in  1873 56 

CINCINNATI  PLATFORxM  (see  title  Batform) 3 

''  CIVILIZED  "   BULLDOZING 

In  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island— Meetings  of  Manufacturers  held  to  In- 
timidate Voters 545 

.  .      Operatives  Intimidated  and  Discharged 546 

How  They  Did  it  in  Worcester,  Mass 546-7 

Bulldozing  in  Rhode  Island 548 

The  Circular  sent  to  Operatives — Companies'  Agents  take  Charge  of  Polling 

Places 549 

CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM : 

Early  Attempts  at  Reform  in  the  Civil  Service — Employees  Assessed  One  Per 
Cent,  by  Republican  Congressional  Committee,  1870 — Secretary  Cox  De- 
clines to  Aid,  and  is  Driven  Out  of  Grant's  Cabinet — The  First  Civil  Ser- 
vice Reform  Committee— Its  Work  Fails  for  Lack  of  Executive  Sympathy- 
How  the  Civil  Service  Reform  Plank  got  into  the  Republican  Platform  278 
Machine  Politics — Garfield's  Letter  of  Acceptance — Arthur  as  a  Civil  Service 

Reformer 279 

Hayes  as  a  Reformer — The  Famous  Civil  Service  Order  No.  1  280 

A   Sham   as   Described  by  the    N.    Y.    Times — Sherman's  Officeholders   in 

Mississippi 282 

Gorham  Squeezes  $106,000  out  of  Government  Clerks — Where  the  Monev  was 

Spent * 284 

Cassanave,  of  the  Returning  Board,  Threatens,  and  is  paid  |1,750  by  Hayes  and 

Sherman 290 

How  the  Returning  Board  Thieves  and  their  Friends  have  been  taken  Care  of. 287-9 

State  Senators  who  Voted  for  Kellogg  Provided  with  Officers 293 

The  Navy  Yards  Turned  to  Political  Account 171 

CIVIL   TENURE: 

Garfield  favored  the  Law  Preventing  Removals  by  the  President,  and  then 

Favored  its  Repeal  266-9 

COASTWISE  TRADE  : 

Garfield  against  its  Development 254-5 

COLORED  SOLDIERS  ROBBED 149 

COMMERCIAL  MARINE: 

Garfield  Opposes  the  Shipbuilding  Interests  of  New  England  and  the  Revival 

of  our  Commercial  Marine 254-5 

CONSTITUTION: 

Thirteenth,  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments  to 342 

CONTRIBUTIONS,  POLITICAL 278 

Two  per  cent.  Levied  on  Salaries  of  Government  Employees 284r-5 

CREDIT  MOBILIER: 

Garfield's  Defense  in  1880 55 

His  First  Newspaper  Statement,  1872 55 

What  the  Cincinnati  Gazette  said,  1873— What  the  New  York  THUme  said,1873— 

Garfield's  Sworn  Statement — Oakes  Ames  wants  to  Shield  Garfield 56 

But  Swears  Garfield  Got  the  Stock 57 

Alley  Corroborates  Ames— The  Talk  in  the  Senate,  1867— The  Truth  Comes 

out  by  Degrees 58 

That  $329  Garfield  Got— Not  a  Loan 59 

Ames'  Memorandum  Book  and  Check 60 

Garfield's  Tell-tale  Figures — Ames  Keeps  them 62 

History  of  Credit  Mobilier  and  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad 63 

Garfield's  Vote  for  the^^Corporation  — What  the  Bill  Did— Washbume  Tells  the 

Truth  about  it  at  the  Time 64 

Garfield  Votes  for  the  Swindle 65 

Over  a  Million  Dollars  the  First  Haul— The  Legislation  of  1867 66 

The  Poland  Report  on  the  Oakes  Ames  Contract 67 

Oakes  Ames'  Letters — "  We  Want  More  Friends  in  Congress  " 68-9 

The  Fraud  Exposed  in  1868 69-71 

Profits  of  the  Credit  Mobilier 74 

Further  Legislation  Asked,  and  Garfield  Votes  for  it 76 

The  Scheme  Exposed  in  the  Senate 76-8 

What  the  Facts  Prove  Against  Garfield 78-9 

What  the  Republican  Newspapers  said  in  1873 79 


VI  INDEX. 

PAGE. 
CUSTOM-HOUSE,  PORT  OF  NEW  YORK  (see  Arthur,  C.A.) : 
DE  GOLTER  BRIBE  AND  DISTRICT  RING: 

Garfield  Owned  by  the  District  Ring 80 

His  Services  Secured  for  the  De  Golyer  Pavement — Parsons'  Celebrated  Letter 

Announcing  His  Capture 80 

History  of  the  District  Ring 81 

The  Market  Swindle  Reported  on  an  Appropriation  Bill 83 

Million^  Demanded  from  the  United  States 83-84 

The  Pennsylvania  Avenue  Job — Government  Property  Given  Away 86-87 

What  Wine  and  Wassail  Accomplished 87-88 

The  New  Government  Installed 88-89 

The  Cookes •. 89-90 

Public  Building  and  other  Frauds 90-91-93 

Shepherd  and  Babcock 93 

The  Judiciary  Prostituted .- 94-95 

Large  Schemes  of  Plunder — The  Real  Estate  Pool,  Wooden  Pavements 97-99 

The  Ring  Speculates  on  Information 99 

Robeson  and  Landaulet  WUliams  Get  their  Share 101 

A  Few  Specimen  Frauds 103 

Letting  Contracts  and  Fixing  Prices 103 

The  Board  of  Public  Works  Investigated  and  Whitewashed 103-104 

The  Ring  Captures  Garfield 104^105 

Parsons'  Testimony  about  the  $5,000  Fee 105 

Testimony  of  McClellan  and  Cook 105-106 

Testimony  of  Jenkins 106 

The  Parsons'  Letter  Sworn  to 106 

The  De  Golyer  Bribe  Investigated  in  1877 106 

Testimony  of  Boss  Shepherd 106-107 

Nickerson  Testifies  about  the  Bribe 107 

Garfield's  Testimony 107-108 

What  the  Testimony  Shows 108 

What  Garfield  was  Paid  $5,000  for  Doing 109 

He  Attempts  to  Push  an  Appropriation  Through  the  House  in  the'  Sundry 

Civil  Bill :..... 109 

The  Senate  Adds  the  Rejected  Item 110 

Garfield  Sei-ves  the  Ring  in  the  Conference  Committee 110 

He  is  Deaf  to  the  Cry  of  Citizens 110 

Tries  to  Steal  $1,341,930.43  for  the  Ring Ill 

He  Pleads  for  the  Ring  and  Votes  Awpy  $3,500.000.00 113-113 

Garfield  Could  Not  Save  the  Ring 115 

The  Safe  Burglary  Conspiracy llfr 

The  Report  of  the  Investigating  Committee 117 

The  Indebtedness  the  Ring  Created 118 

The  New  York  Independent  Denounces  Garfield 119 

His  Constituents  Denounce  Him 119 

Record  of  a  Suit  in  the  Chicago  Circuit  Court 130-133 

DEMOCRATS  AND  THE  SOLDIERS : 

Democratic  Efforts  for  the  Soldiers  Thwarted  by  Republicans — What  Hon. 

John  A.  McMahon  of  Ohio  said ^344 

Bill  for  Equalization  of  Bounties  Passed  the  House,  and  Garfield  Dodged  the 
Vote— The  Bill  was  Killed  in  the  Senate— Time  for  Filing  Bounty  Claims 

Extended— Arrears  of  Pensions |345 

How  Garfield  and  other  Republicans  Fought  it — He  Insisted  upon  a  Strict  Ap- 
plication of  the  Rules  as  Against  the  Soldiers'  Interests — The  Democratic 

House  Acts,  the  Republican  Senate  Refuses 346 

Soldiers  Indebted  for  the  Arrears  Bill  to  the  Energy  of  the  Democratic  House — 

The  Appropriation  Under  the  Bill 347 

Republican  Outrage  on  the  Soldiers  of  1813— Republican  Ingratitude  to  the 
Widows  and  Orphans — James  A.  Garfield  among  the  Republicans  who 
Voted    Against  Pensioning  the    Widows  and  Orphans  of  the  Soldiers 

of  1813.. 348 

Grant's  Rebuke  to  the  Republicans— Leading  Republicans  Oppose  the  Bill— 
The  Bill  Passes  the  House,  all  the  Democrats  Voting  for  it — But  Mr,  Gar- 
field Dodged 349-350 

An  Effort  to  Protect  Soldiers  from  Sharpers— The  Bill  Passes  the  House,  but 
is  Pigeon-holed  in  the  Senate— Artificial  Iambs  for  Soldiers— A  Republican 

Wrong  Righted  by  a  Democratic  House .• 350 

Bill  to  Relieve  Totally  Disabled  Soldiers— The  Senate  Imposes  Conditions.  .351-352 

Relief  Bills  Passed  by  the  House  and  Rejected  by  the  Senate 353 

Republican  and  Democratic  Laws  Contrasted 353 

The  Three  Months  Extra  Pay  to  Mexican  Soldiers 353-4 

Soldiers  Protected  from  Exorbitant  Pension  Fees , 354 


INDEX.  Vll 

PAGE. 

DEMOCRATS  AND  THE  SOLDIERS : 

The  Law  for  Filing  Claims  for  Lost  Horses  and  Equipments — It  Passes  the 

House  but  Dies  in  the  Senate 355 

The  Democratic  House  Rights  the  Wrong — the  Republican  Senate  Refuses  to 

Act — The  Rhode  Island  Case,  a  Specimen  Brick 356 

A  Memorial  from  Discharged  Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the  United  States  Alleg- 
ing Violation  of  sections  1754  and  1755  of  the  Revised  Statutes — Honora- 
bly Discharged  Soldiers  Displaced  by  Civilians  in  the  Custom-house  at 
Providence — What  the  Specific  Allegations  were — The  Law  Violated  in 

Letter  and  Spirit 357 

Soldiers  Kicked  out  of  Office  by  Republicans  to  make  Room  for  Civilians 358-9 

Another  Democratic  Effort  to  secure  Civil  Employment  for  Soldiers — Senator 

Ingalls'  Tribute  to  the  Democratic  House 360 

Good  Intentions  of  Democrats  Defeated  by  Republican  Senate 361 

DEMOCRATIC    ECONOMY    AND     REPUBLICAN     EXTRAVAGANCE    CON- 
TRASTED  506-18 

DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE  : 

Frauds  in 476 

DISTILLERS : 

Interests  of  Tax-paying  Distillers  opposed  by  Garfield — He  Opposes  Reduc- 
tion of  Taxes 256-7" 

DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA : 

Comparative  Expenditures  in,  under  Democratic  and  Republican  Rule 503 

Mr.  Garfield  Responsible  for  Increased  Expenditures 504r-5 

DISTRICT  RING  {see  Be  Golyer  Bribe) 80 

DOG: 

The  Official  Dog  of  the  White  House  Placed  on  the  Pa5'-roll  as  Watchman- 
Fed  at  the  Public  Expense— Vouchers  Certified  by"Babcock  and  Paid  by 

the  Government  at  the  Rate  of  .^10  per  Month 493 

ELECTORAL  COMMISSION,  THE : 

Garfield's  Double  Course  ;  Was  one  of  the  Visiting  Statesmen  to  Louisiana  ; 
Garfield  Opposed  the  Electoral  Bill ;  Declared  it  would  Require  the  Commis- 
sion to  go  behind  the  Returns 186 

As  a  Member  of  the  Commission  he  voted  against  going  behind  the  Returns  ; 

then  goes  back  on  himself 187 

Mr,  Hewitt  on  the  Electoral  Commission,  and  Garfield's  Inconsistency 187-8 

Garfield  as  Chief  of  the  Conspirators — Was  Counsel,  Congressman  and  Judge.  188 
ELECTORAL  FRAUDS  OF  1876-7: 

Report  of  the  Potter  Committee , 296-323 

Unprecedented  Frauds  in  Florida  and  Louisiana — Federal  Troops  as  well  as 

Visiting  Statesmen  Support  the  Returning  Board  in  Louisiana 296 

Federal  Patronage  used  to  Conceal  the  Frauds 297 

Testimony  as  to  the  Frauds  Uncontradicted 298 

The  Inve'stigation  in  Florida 298-305 

Electors  ;  How  Appointed  ;  Power  of  State  Canvassers 298 

Unlawful  Action  of  State  Canvassers — The  Entire  Return  from  Manitee  County 
and  Parts  of  Returns  from  Hamilton,  Monroe  and  Jackson  Counties  exclu- 
ded from  the  Count — Tilden  Electors  Meet  and  Cast  their  Votes 299 

Action  to  try  the  Title  of  the  Hayes  Electors — Action  to  try  the  Title  of  Gov- 
ernor— A  Re-Canvass   ordered  by  the    Supreme    Court — Drew    declared 

Elected  Governor 299 

Animus  of  Florida  State  Canvassers  in  Rejecting  Votes  and  in  Receiving  Votes.  300 
The  Face  of  the  Returns  gives  Tilden  Electors  a  Majority — How  it  was  Over- 
turned—The False  Return  of  Baker  County 301 

Bad  faith  of  the  State  Canvassers— Howell  made  Collector  of  Port  of  Feman- 

dina  for  his  Share  in  the  Fraud 302 

Accuracy  of  the  Precinct  Returns — The  Decision  of  the  Electoral  Commission  302-3 
Ex-Gov.  Noyes'  Part  in  the  Fraud— Dennis'  Visit  to  him,  and  the  Result. ....  303-4 

Gen.  Barlow  Repudiates  the  Fraud 304 

List  of  United  States  Office-holders  in  Florida  looking   after  the  Returning 

Boai'd  Canvass 305 

The  Investigation  in  Louisiana 305-18 

Supei-visors  of  Registration — The  Power  of  the  Returning  Board — The  Color 

Line  Pretense — Why  the  Colored  People  Voted  for  Democrats 305-6 

A  False  Census  and  Fraudulent  Registration 306-7 

Kellogg  Appoints  the  Supervisors  of  Registration  and  other  Election  Officers — 
The  Result   of   the  Election  an  Overwhelming  Majority  for   the  Tilden 

Electors 307 

Usurpation  by  the  Returning  Board ;  Its  Partisan  Composition 307-8 

Pretexts  for  Returning  Board  Usurpation 309 

Protests  Secured  against  various  Parishes 310 


Vlll  INDEX. 

ELECTORAL  FRAUDS  OF  1876-7: 

The  Feliciana  Conspiracy— Alleged  Intimidation  impossible 310-11 

Returning    Board  AflSdavits — Thirteen  of  the  Witnesses  called  by  Sherman 

Retract  their  Testimony 313^ 

Outrageous  Injustice   of   the  Returning  Board — Entire  Votes  of   Precincts 

thrown  out 313 

Gen.  Garfield  Cooks  up    the  Returns  for  West  Feliciana — Necessity  of  Ad- 
ministration Support 314 

The  Sherman  Letter  to  Weber 315-16 

List  of  Persons  connected  with  the  Canvass  or  Election  or  Negotiations  in 

Louisiana  in  18T6,  subsequently  Appointed  to  or  Retained  in  Office 317-18 

The  Forged  Electoral  Certificates — Meeting  of  the  Electors  in  Louisiana — The 

first  set  of  Certificates  Rejected — New  Certificates  Forged 318 

Electors'  List  of  Dec.  6  and  New  List  of  Dec.  28 SW 

The  New  Lists  Printed  so  as  to  Mislead — The  Certificates  secretly  signed — 

Forgery  of  JofErion's  and  Levisee's  Signature  to  the  new  List 321 

Attempt  to  suppress  genuine  Certificates — The  Fraud  on   the  Electoral  Com- 
mission   322 

Hayes's  Title  based  on  Forged  Certificates 322 

The  Falsification  of  the  Record 323 

Tilden  and  Hendricks  Elected — A  Midnight  Conspiracy  Formed — The  Conspir- 
ators communicate  with  Grant 294 

Grant  informed  of  the  Situation — Zach  Chandler's  Telegram,  ''JHayes  has  re- 
ceived 185  Votes  and  is  Elected" — The  Visiting  Statesmen — Garfield  goes 

to  New  Orleans  and  becomes  Chief  among  the  Conspirators 295 

ELECTION  LAWS: 

Davenport's  Pecuniary  Interest,  and  his  Bill 195-6- 

History  of  Partisan  Election  Laws  ;  they  originate  in  the  Union  League  Club 

of  New  York 190-4 

The  Marshal's  Bill  paid  by  the  Order  of  Grant 196-8 

No  Necessity  for  Federal  Election  Laws 198 

Senator  Thurman's  Unanswerable  Argument 214 

What  the  Democrats  Proposed  to  do 216 

The  Scum  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  as  Deputy  Marshals 218-20 

What  the  Federal  Election  Laws  have  cost  the  People 221 

Garfield's  Inconsistent  Record — His  Extraordinary  Views 222-3 

The  Election  Laws  at  Second  Session,  Forty-sixth  Congress 225 

Gen.  Garfield  suggests  an  Amendment 226 

His  Amendment  Accepted  by  the  Democrats 228 

Speaker  Randall  Welcomes  Gai-field's  Proposition 229  • 

Garfield  Goes  Back  on  himself  Squarely  and  Votes  No 229-30 

He  Changes  Front  again  but  his  Amendment  is  Passed 231-2 

EMMA  MINE  (THE)  SWINDLE : 398 

ENGLISH,  HON.  W.  H.: 

Letter  of  Acceptance. 

Indorses  Platform — A  Change  necessary 6 

Corruption  of  Electors — Centralization — Union  under  the  Constitution. . .      7 
Results  of  the  War  Accepted — Every  citizen  must  be  Protected— Restric- 
tion of  Chinese  Immigration— The  Public  Credit  to  be  Maintained  and 

Labor  Elevated 8 

Life  of: 

Parentage  and  Early  Life — Admission  to  the  Bar — Entrance  into  politics.  33-4 
Early  i^pointments  to   Office — Is  made  Secretary  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  Indiana  and  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  35-7 

His  Services  in  Congress 37-43 

His  Course  on  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill 3S-41 

Popular  Sovereignty 38 

Against  Secession — Speaks  for  the  Union 45 

His  Career  as  a  Banker 46-7 

Family  Life 49 

Business  Character 50 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION : 

Total  Expenditures  for  from  1779  to  1876 499 

Official  Snobbery  and  Extravagance  at  the  White  House  under  Grant  and 

Hayes — Specimen  Vouchers 493-498 

EXPENSES  OF  THE  WHITE  HOUSE  : 

Under  Democratic  and  Republican  Rule 500 

EXPENSES  OF  THE  HOUSE  FOLDING  ROOM  DECREASED  BY  THE  DEMO- 
CRATS   514 

EXPENSES  OF  UNITED  STATES  COURTS : 

Alarming  Increase  in  t^e  Past  Twenty-five  Years 480* 


INDEX.  IX 

PAGE. 

FRAUDS  IN  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE: 

Free  Rides,  Free  Tickets,  Free  Literature,  &c 476 

Table  of  Expenditures  for  1875-6-7-8-9 476-8 

Landaulet  Williams  Outdone 479 

Favoritism  in  the  Enforcement  of  Judgments 

FREEDMEN— HOW  THEY  WERE  SWINDLED  : 

The  Basest  of  all  the  Frauds 377 

Origin  of  the  Freedmen's  Bank 377-8 

Confined  to  District  of  Columbia  Bill — Passes  the  Senate — Is  not  Engrossed  as 

it  Passed  the  Senate 378 

It  Passes  the  House— Hon.  Wm.  S.  Stenger  on  the  Fraud 379 

Garfield's  Friends  on  the  Finance  Committee 38G 

The  He  Printed  on  the  Pass  Books— Gen.  0.  O.  Howard's  Ceitificate— The  De- 
posits the  Bank  Received 381 

The  First  National  Bank  of  Washington  acts  as  Agent  for  the  Freedmen's 

Bank 382 

The  Charter  Violated— The  Bank  invest  in  Union  and  Central  Pacific  Bonds. .  383. 

A  Note  and  Voucher — Shaving  Business 384 

Why  the  "  Boys  "  of  the  District  of  Columbia  Like  Garfield — Mr.  Cook  intro- 
duces a  Bill  which  Passes  Enlarging  the  Privileges  of  the  Bank 386. 

The  Seneca  Sand  Stone  Company— List  of  Stockholders 386-7 

How  the  Freedmen's  Money  was  Stolen — Cheating  the  Bank  out  of  $30,000 — 

The  Rogues  not  Prosecuted 389* 

Some  of  the  Testimony  Taken  before  the  Bruce  Committee 39Q 

The  Rotten  Securities  the  Funds  of  the  Bank  were  Loaned  on 391 

Some  Specimen  Loans  on  Real  Estate 393 

The  Routine  Business  of  the  Bank 395 

Cost  of  Winding  Up  the  Business — The  J.  C.  Kennedy  and  Other  Loans 396 

The  Result  of  the  Bruce  Investigation 397 

FREEDMEN'S  BUREAU 377 

FOREIGN  BORN  CITIZENS : 

Republican  Discrimination  against  them 551 

Extracts  from  Report  of  Senate  Committee — Constitution  of  Rhode  Island — 

Article  11 551 

The  Number  of  Disfranchised  Foreign-born  Citizens 552 

The  Hardship  of  the  Real  Estate  QualificatiDn  in  Rhode  Island 553 

Uiiion  Soldiers  Deprived  of  the  Right  to  Vote 555 

The  Average  /ote  in  each  Congressional  District 555 

GARFIELD,  JAMES  A.,  RECORD  OF  : 

Army  Record 53 

Garfield  as  a  Civil  Sei-vice  Reformer,  1877 54 

A  Machine  Politician,  1880 54 

HIS  RECORD  AT  LARGE. 

1st.  Credit  Mobilier  ;  see  Index  under  that  head 55 

2d.  De  Golyer  Bribe  and  District  Ring  ;  see  Index  under  that  head 80 

(rt.)  Decision  of  Chicago  Circuit  Court  on  De  Goyler  Bribe 120 

3d.  Sanborn  Frauds  ;  see  Index  under  that  head 124 

4th.  Back  Pay  Grab  and  Salary  Steal ;  see  Index  under  that  head 131 

5th.  Indian  Ring  ;  Gai-field's  Services  to ;  see  Index  under  that  head 139 

6th,  Encouraging  and  Defending  Petit  Larceny ;  see  Index  under  Petit 

Larceny '. 143 

7th.  Garfield  the  Champion  of  O.  O.  Howard:  see  Index  under  Howard, 

0.0 147 

8th.  Black  Friday  Scandal ;  see  Index  under  that  head 151 

9th.  Gai-field  the  Friend  of  Robeson ;  see  Index  under  Robeson 158 

10th.  Garfield  Champions  George  F.  Seward ;  see  Index  under  Seward, 

George  F 180 

11th.  The  Electoral  Commission  ;  see  Index,  Electoral  Commission 186 

12th.  Three  Monstrous  Grievances 189 

1st.  Troops  at  the  Polls ;  see  Index  under  that  head — 2d.  Partisan  Jury 
Laws ;  see  Index,  Jury  Laws-^3d.  Partisan  Election  Laws — see  Index, 
Election  Laws. 

13th.  The  Pacific  Mail  Steal ;  see  Index,  Pacific  Mail  Steal 235 

14th.  The  Moth  Swindle  ;  see  Index,  Moth  Swindle 240 

15th.  General  Garfield  and  the  Laboring  Men  ;  see  Index,  Laboring  Men. .  244 

16th.  Some  of  General  Garfield's  Votes 245 

17th.  Garfield  and  General  Shields  ;  see  Index,  Shields,  General 250 

18th.  Garfield  against  Free  Salt 250 

19th.  Judgment  of  his  Republican  Constituents 251 

20th.  Gai-fleld  against  the  Shipbuilders  of  New  England  ;  see  Index,  Ship- 
builders    254 


X  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

GARFIELD,  JAMES  A.,  RECORD  OF: 

21st.  Garfield  against  the  Taxpaying  Distillers  of  his  Own  State 256 

22d.  General   Garfield  and    Chinese    Immigration ;    see    Indx,    Chinese 

Immigration 258 

23d.  Duty  on  Printing  Paper 264 

24th.  Gai-field's  Opposition  to  Foreigners 264 

25th.  Religious  Intolerance ' 266 

26th.  Civil  Tenure 269 

Garfield  in  Favor  of  Troops  at  the  Polls 211 

Garfield  Defends  Geo.  F.  Seward 182-5 

Gai-field  Dodged  Vote  on  Equalization  Bounty  Bill 345 

Works  against  the  Arrears  of  Pension  Bill 346 

Against  Pensioning  the  Mexican  Veterans 362-3^ 

Dodged  Vote  on  Pensioning  Widows  and  Orphans  of  Soldiers  of  War  of  1812. .  350 

Gai-field  Responsible  for  the  System  of  Moieties  and  Spies. 126-8 

Garfield  Believes  in  an  Official  Aristocracy 145 

GENERAL  ORDER  No.  40 17 

GETTYSBURG,  BATTLE  OF 12-15 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  FRAUDS  :  . 

Government  Printing  Office  Established 459 

Investigated  by  the  Democratic  House — Over  One  Hundred  per  cent.  Profit.  .49-60 

What  Republican  Witnesses  Testified  to 461 

Frauds  in  Purchasing  Material — A.  M.  Clapp's  Violation  of  Criminal  Law — 

Proven  Guilty  by  his  own  Employees 463 

Clapp  is  Rewarded  by  an  Appointment  as  Public  Printer 464 

GRANT,  GENERAL  U.  S.  : 

"  His  Dog  Kennel  and  other  Luxuries  at  the  White  House 493-4 

HANCOCK,  GENERAL  W.  S.: 

LETTER   OF   ACCEPTANCE. 

Indorses  Platform — The  Thirteenth,  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amend- 
ments Inviolable — No  Centralization 4 

Necessity  for  Economy  and  Reform  in  Administration — No  Bayonets  at 
the  Polls— Public  Office  a  Tmst — Civil  Sei-vice  Reform— Public  Credit 
— No  Sectionalism — Revival  of  Commerce — Will  Defend  the  Union 
and  Execute  the  Laws  Impartially 5 

LIFE  OF. 

Ancestry  and  Early  Life '. 9 

Services  in  Mexico  and  in  Florida  War 9 

His  Patriotic  Course  in  California  in  1861 10 

His  Services  in  AVarof  the  Rebellion 10-11 

His  Great  Courage  and  Superior  Generalship  at  Spottsylvania 11 

Williamsburg 11-12 

Gettysburg 12-15 

Wilderness 15 

His  Record  as  Military  Governor  of  Louisiana  and  Texas 16-25 

His  Celebrated  General  Order,  No.  40 17 

Message  of  President  Johnson  in  Relation  to  General  Order,  No.  40 18 

Letter  to  Governor  Pease  of  Texas 19 

Address  and  Motion  in  Babcock  Case 26 

Speech  at  Ovation  Tendered  him  by  the  Citizens  of  Washington 27 

Letter  to  General  Sherman 29 

GENERAL  HANCOCK'S  ORDERS. 

Order  Revoking  a  Summary  Removal  from  Office 531 

Order  Revoking  the  Order  Interfering  with  the  Selection  of  Jurors 533 

Order  Sustaining  Jurisdiction  of  the  Civil  Courts 533 

Order  to  Secure  the  Purity  of  Elections  and  to  Prevent  Military  Interfer- 
ence at  the  Polls 533 

On  the  Stay  of  Civil  Process 534 

On  the  Trial  of  Offenders  Against  the  Laws  of  the  State 534 

On  Elections  by  the  People 537 

On  Removal  from  Office  without  Judicial  Investigation  and  Determination  537 

Order  Disclaiming  Judicial  Functions  in  Civil  Cases 538 

Concerning  an  Application  b>  a  Railroad  Company 538 

Order  Revoking  Certain  Instructions  to  the  Boards  of  Registration  in 

Louisiana  and  Texas 539 

Order  for  Convening  a  Special  Civil  Court  for  Trial  of  Criminal  Cases 540 

Concerning  the  Levy  of  a  Special  Tax 541 

Relating  to  the  Collection  of  Taxes 541-2 

Letter  to  General  Howard  on  the  Usuipation  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau. .  542 
HAYES,  RUTHERFORD  B.: 

His  Title  to  the  Presidency  based  on  Forged  Certificates 322 

He  Removes  Chester  A.  Arthur  for  Dishonesty  and  Incompetency 273 


INDEX.  XI 

PAGE. 

HAYES,  RUTHERFORD  B.: 

His  famous  Civil  Service  Order,  No.  1 280 

Officially  approves  Gorham's  Circular  on  Assessment  of  Office-holders 284 

He  Gratifies  his  Taste  for  Croquet,  Crockery,  Pic-Nic   Carriages,  etc.,  at  the 

Public  Expense 492-8 

He  Rewards  Returnina;  Board  Thieves  and  other  Conspirators  for  giving  him 

Mr.  Tilden's  Seat. ! , 287-9 

Pays  Cassanave  $1,750  to  keep  him  from  Squealing 290 

He  Vetoes  the  Appropriations  for  Marshals 210 

He  Vetoes  the  Little  Deficiency  Bill 210 

He  Vetoes  the  Act  to  Prevent  Military  Interference  at  the  Polls 224 

He  Vetoes  the  Marshals'  Bill 232 

He  Vetoes  Bill  Restricting  Chinese  Immigration 260 

HOWARD,  O.  O. : 

Garfield  the  Champion  of 147 

The  Freedmen's  Bureau  Inaugurated 147 

Its  Increased  Power  for  Evil  Advocated  by  Garfield 148 

Colored  Soldiers  Robbed  and  the  Government  Swindled 149 

Howard's  Trial— Garfield  Advocates  Payment  of  $7,000  to  Defend  him 150 

IMPEACHMENT : 

Garfield's  Record  on 266 

The  Case  against  Belknap 405-9 

INDIAN  RING : 

Legislation  on  the  Subject— Garfield's  Services  to  the  Ring 140-1 

Beck's  Scathing  Review 141 

Garfield  Deceives  the  House 142 

INTEREST  ON  THE  PUBLIC  DEBT 525 

IRISH  CITIZENS  : 

Resolution  of  Sympathy  with  them  Opposed  by  Garfield 264 

JEWELL,  MARSHALL  : 

Another  Ex-Cabinet  Officer    brought  to  Grief— The  kind  of  Man    Garfield 

selected  for  Chairman  of  the  Republican  National  Committee 487 

Opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  case  of  Allore  v.  Jewell.  .487-91 

JURY  LAWS 189 

KELLOGG,  W.  P.: 

State  Senators  who  Voted  for  Kellogg,  provided  with  Offices 293 

LABORING  MEN  : 

Garfield  Against  Them — He  Advocates  Bill  Cutting  down  their  Wages 244 

LAMAR,  SENATOR: 

Speech  on  the  Negro  Exodus 372 

LETTERS : 

General  Hancock's  Letter  of  Acceptance 4 

Honorable  W.  H.  English,  Letter  of  Acceptance  6 

General  Hancock  to  Governor  Pease 19 

General  Hancock  to  General  Sherman 29 

LIFE  OF  : 

General  W.  S.  Hancock 9 

Honorable  W.  H.  Enghsh 33 

LOANING  THE  PUBLIC  CREDIT  TO  CORPORATIONS  : 

Bonds  issued  to  the  Pacific  Railway  Companies— Interest  payable  by    the 
United  States 530 

MEXICAN    VETERANS: 

Republican  Insult  to  the  Mexican  Veterans 362 

Resolutions  adopted  by  the  Associated  Veterans  of  the  Mexican  War— They 
invite  the  ex-Soldiers  to  Support  Hancock— Garfield  always  Refused  to  do 

Justice  to  these  Brave  Men 362 

Legislation  in  Forty-fourth  Congress — The  House  passes  a  Bill  granting  Pen- 
sions to  Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the  Mexican  War— Republican  Senate 

Kills  it 363 

Legislation  in  the  Forty-fifth  Congress— Garfield  shows  his  hand 363 

He  is  recorded  against  the  Bill  on  every  Vote — Mexican  Veterans  must  prove 
themselves  Paupers  before  the  Republicans  will  Pension  them 363-4 

MEXICO,  HANCOCK'S  SERVICE  IN 9 

MORTON,   OLIVER  P.  : 

Favors  Chinese  Suffrage 261 

His  Opinion  of  Civil  Service  Reform 279 

MOTH   SWINDLE  : 

How  Garfield,  as  Chairman  of  Appropriations,  helped  Cowles,  Brega  &  Co.  to 

Swindle  the  Government 240 

Denounced  as  a  Job  by  the  Cincinnati  Gazette 241 

Garfield's  Correspondence  with  Belknap  242 

The  Profits— Where  they  Went 243 


Xll  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

NEGRO  EXODUS,  THE: 

The  Migration  begins  in  1878— The  Cause 371 

False  Promises  held  out  to  them 371 

Republican  Leaders  seek  to  turn  the  Exodus  to  Partisan  Account 37^ 

Mr.  Windom's  Resolution  in  the  Senate 372: 

Senator  Voorhees'  Speech  in  the  Senate 372 

The  Movement  on  Indiana — The  Exodtis  a  Political  Scheme 373 

A  Specimen  Agitator  for  the  Exodus 373 

The  Conspiracy  to  carry  Indiana  proved 374 

Prosperous  Condition  of  Negroes  in  North  Carolina 375 

What  Mr.  O'Hara,  Republican  Candidate  for  Congress,  said 375 

The  Sad  Stories  the  emigrating  Negroes  told 375 

The  Promises  made  them 376 

Senator  Lamar's  Speech  on  the  Exodus 376 

NEW   YORK   INDEPENDENT; 

Denounces  Garfield's  De  Golyer  bribe 11^ 

NEW  YORK   TRIBUNE: 

Exposes  Garfield's  share  in  the  Credit  Mobilier  Fraud 56 

And  in  the  Sanborn  Frauds ' 130 

ORTH,  GODLOVE  S.  : 

His  Connection  with  the  Venezuela  Scandal 410 

He  is  Forced  to  Abandon  the  Race  for  Governor  of  Indiana 414 

PACIFIC  MAIL  STEAL : 

Gai-field's  Part  as  Shown  by  the  Record 233 

How  the  Monstrous  Steal  was  Put  Through 234 

General  Garfield  Advocates  Amendment  fncreasihg  the  Steal  to  $1,000,000  per 

annum 235 

The  Committee  of  Appropriations  Denounced  by  Democrats 235-6 

Gai-field  Resorts  to  a  Subterfuge 235-6 

The  House  Rejects"  the  Amendment — Garfield  Votes  for  it 237 

A  Half-Million  Steal 238 

What  Garfield  Didn't  and  What  he;Did  Do 238 

The  Result — Amount  Disbursed 239 

PATTERSON,  JOHN  J.  : 

A  Model  Carpet-Bag  Senator— His  History  as  Told  by  Himself 422 

How  he  Kept  Out  of  the  Penitentiary — Racy  Correspondence 422 

Frauds  in  Railroad  Scrip 434-5 

PATRONAGE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  GOVERNMENT 524 

PEASE,  GOVERNOR,  Hancock's  Letter  to  . . .' 19 

PENSION  OFFICE  FRAUDS : 

The  OflBce  Turned  Into  a  Political  Organization 467 

An  Investigation  Demanded  by  Mr.  Harmer,  a  Republican 467-8 

Before  the  Pension  Bureau  Became  a  Political  Machine 468 

^er  It  Became  a  Political  Machine 469 

The  ex  parte  Investigation  System 470 

Pensioners  Dropped  from  the  Rolls  Without  Notice 471 

The  Interminable  Delays  in  Settling  Claims 472 

False  Rating  of  Disability 472 

An  Expert's  Testimony— A  Sample  Case  of  Favoritism 473 

Chiefs  of  Divisions  Contradict  the  Commissioner 474-5 

PETTY  LARCENY: 

Encouraged  and  Defended  by  General  Garfield 143 

Garfield  Defends  Landaulet  Williams 143 

A  Sixteen-Hundred  Dollar  Carriage — Garfield  Believes  in  Official  Aristocracy.  145 

A  Carriage  for  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions 146 

Visiting  Cards  and  Printing  the  Same,  $81.50— Washing  Towels  for  the  Attor- 
ney-General, $1,035.82 476-7-8 

Dogs,  Coupes,  Rockaways,  and  Croquet  Sets 493-5 

PLATFORM  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY  : 

Opposition  to  Centralization 3 

Opposition  to  Sumptuary  Laws 3 

Separation  of  Churcb  and  State 3 

Common  Schools 3 

Home  Rule 3 

Honest  Money 3 

Public  Faith 3 

Revenue  Tariff 3 

A  Free  Ballot 3 

The  Hayes  Administration  represents  Conspiracy  only 3 

No  Troops  at  the  Polls,  nor  at  the  Count 3 

The  present  Civil  Service  a  Debauched  System 3 

Civil  Sei-vice  Reform  Demanded 3 


INDEX.  Xll¥ 

PAGE. 

PLATFORM  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY : 

The  Great  Fraud  of  187&-7  Denounced 3 

Patriotic  Acquiescence  of  Democratic  Party 3 

Tilden's  Patriotism  Eulogized 4 

Free  Ships 4 

No  Discrimination  in  Favor  of  Corporations 4 

Public  Money  for  Public  Purposes 4 

Public  Credit  for  Public  Purposes 4 

Public  Lands  for  Settlers  only '4 

Friend  to  Labor  and  the  Laborer 4 

Chinese  Emigration  to  be  Restricted 4 

Democratic  Economy 4 

Thorough  Reform  Demanded 4 

PLUNDERING   THE   SOUTH:     . 

What  Radical  Misrule  has  Cost  the  People  of  Eleven  States 439-41 

History  of  a  Carpet-Bag  Government 421 

POLAND  REPORT 55 

POLITICAL  ASSESSMENTS 27* 

POSTAL  FRAUDS  (THE): 

The  Mismanagement,  Profligacy  and  Corruption  in  the  Post-Oflfice  Depart- 
ment    442 

Straw  Bids  443 

The  Case  of  Peterson — His  Methods 44& 

Barlow,  Sanderson  &  Co 446 

Their  Corrupt  Use  of  Money 447 

Postmaster-General  Creswell's  Little  Game 448 

Fifty  Thousand  Dollars  Employed  to  Divert  an  Investigation 448- 

How  bona  fide  Bidders  are  Disposed  of • 449 

The  Manner  of  Advertising  Routes 452^ 

Another  Investigation — Senator  Dorsey's  rake 453 

Sample  Contracts 454 

General  Brady's  Impotent  Defense 457 

POST  OFFICE    DEPARTMENT: 

Petit  Larceny— $20,000  a  Year  Paid  for  the  Publication  of  the  Post-Office  Guide  458 

PRESIDENTIAL  LUXURIES: 

Official  Snobbery  at  the  White  House 49^ 

The    Official  Dog,    the    Official    Carriage,    the  Official  Croquet  Set,  Official 

Crockery  etc. — all  at  ihe  Expense  of  the  Tax-payers 493-49S 

Expenses  of  White  House  from  1779  to  1876 499 

Expenses    of    White    House    under    Democratic    and    Republican    Rule — a 
Comparison 500 

PRINTERS,   GOVERNMENT: 

Garfield  Advocates  Bill  to  Cut  Down  their  Wages 244 

PRINTING  PAPER— DUTY   ON: 

Garfield  favored  its  Increase  from  Three  to  Fifteen  Per  Cent 264 

PRIVATE  CLAIMS  AGAINST  THE  GOVERNMENT 338-41 

Committee  on  Reform  in  the  Civil  Service  Report  An  Act  Providing  for  the 

Judicial  Ascertainment  of  Claims  against  the  United  States 338-^ 

The  Bill  Passes  the  House— Killed  in  the  Senate 339-40 

Claims  Allowed  as  per  Secretary  of  the  Treasury's  Letter 340 

Statement  of  Amount  Expended  for  Claims  for  Quartermaster  and  Commis- 
sary Supplies 341 

PUBLIC  BUILDING  FRAUDS: 

The   * 'Kitchen"  Cabinet  Discover   a    Bonanza — Jobbery  in  the  Supervising 

Architects  Office .       465' 

The  New  York  Post-Office— The  Boston  Post-Office  '.!'.!!".!*.".'.!'.!!!'.!!!'.'.'. !  465-466 

PUBLIC  CREDIT  LOANED  TO  CORPORATIONS 530 

PUBLIC  DEBT— PRINCIPAL  AND   INTEREST 525 

REBEL  BRIGADIER  (THE) : 

Good  enough  if  he  Votes  the  Republican  Ticket,  but  veiy  Bad  if  a  Democrat.  365-370 

Wounded  Soldiers  on  the  Rolls  of  a  Democratic  Senate 365 

The  Men  Republican  Legislatures  sent  to  the  Senate 366 

Rebel  Brigadiers  Appointed  to  Office  by  Republicans 367-370 

REFORM:         ^  ^^  ^       ^ 

Impossible  under  C.  A.  Arthur 272 

REFORM  IN  CIVIL  SERVICE : 

See  "  Civil  Service  Reform" 278 

See  "  Arthur,  Chester  A.,  Civil  Record" 269 

RELIGIOUS  INTOLERANCE : 

Garfield  opposes  Aid  to  Catholic  charities 265 

REVENUE  FRAUDS 271 


XIV  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

KOBESON,  GEORGE  M.: 

The  Secor  Claims 158-160 

How  the)'  were  Paid  in  full ;  and  again  Paid 159 

Millions  Squandered  and  no  Navy 162 

Investigated  by  Democratic  House 163 

How  the  Cattells  Divided  with  Robeson 164 

How  they  Sold  Robeson  to  Contractors 165-167 

Robeson  puts  the  Navy  Fund  where  it  wiU  do  the  most  Good 168-169 

Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  come  in  for  a  Slice 170-171 

Navy  Yards  turned  into  Political  Machines 171 

Ships  of  the  United  States  Broken  up  and  Sold  for  a  Song 173-174 

Garfield  Opposes  Investigation — he  Filibusters  to  save  Robeson 174-175 

Investigation  subsequently  made  by  Democratic  House.   .What  it  Revealed. . .  175 

Millions  made  by  "  procurers" , 177 

.   Report  of  the  Committee 177-178 

Garfield  again  Prevents  an  Investigation 179 

SALARY  GRAB  AND  BACK-PAY  STEAL : 

How  it  got  into  an  Appropriation  Bill 131 

Garfield  Responsible  for  its  Passage— His  Trickery  and  Double-Dealing 132 

After  Feigning  Opposition  to  the  Bill,  He  Votes  Squarely  for  It 136 

The  Amount  Stolen 137 

Garfield  Took  the  "  Swag,"   Kept  it  Six  Weeks,  and  was  Forced  by  Public 

Clamor  to  Cover  it  into  the  Treasury 138 

Congress  Forced  to  Repeal  the  Law 137 

SALT : 

Gen.  Gai-field  Opposes  the  Repeal  of  Duty  on  Salt 250 

SANBORN  FRAUDS : 

History  of  the  Sanborn  Frauds 124-30 

Garfield  forces  the  Passage  of  the  Infamous  Moiety  Contract  Law 126-8 

Investigation  by  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  Discloses  the  Frauds 128 

The  law  Repealed,  but  Repealing  Act  Violated  by  Sherman 129 

N.  Y.  Tribune  Exposes  Garfield's  Share  in   the  Sanborn   Frauds 130 

SAN  DOMINGO  JOB  (THE) : 

Grant's  Interest  in  it 415 

Gen.  Babcock  goes  to  San  Domingo — The  Arrest  of  Davis  Hatch 416 

Raymond  H.  Pern'  Interferes  and  gets  into  Trouble 417 

The  Attempt  to  Kidnap  Perry— The  Annexation  Scheme  Falls  Through 420 

SCHURZ,  CARL  : 

His  Administration  of  the  Indian   Bureau 484 

Enormous  and  Wasteful  Expenditures 484-6 

Hayt's  Villainy — Cost  of  Schurz's  System  of  Dealing  with  the  Indians 485 

SEVENTY-TWO  YEARS  FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 
TO  1861  COST  LESS  THAN  TEN  YEARS  OF  REPUBLICAN  EXTRAVA- 
GANCE SINCE  1867,  THE  ERA  OF  EXTRAVAGANCE  INAUGURATED 
BY  THE  REPUBLICANS 506-7 

SEVEN  YEARS  OF  DEMOCRATIC  ECONOMY  CONTRASTED  WITH  SEVEN 
YEARS  OF  REPUBLICAN  PROFLIGACY,  $1.94  PER  CAPITA  UNDER 
PIERCE  AND  BUCHANAN,  AND  $3.45  PER  CAPITA  UNDER  GRANT.509-510 

SEWARD,  GEO.  F. : 

Garfield  Filibusters  to  Prevent  His  Impeachment 180 

How  Seward  Robbed  the  Government 181 

Garfield  Defends  Seward's  Roguery,  and  finally  Succeeds  in  Preventing  His 
Im])eachment 182-5 

SHERMAN,  GENERAL : 

Hancock's  Letter  to 29 

SHERMAN,  SECRETARY: 

His  first  Report  to  Congi-ess  about  Arthur 271 

He  Violates  the  Law  Repealing  the  Moiety  Act 129 

SHERMAN'S  PET  BANK : 

He  gives  the  First  National  Bank  of  New  York  a  Monopoly  of  the  Four  Per 
Cent,     Bonds— A    Disgraceful    History— How     the     Government     lost 

$115,000,000 481 

The  Pet  Bank  helps  to  elect  Foster  Governor  of  Ohio 482 

The  Visiting  Statemen  get  $5,000  from  this  Bank 483 

SHIPBUILDERS  OF  NEW  ENGLAND : 

Garfield  Speaks  and  Votes  against  the  Revival  of  our  Commercial  Mai  iue . . .  254 

The  Bill  Presented  by  Mr.  Lynch,  of  Maine 254 

Mr.  Gai-field  Votes  against  it 255 

SHIELDS,  GENERAL  : 

Garfield's  Ingratitude  to  a  Veteran  of  Three  Wars— A  Bill  introduced  to  Place 
Gen.  Shields  on  the  Retired  List— Garfield  Votes  against  it 250 

SOLDIERS  {see  the  Democrats  and  the    Soldiers) 344 


INDEX.  XV 

PAGE. 

SOUTHERN  CLAIMS  {see  War  Claims) 33a 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  : 

How  the  State  was  Plundered 421 

A  model  Carpet-Bag  Legislature 427 

Wholsale  Bribery 433 

How  the  Thieves  were  Driven  out 343 

SQUANDERING  THE  PUBLIC  DOMAIN  : 

Land  Grants  to  Corporations  and  Monopolies  by  the  Republican  Party 528 

Total  Valuation  $736,895,000 529 

STATEMENT    OF    EXPENDITURES  OF    THE  UNITED   STATES  FROM  4th 

OF  MARCH,  1789,  TO  JUNE  30,  1880,  INCLUSIVE,  BY  YEARS 521 

SUBSIDIES,  LAND  GRANTS  : 

Loan  of  Government  Credit 330 

TABLE  OF  CIVIL  LIST,  NET  ORDINARY  EXPENDITURES 520 

TAXATION : 

Garfield  Opposed  to  a  Reduction — He  Votes  Against  Relief  to  Tax-Paying 

Distillers 256-7 

TERRITORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  : 

How,  When  and  Under  what  Atiministrations  it  has  been  Increased 526 

The  Area  Acquired  by  Democrats 527 

TREASURY  BOOK-KEEPING : 

^    How  Balances  are  Forced 327 

The  Revenue  Diminishes — Millions  of  Dollars  Difference  between  the  Secre- 
tary, Treasurer  and  Register  as  to  Cash  in  the  Treasury— The  Public  Debt 

Statements 328 

How  it  is  Manipulated  about  Election  Time 329 

Erasures  and  Mutilations — Leaves  Cut  Out 329-30 

The  Secretary  Violates  the  Law 330-1 

Pacific  Railroad  Debt— Fictitious  Warrants 331-2 

TROOPS  AT  THE  POLLS : 

History  of  Troops  at  the  Polls •• 192-4 

Troops  at  a  New  York  Election — Belknap's  Order 199 

N.  Y.  Tribune's  Account — Govenior  Hoffman's  Eloquent  Protest 200 

Troops  in  Pennsylvania,  and  Governor  Geary's  Protest 201 

Use  of  Troops  in  Virginia  Defended  by  Grant 201 

Durell's  Order,  and  what  the  Senate  Committee  Said  of  It — What  Followed 

the  Infamous  Order •. 202 

Daniel  Webster  on  the  Use  of  Troops 203 

Mr.  Evart's  Eloquent  Protest 204 

Carl  Schurz  on  the  Use  of  Troops 204r-5 

W.  H.  Seward  on  the  Use  of  Military  at  the  Polls 205 

Republican  Inconsistency 206 

Gai-field's  Devious  Course — He  Goes  Back  on  Himself 207-8 

The  Revolution  Garfield  Dreads 209 

A  Rider  Gai-field  Voted  For 210 

Admits  he  is  in  Favor  of  Troops  at  the  Polls 211 

TROOPS  AT  THE  CAPITOL  : 

During  Electoral  Count— Brought  There  to  Intimidate  Congress 29 

TWELVE  YEARS  OF  FRAUD,  PECULATION  AND  PLUNDERING 398 

UNION  PACIFIC  RAILROAD : 

History  of ;  see  Credit  Mobilier 55 

Land  Grant 528 

Loan  of  Government  Credit  to 530 

VENEZUELA  SCANDAL: 

The  Commission  for  Adjudicating  Claims  against  the  Republic  of  Venezuela  410 

Suspicious  Circumstances 411 

Minister  Stillwell's  part  in  the  Conspiracy 411 

Total  Amount  Stolen 412 

Godlove  S.  Orth  Takes  a  Hand 413 

How  Orth  Earned  his  Money 411 

The  Contrast— The  Democratic  way  of  Dealing  with  Fraud 414 

VETO  BY  HAYES  OF  BILL  RESTRICTING  CHINESE  IMMIGRATION 260 

'  APPROPRIATIONS  FOR  MARSHALS 210 

LITTLE  DEFICIENCY  BILL 210 

ACT  TO  PREVENT   MILITARY  INTERFERENCE  AT 

THE  POLLS 224 

VOORHEES,  SENATOR  D.  W.: 

Speech  by,  On  the  Negro  Exodus 372 

VOTES,  SOME  OF  GARFIELD'S  : 

Railroad  Land  Grants 245-6 

Votes  in  the  Interest  of  the  Whiskey  Ring 246 

Steamship   Subsidies 246 


XVI  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

VOTES,  SOME  OF  GARFIELD'S: 

Printiug  Frauds 347 

The  Choctaw  Claim  347 

Votes  Against  Soldiers  Interests 347 

Pensions  to  Soldiers  of  1813 347-8 

Pensions  to  Mexican  Soldiers 348 

Duty  on  Printing  Paper,  Sugar,  Coal 348 

San  Domingo 348 

The  Chinese  Question 349 

No  Sympathy  for  Ireland ^ 349 

Muzzling  the  Supreme  Court. ! 349 

Votes  for  President  and  Congress 557 

WAR  CLAIMS  : 

The  Republican  Cry  against  so-called  Rebel  Claims     333 

Democrats  Opposed  to  Paying  Them 333 

All  of  these  Claims  are  Forever  Barred  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  333 

Claims  ff  "  Loyal  Citizens"  not  Barred  by  the  Constitution 333 

Amounts  Allowed  by  the  Southern  Claims  Commission 334 

Republican  Slanders  Refuted  by  Mr.  Davis,  o^  North  Carolina 335-7 

WHISKY  RING.  (THE) : 

The  Ring  Controls  the  Republican  Administration 400 

Why  Grant  was  Suspected  of  Complicity  401 

Milwaukee  Whisky  Ring ' 401 

The  White  House  and  the  Ring 403 

Gen.  Babcock's  Complicity  in  the  Whisky  Frauds 403 

WHITE  HOUSE : 

Expense  under  Democratic  and  Republican  Rule , 500 

Snobbery  at  the  White  House  under  Rei)ublican  Rule 493 

How  the  People  are  Tuxed  to  Pay  for  Dogs,  Carriages,  Croquet  Sets,  and  other 

Luxuries  for  the  White  House 493-498 

Total  Expenditure  for  White  House  from  1779  to  1876 499 

WILLIS'  REPORT  ON  CHINESE  IMMIGRATION 359 

WREN'S  BILL  TO  RESTRICT  CHINESE  IMMIGRATION : 

Action  of  House  and  Senate  thereon — Garfield  Opposes  it 359 


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